Apple this week introduced its first new iPads in a year, and they’re mostly about what people expected, with two exceptions. One is that the company’s new high-end tablet doesn’t come with Touch ID, the fingerprint-sensing technology that Apple introduced in its new iPhones last month. And the other is that it’s really, really light.
It’s called the iPad Air, and it weighs just 1 pound. That’s down from 1.4 pounds in the last version, which may not sound like a whole lot, but represents serious feats of engineering and design. There’s an awful lot of electronic equipment squeezed into a frame that’s just 7.5 millimeters thick, and no doubt Apple marketing executive Phil Schiller was telling the truth when he said the company looked for anyplace it could shave one-tenth or one-hundredth of a millimeter off of a component. “To make an iPad this thin took an enormous amount of work over years,” Schiller said.
The question is: Was it worth the trouble?
The original “Air” in Apple’s lineup, the Macbook Air, has been a hit. But that’s because weight is a serious issue when it comes to laptop computers, many of which are heavy enough to make people think twice before deciding to lug them around all day. Is there anyone out there who had the same misgivings about the 1.4-pound previous-generation iPad? This may be a case in which consumers see diminishing returns from Apple’s engineering exertions.
On the other hand, the approach clearly differentiates Apple’s new tablet from those of, say, Microsoft, whose chunky Surface 2 weighs nearly twice as much. And it is true that the iPhone 5, which resulted from a similar focus on lightweight design, gains an almost surreal, futuristic feel from its lightness in your hand. Schiller insists the iPad Air will likewise dazzle people when they pick it up. The company’s first ad for the device shows off its thinness by concealing it behind a pencil.
