Whenever Apple tries to upgrade one of its gadgets, there will always be losers and winners or more appropriately, bad news and good news.
During the opening of the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in San Francisco, iPad owners learned that they will be getting a bunch of great new features that will finally allow them to multitask. This means that if they want to use two different apps at the same time, like taking notes while looking at photos, or watching a video while responding to a text message, they don't have to switch between apps.
The bad news is that the new features will probably not work on their iPad unless it's one of the newest models.
Split View, which allows users to use two apps at the same time, is considered one of the best new features. However, it only works on the iPad Air 2, Apple's latest iPad, which starts at US$ 499 and was released last fall.
Craig Federighi, the executive in charge of software at Apple, unveiled the new features on stage at the company's annual developer's conference last 8 June 2015.
The cynic would say the fact that the new features, which are part of a software update coming later this year, only working on the latest and greatest iPads is a ploy to get the consumers to upgrade their existing iPad. Apple has struggled with relatively sluggish iPad sales — the company still sells millions each quarter, more tablets than any other single company — but sales continue to fall.
iPad sales were down 23 percent in the first quarter of this year compared to the same time last year. This is a stark contrast to the incredible iPhone sales the company has reported over the past year. And one of the reasons iPad sales are down is that people don’t upgrade their tablets as frequently as they update their phones, because they simply don't need to.
A four-year-old iPad, which users may keep at home and use occasionally to watch Netflix or read news at home, is a lot more useful than a four-year-old iPhone, which would feel sluggish and outdated for everyday use.
Of course using two apps at the same time, or watching a video in the background while doing something else on the iPad, certainly requires more processing power than just using one app, so it may be that the features only work well enough for Apple to include it on its latest and most powerful iPad.
During the opening of the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in San Francisco, iPad owners learned that they will be getting a bunch of great new features that will finally allow them to multitask. This means that if they want to use two different apps at the same time, like taking notes while looking at photos, or watching a video while responding to a text message, they don't have to switch between apps.
The bad news is that the new features will probably not work on their iPad unless it's one of the newest models.
Split View, which allows users to use two apps at the same time, is considered one of the best new features. However, it only works on the iPad Air 2, Apple's latest iPad, which starts at US$ 499 and was released last fall.
Craig Federighi, the executive in charge of software at Apple, unveiled the new features on stage at the company's annual developer's conference last 8 June 2015.
The cynic would say the fact that the new features, which are part of a software update coming later this year, only working on the latest and greatest iPads is a ploy to get the consumers to upgrade their existing iPad. Apple has struggled with relatively sluggish iPad sales — the company still sells millions each quarter, more tablets than any other single company — but sales continue to fall.
iPad sales were down 23 percent in the first quarter of this year compared to the same time last year. This is a stark contrast to the incredible iPhone sales the company has reported over the past year. And one of the reasons iPad sales are down is that people don’t upgrade their tablets as frequently as they update their phones, because they simply don't need to.
A four-year-old iPad, which users may keep at home and use occasionally to watch Netflix or read news at home, is a lot more useful than a four-year-old iPhone, which would feel sluggish and outdated for everyday use.
Of course using two apps at the same time, or watching a video in the background while doing something else on the iPad, certainly requires more processing power than just using one app, so it may be that the features only work well enough for Apple to include it on its latest and most powerful iPad.
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