The IPad Air and its A7 processor

Is the iPad Air the end-all for computing?

What is known about Apples A7 processor that’s in the new iPad Air and the iPhone5? Well, Apple has said the die is 102 mm2 with over 1 B transistors and it is a 64-bit device built on 28 nm. Samsung is probably making the chip, which is an Apple design based on a dual ARM core. Apple says it has up to two times faster CPU and graphics performance than the previous generation iPad processor. The chip has a GPU which is said to be the quad core PowerVR G6430 from Imagination.

Three years ago, Steve Jobs compared personal computers to trucks and tablets to cars. PCs will still be around, he said, but more people will want tablets. “Less people will buy PCs” he said “and this is going to make some people uneasy.” He was right about this. They say tablets will start outselling laptops later this year, and some people are very uneasy.

Apple CEO Tim Cook says Apple “still [believes] deeply in this category and we’re not slowing down on our innovation.”
According to HIS iSupply, total PC shipments were 74.4 million units during the April to June 2013 quarter, down a steep 13% from the same time a year ago—the largest drop so far of the last eight quarters. The last time the industry saw year-over-year growth was a 4% gain in the first quarter of 2012. The PCs covered by the count include desktops, laptops, and entry-level servers. Laptop PCs continued to make up the largest part of total shipments at 61%. Meanwhile, desktops accounted for 36% and entry-level servers 3%.

Steve Jobs declared at a business conference in 2010 that the era of the personal computer was nearly over.  But, if you can get a full ultra-book with a 14” touch screen, an SSD and a HDD, and a KEYBOARD (so you can do real work) for $530 why would you buy an iPad? The base iPad is $499. I agree with Intel on this one.

OK, there is one reason – the ultra-book weighs 4.4 lbs., the iPad 1.0 lbs. Ya significant. And the iPad does have 2048 x 1536 pixels on its 9.7 inch screen (vs. 1366 x 768 on the Asus VivoBook S400CA-UH51). But, if you’re planning on doing anything beyond watching movies, checking email, and browsing the web ……

What do you think?