Apple has been linked for sometime with the production of an iPad Pro tablet. The thoughts behind this is that the release of an iPad with a higher spec would attract people back to what is effectively a stalling product niche. It is perhaps too harsh to describe the iPad’s recent performance as failure, but there is clearly a lack of growth in this sector, despite the fact that the Apple tablet remains the market leader.
With Apple having refreshed its tablet lineup in 2014 with the intention of bringing life back to the tablet market, the iPad Pro is seen as being a logical sequel to this process. Effectively, the iPad Pro would create another revenue stream for Apple, as it would be intended to provide some of the convenience of tablet competing and then combine this with the power of Apple’s desktop range.
This would also clearly be a very strong audio-visual device, as the iPad Pro is expected to feature a large display, and Apple’s propensity for arming its desktop computers with extremely powerful displays in recent releases could then be shared by this iPad Pro release.
Will this be enough to ensure that the iPad Pro sells well, and breathes new life into the iPad range? Well, there are actually several reasons to believe that this device could have a major impact on Apple tablet sales.
iPad Pro – enterprise focus
Firstly, the iPad Pro would likely appeal very much to enterprise. If there has been one element of huge success for tablet computers in general, it has been with corporate clients. There are an increasing number of users for iPads within the corporate environment, and the overwhelming success of Apple’s targeting of business customers is succinctly underlined by the fact that it is almost impossible to view television commercials without seeing an iPad at some point.
A larger screen tablet offering would particularly appeal to business customers, while a faster processor and increased RAM would clearly suit to the sort of processor-intensive tasks that businesses typically ask of tablet computers. A bundled stylus could also be useful for mobile computing within some companies. And there is a wealth of potential in the Force Touch technology which will surely be included in the iPad Pro, which that recently a major part of the Apple Watch release.
Diminishing iPhone 6 Plus influence
When Apple released the iPhone 6 Plus it was pretty obvious that it would have a significant impact on the sales of iPads. This phablet-sized device would obviously appeal to some consumers that valued tablet computing, and this could indeed be the major factor in the recent slump in iPad customers.
The iPad Pro could help to reverse, or at least decelerate, this process. By identifying itself as a significantly different tablet computing device, almost a laptop or desktop quality computer in a tablet package, Apple will hope to attract an entirely new audience to the iPad while similarly retaining a major raft of consumers for the iPhone Plus.
E-reader capabilities
The iPad Pro, which has been cited in the rumours related to this device, would also make an ideal e-reader. This is a concept which has been particularly successful for Amazon, but it is one that Apple could now begin to strongly push as well. After all, the corporation has a major stake in pretty much every other aspect of consumer electronics, so investigating this new niche could be a natural proposition.
Although some people may think the idea of an iPad being utilized as e-reader is an unusual concept, the larger screen the device boats would offer the ability to deliver more text in less pages. One common complaint about e-readers is that they require pages to be turned too often, and thus readers lose the flow of what they are consuming. The iPad Pro would eliminate this complaint, and could appeal to digital bookworms.
Gaming
Finally, gaming is obviously a massive marketplace, and the iPad Pro has the potential to assist Apple in this area. Apple has has hitherto not placed a huge emphasis on gaming outside of its iPhone range of devices, but the powerful processor, improved screen resolution and larger screen included in this device will combine to make this potentially an ideal gaming device.
In a climate in which people are gaming with non-traditional devices on an increasingly regular basis, the iPad Pro could cash in on this and achieve a huge amount of market traction. Apple will want the iPad Pro to appeal to as many different groups of people as possible, and the gaming demographic would seem to be an obvious target for the device.
