Apple has launched a thinner and lighter iPad at its launch event in Cupertino, California. The iPad Air will be just 7.5 millimetres thick, and the weight has been reduced from 1.4lb to 1.0lb - or from 635 grams to just 455 grams, for anyone born outside the US and after about 1960.
Even the bezel around the screen has been trimmed by 43 per cent, according to Apple.
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The iPad Air will run the new 64-bit A7 ARM-based microprocessor with the M7 motion co-processor. The company claims that the graphics performance will be twice as fast as the original iPad, the microprocessor eight times faster and the graphics 72 times faster.
The mobile-network-ready version will also have improved LTE/4G support, but unlike the new iPhone 5S it will come only in a choice of silver (ie: white) or "space grey" (ie: black) - not champagne gold, regardless of the popularity of that colour with the iPhone 5S.
Anyone interested in purchasing one is advised to wait nine days rather than marching to their nearest Apple Store, as it will only be available from 1 November. That will give buyers a little time to save up the $499 it will cost - an estimated £399 in the UK.
At the same time, the company has also expanded the line-up of the popular iPad Mini range, which currently retails at £269 in the UK - £70 more than the rival Google Nexus 7. A new iPad Mini will now come with the company's "retina" display and will also include the 64-bit A7 microprocessor. It offers improved LTE/4G support and will feature a new FaceTime high-definition camera. It will also be available in "space grey" or white.
However, at $399 it is not priced to take on Google at the sub-£200 end of the market. That task falls to the current iPad Mini, which will be cut in price - to $299 in the US, which will probably be about £229 in the UK.
Apple has now sold 170 million iPads in total, according to Cook, and iPads are more used than any other devices, in part because of the quality of the apps available on the iOS platform, he claimed.
