Apple has doubled the maximum storage for its iPad in an apparent attempt to win over more business customers who might otherwise be tempted by Microsoft’s Surface or the many Windows 8 laptop-tablet hybrids arriving on the market.
The $799, 128GB iPad will go on sale in early February, a week before Microsoft’s Surface Windows 8 Pro, which costs $999 for the same amount of storage.
Apple’s upgrade was unveiled on the same day that Microsoft launched the latest version of its Office suite, which includes integration with its SkyDrive cloud storage service.
A fresh crop of enterprise application providers – such as Box’s cloud storage and Workday’s online business management suite – has grown to cater to the so-called “bring your own device” trend, as more companies look to offer technology popular with consumers to their employees. Apple said it had 250m users of its iCloud sync storage system.
Want to publish your own articles on DistilINFO Publications?
Send us an email, we will get in touch with you.
Office, which Microsoft said last July was used by 1bn people worldwide, is still not available for the iPad. As it announced the new iPad, Apple said that it had 10m users of its office software, iWork.
In a statement, Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice-president of worldwide marketing, said that 120m iPad owners were using those devices “rather than their old PCs”, to fulfil both “business and personal needs”.
Apple added that 85 per cent of Fortune 500 companies were testing or deploying the iPad, a market still dominated by Windows PCs.
“We believe this additional capacity offering by Apple addresses the PC and tablet market’s continued convergence to convertible tablet-and-notebook offerings,” Aaron Rakers, analyst at Stifel, said Tuesday.
Microsoft has decided against making the latest version of its widely-used Office software available for the iPad, despite warnings from analysts that it is missing a big profit opportunity.
Holding back the touch-sensitive version of Office to Windows 8 devices, such as its own Surface tablets, is seen as a way to boost their attractiveness to businesses, though at the risk to Microsoft of being shut out of a computing platform increasingly used by its business customers.
Lost revenues from not selling Office on the iPad could amount to $1.3bn this year, according to an analysis by Morgan Stanley.
While lightweight versions of Office have made it possible for iPad users to access documents or business presentations, “editing has been more challenging,” said Kurt DelBene, head of the Microsoft Office business. However, Mr DelBene said that tablets such as the iPad were not well suited to full versions of the software.
Instead, he said, Microsoft’s free, web-based version had been configured to work better on iPads, thanks in part to changes Apple has made to the iPad’s iOS software and its Safari browser.
With Office 2013, which officially goes on sale on Tuesday, Microsoft hopes to turn the software into more of a subscription-based business, at the risk of depressing reported sales in the shorter term from one of its most important products. The consumer subscription service is designed to appeal to families, covering access from five devices, Mr DelBene said.
Consumers are being offered a version of the software for $99.99 a year, echoing the subscription pricing already offered to businesses. The shift in business model from Microsoft’s move into subscriptions could lead to steadier revenues in future years, though at the cost of limiting its revenues from most expensive upfront sales in the short term.
Apple, too, is grappling with changes to its financial profile, as revenue growth rates slow.
Last week, Apple’s disappointing first-quarter earnings and outlook for the current period prompted its share price to plunge, briefly losing its crown as the world’s most valuable company to ExxonMobil on Friday.
The 128GB iPad, which is likely to command a higher margin than its lower-capacity siblings, may help Apple offset the dilutive effect of its less profitable iPad mini, a key area of concern on Wall Street.
The January upgrade of the iPad shows that Apple is making the timing of its product introductions less predictable than the annual launches that have become familiar in recent years.
As well as increasing its options for high-end customers, speculation is intensifying that Apple will release a cheaper iPhone, aimed at developing markets, later this year.