Apple unveils new iPads; China to be among first markets

Facing intense competition in the mobile gadget battlefield, Apple Inc on Tuesday (US time) announced its new tablet lineup at an event in San Francisco, with the Chinese mainland being listed as among the first batch of markets to sell the new iPad models.

Apple added the slimmer, lighter iPad Air and the new iPad mini with a Retina display to its existing lines, and for the first time announced an offering of free upgrades to its Mac computer operating system and business software. The company also unveiled new Mac computers at the event.

The Chinese mainland market, a key growth region for Apple, was included on the list of first markets to ship the full-sized iPad Air on November 1. Sales prices for the gadget in the market start from 3,588 yuan ($588.79). according to Apple's mainland website.

Its suggested retail prices are at least $499, however, said a company statement posted on its global website after its launch event.

The much-hyped new iPad mini will be available later in November, Apple said, without giving the exact date. Likewise, sales prices of the second-generation iPad mini start at 2,888 yuan ($473.92) in the mainland, higher than Apple's suggested price tag of at least $399.

Despite the always existing price differences between China and other markets, the new iPad mini featuring a high-resolution Retina screen was particularly welcomed by some mainland users.

But many Weibo users expressed their disappointment at the absence of the gadget in gold. Apple's recently launched champagne-colored Phone 5S has shown to be falling short of demand in the market.

The new iPad mini has fixed all past imperfections, but the absence of the gold color is disappointing, a Chinese Web user with the handle Edison_Z said Wednesday on his Weibo.

"I expect the new iPad mini with Retina display to sell well in China," Bryan Wang, vice president and principal analyst at Forrester Research, told the Global Times on Wednesday.

But a moderate growth expected in the sales volume of iPad products in the Chinese market is not enough for Apple to protect its market share, Wang noted.

The California-based company, which kick-started the tablet category three years ago with the first iPad, has seen rising pressure in the increasingly crowded segment.

Hours before Apple's launch event, Nokia, the former cell phone king, whose phone business has now been taken over by Microsoft, unveiled its first tablet. Apple's archrival Samsung also showed off its new tablet lines in September.

The existence of many Chinese white-label tablet models have made the tablet war particularly intense in the mainland market that is still growing at a very high rate, Forrester's Wang emphasized.

Tablet sales in China are expected to grow from 19.35 million units this year to 28.08 million units in 2014, according to Forrester forecast.

Yolanda Yu, an industry analyst with market research firm GfK China, also pointed to fading growth momentum in the market due to lack of innovation.

"Instead of making splashes, recently launched new tablets only create ripples," Yu told the Global Times.