SAN FRANCISCO -- Apple (AAPL) CEO Tim Cook on Tuesday morning kicked off a product launch event expected to focus on new iPads by praising the company's recent accomplishments and discussing the company's vision for its Mac line of personal computers.
"We have a very clear direction and very ambitious goal" with Macs, Cook said before ceding the stage to software executive Craig Federighi, who provided more details on Apple's new PC operating system, called Mavericks in honor of the Bay Area surfing spot.
The Cupertino company announced the event last week with an invitation that included the tagline, "We still have a lot to cover." The event takes place just more than a month after Apple held a similar event to launch two new iPhones, the 5S and 5C, and one day short of the anniversary of its last iPad launch event.
Most analysts and bloggers expect the new full-sized iPad announced Tuesday will sport the more powerful 64-bit A7X processor and reveal a slimmer physique than its predecessors. And since Apple has historically offered the same features across different platforms, evidenced by the personal assistant Siri eventually showing up on both iPhones and iPads, most observers widely believe the second-generation iPad Mini will come with the same Retina display that the larger iPad already features.
Apple is also expected to reveal details on the new Mac Pro and its OS X Mavericks operating system. The Mac Pro, with a new design, was previewed at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference last June along with Mavericks, which has been in beta testing since then.
"I'm kind of expecting what the rumor mill is expecting -- we know about the new Mac Pro, Mavericks, new iPads," Gartner analyst Van Baker said while waiting outside the Yerba Buena Center on Tuesday. "It's another step along the way. I don't expect anything earth-shattering, but it's Apple continuing to improve their product line to keep ahead of the market."
Baker added that he expected the new iPads to continue Apple's path of providing tablet devices that perform only the consumers' desired functions, instead of seeking to replace laptops and other computing devices.
"I think the introduction of the new iPad today will widen the gap between the hybrid and the tablet," Baker said, referring to the difference between tablet devices like the iPad and other devices from Microsoft and others that try to do "several things at once."
"This will accentuate the difference between those two types of devices. People don't want converged devices, they want discrete devices, which means those optimized for what they're supposed to be."
About 200 people lined up outside the venue by 9 a.m. Pacific time Tuesday morning, an hour before the event was scheduled to begin. On a foggy morning, those awaiting entry were flanked by television satellite trucks, Apple security and the company's public relations troops, but the crowd was fairly quiet and subdued, as zany antics seen ahead of previous events were absent.
As is typical when Apple prepares to launch a device, the company's online store was shuttered Tuesday morning as Apple executives prepared to take the stage.
"Can't wait to get underway. Having fun backstage," Apple CEO Tim Cook tweeted about 40 minutes before the event was scheduled to start.
In 2012, Apple introduced the iPad Mini, which measures just short of 8 inches diagonally and competes with popular smaller tablets such as Google's (GOOG) Nexus 7 and Amazon's Kindle Fire. Apple also surprised observers by introducing a fourth-generation full-sized iPad just seven months after announcing the earlier iteration of the tablet, and the company sold 3 million tablets in the first thee days of availability.
While the majority of Apple's profits come from the iPhone, the iPad has provided a steady flow of income since its introduction in 2010, though the company has faced increasing competition as tablets challenge personal computers for consumer supremacy. Apple sold a record 22.9 million iPads in the fourth quarter of 2012, when it launched the iPad Mini just before the holiday shopping season, but sales have dipped since: Apple sold 19.5 million iPads in the first quarter of 2013 and 14.6 million in the second quarter, a year-over-year decline from 17 million sales in the second quarter of 2012.
In 2013, Apple's market share in tablets dropped below 50 percent for the first time since the iPad originally launched, according to tracking company IDC, as cheaper tablets based on Google's Android operating system have proliferated. The market is still booming, though: IDC expects more tablets shipments than PCs this holiday season for the first time.
Apple stock, which has fallen from heights of more than $700 a share in 2012, is approaching its highest levels of 2012 as the holiday shopping season nears: Shares closed at $521.36 Monday, the highest closing price for Apple since Jan. 10, but fell to $520.18 by 9 a.m. Pacific time Tuesday morning.
Contact Jeremy C. Owens at 408-920-5876; follow him at Twitter.com/jowens510.
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