kgi apple roadmap | KitGuru https://www.kitguru.net KitGuru.net - Tech News | Hardware News | Hardware Reviews | IOS | Mobile | Gaming | Graphics Cards Tue, 15 Apr 2014 01:58:26 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.3 https://www.kitguru.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/cropped-KITGURU-Light-Background-SQUARE2-32x32.png kgi apple roadmap | KitGuru https://www.kitguru.net 32 32 Upgrades of iPad in 2014 seem minor, but they are important – analyst https://www.kitguru.net/lifestyle/mobile/apple/anton-shilov/upgrades-of-apple-ipad-in-2014-may-seem-minor-but-they-are-important-analyst/ https://www.kitguru.net/lifestyle/mobile/apple/anton-shilov/upgrades-of-apple-ipad-in-2014-may-seem-minor-but-they-are-important-analyst/#respond Mon, 14 Apr 2014 19:18:13 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=187346 In many ways, Apple dictates the fashion in the world of media tablets. The company was the first to offer slates with retina-class display, 64-bit application processor and some other promising hardware. This year Apple is expected to traditionally introduce new versions of its iPads and again offer something that others don’t. But instead of …

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In many ways, Apple dictates the fashion in the world of media tablets. The company was the first to offer slates with retina-class display, 64-bit application processor and some other promising hardware. This year Apple is expected to traditionally introduce new versions of its iPads and again offer something that others don’t. But instead of introducing all-new tablets, the company will upgrade its existing devices.

The current iPad Air and iPad mini with retina display are already pretty advanced thanks to 2048*1536 screen resolution, 64-bit dual-core A7 application processor with PowerVR 6-series “Rogue” graphics, global support for 4G/LTE and so on. The new iPad Air and iPad mini will be similar in terms of form-factors, but they will be powered by Apple A8 system-on-chip and will feature touch ID fingerprint sensor as well as 8MP main camera, according to Ming-Chi Kuo, an analyst with KGI Securities. While the upgrades seem insignificant in general, they may be important.

“We think the upgraded iPad Air will be launched earlier in 2014 than the iPad Air was in 2013,” said the analyst in a note to clients, reports MacRumours. “The biggest changes will be A8 processor, Touch ID (fingerprint recognition), and main camera resolution of 8MP.”

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Not a lot is known about Apple’s A8 application processor which will power the next-generation iPad and iPhone. While it is pretty obvious that it will be Apple’s second-generation ARMv8-compatible 64-bit chip, we do not know whether it will feature four tweaked Cyclone cores (introduced in A7 in 2013), four brand-new cores, or two all-new cores. While it is logical to expect Apple to continue use Imagination Technologies PowerVR 6-series graphics processing cores, it is not clear whether the company will continue to use quad-cluster PowerVR G6430, upgrade to six-cluster G6630, or will switch to quad-cluster G6500, which supports ray-tracing and hybrid rendering (traditional + ray-tracing).

In case Apple chooses to use the PowerVR G6500 graphics engine inside the A8 SoC, it will make another revolution on the market of mobile graphics. Video games made for the new iPhone and iPad that will use hybrid rendering will look dramatically more realistic compared to titles designed for competing Google Android platform. Unfortunately, there is no evidence that the A8 will use the G6500, not something else.

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The new iPads will also feature Apple’s fingerprint sensor. While the touch ID fingerprint reader is nothing new and has existed on iPhone 5s for quite a while now, it will clearly be adored by various enterprises who deeply care about security. Thus, sales of iPads to business users will improve rather significantly. As a result, there will be more programs tailored for use of fingerprint reader, which will positively affect Apple’s eco-system of apps in general.

While 8MP sensor on the new iPads will provide better image quality than the 5MP one, due to marketing reasons Apple is unlikely to install flash onto the backside of its media tablets. Therefore, it will barely be used to take photographs.
Apple did not comment on the news-story.

KitGuru Says: It is too early to say whether the new Apple iPad tablets will be evolutionary or revolutionary. While it does not seem like Apple is going to significantly redesign the iPad from the outside, it can certainly pack something completely unique inside.

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Apple roadmap for 2014: new iPhones, iWatch, new MacBooks, no iTV https://www.kitguru.net/lifestyle/mobile/apple/anton-shilov/apples-new-roadmap-for-2014-revealed-new-iphones-iwatch-new-macbooks-no-itv/ https://www.kitguru.net/lifestyle/mobile/apple/anton-shilov/apples-new-roadmap-for-2014-revealed-new-iphones-iwatch-new-macbooks-no-itv/#respond Fri, 11 Apr 2014 18:02:08 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=187017 A South Korean analyst with a good track record in predicting the future of Apple’s products as well as schedules of their introductions has published a new version of the company’s roadmap for the this year. The plan includes plenty of new products, several upgrades, but excludes the highly-anticipated TV-sets as well as professional iPad …

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A South Korean analyst with a good track record in predicting the future of Apple’s products as well as schedules of their introductions has published a new version of the company’s roadmap for the this year. The plan includes plenty of new products, several upgrades, but excludes the highly-anticipated TV-sets as well as professional iPad Pro tablets.

KGI Securities analyst Ming Chi Kuo predicts that Apple will introduce two models of iWatch smart watches with 1.3” and 1.5” screens, two all-new iPhone designs with 4.7” (1334*750 resolution) and 5.5” (1920*1080 resolution) displays, a low-cost iMac (what will happen to Mac Mini in this case?) as well as all-new 12” MacBook in ultra-slim body this year, reports Mac Rumours. The company is also projected to upgrade iMac, MacBook Pro and Apple TV.

Virtually all new introductions/releases are projected to happen in late Q3 – early Q4 timeframe (September and October), which is a little bit surprising as Apple will not have new notebooks for the back-to-school season. The analyst believes that the company will announce the low-cost iMac and upgraded iMacs sometimes in late Q2, which is probably June, so expect the new all-in-one Macintosh systems to feature Intel Core i-series “Haswell Refresh” microprocessors. The enlarged iPhone with 5.5” display is expected to show up in the very late Q4, so do not expect a lot of such devices to ship this year.

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It is noteworthy that Ming Chi Kuo no longer expects Apple to release its own TV-sets this year. Since predictions of the KGI analyst are heavily based on market rumours and supply-chain checks, it is possible that the current expectations are based on the recent information that Apple plans to delay introduction of the iTV to 2015.

Another interesting thing is that for some reason the analyst also no longer projects Apple to release the iPad for business users with 12.9” display. Instead, he claims that the new iPads (second-gen iPad Air and third-gen iPad Mini) will feature A8 system-on-chips as well as touch ID fingerprint readers, which will make them generally more attractive to enterprise customers. Still, keeping in mind that for business users Apple would need to reinvent the text input method on tablets as on-screen keyboards are rather inconvenient, it seems that the company might have run into some technological problems with the iPad Pro.

Apple did not comment on the news-story.

KitGuru Says: While all predictions regarding Apple’s plans should be taken with a grain of salt since the company is still capable of keeping its secrets very well, a number of KGI Securities’ predictions appeared to be accurate in the past.

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