Apple bets bigger is better with new iPad
Rumors are swirling that Apple has a bigger iPad in the works. Bloomberg reports that the new tablet’s screen would be nearly 13 inches diagonally — as big as some laptops.
Apple’s iPads have been losing market share to cheaper, smaller smart phones, according to the research firm International Data Corporation or IDC.
“Launching a bigger iPad would help them gain a lot more revenue,” says Jitesh Ubrani an analyst at IDC.
Ubrani says businesses, schools and government offices increasingly use tablets and might like a bigger iPad screen. He says in the second quarter, 16 percent of tablet sales went to those groups.
Apple recently announced a partnership with IBM to offer businesses more applications and services. Van Baker, research vice president in Mobility at Gartner Inc., says a bigger iPad might be good for companies that want to put spreadsheets or documents on the device.
“There are productivity type applications like spreadsheet applications — things more on the content creation side than on the content consumption side — that would make sense to have a bigger screen,” he says.
Apple couldn’t be reached for comment. A bigger iPad would theoretically compete with Microsoft’s biggest Surface tablet. But analysts say the Windows system has not been popular on tablets.
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