Apple takes biggest iPad leap with iPad Pro

By Ajeet Bharti

San Francisco: Taking the iPad productivity experience to a whole new level, Apple introduced the iPad Pro that has a 12.9 inch screen; is 22 times faster than the original iPad; outpaces 80% of PCs in CPU speed and 90% of them in graphics processing; and has battery life of 10 hours.

That's seriously a big jump in literal terms. Tim Cook, Apple CEO, announced the iPad Pro as Phill Schiller, an Apple executive talked about the device.

"Our new processor will be 1.8 times faster than desktop-class CPUs and 22 times faster than the first iPad. In terms of graphics, the Pro is 360 times faster than than the first iPad. In short, the Pro is 80 percent faster than any portable PCs," the top executive said. The Pro sports a third-generation A9x 64-bit processor.

"We are changing (how) people work in enterprises and have tied up with companies like IBM and Cisco," Cook said.

"iPhone and iPad have become essential tools for the modern workforce and are changing the way work gets done. Together with Cisco, we believe we can give businesses the tools to maximise the potential of iOS and help employees become even more productive using the devices they already love," Cook had said.

"Ninety-five percent of companies in the Fortune 500 count on Cisco Collaboration and Cisco networks to help their teams be more productive," said Cisco executive chairman John Chambers had said during the announcement of the collaboration.

Keyboard with Smart Connector and Apple Pencil has been introduced

Apple has also introduced for the first time a physical keyboard and a stylus called Apple Pencil to increase productivity on the device. The keyboard connects through a smart connector technology via a three pin slot at the side of the device.

"The Apple Pencil can also be charged using the device via a lightning connector. Due to the excellent battery backup, users can simply edit a film on the go on the new device," the top executive added.

People from Microsoft and Adobe demoed various apps designed for the iPad Pro.

Apart from the aforementioned specs, the new iPad Pro has four-speaker audio, 10-hours of battery backup, 8-megapixel rear camera, HD front camera and is 4G LTE compliant. The 32GB and the 128 GB variant will be available for $799 and $999, respectively, starting November.

The Apple Pencil will come at a price of $99 and the physical keyboard will cost $169.

(With inputs from IANS)