Apple's 'thinner, lighter' iPad Air set for take off...

Billed as "thinner and lighter", Apple's new iPad Air was revealed to the world this morning, encompassing a raft of new features.

In what is the latest generation of its category defining device, the new product features a 9.7-inch Retina display in a new thinner and lighter design.

Precision-engineered to weigh less than half a kilogram, iPad Air is 20 percent thinner and 28 percent lighter than the fourth generation iPad, and with a narrower bezel the borders of iPad Air are significantly thinner—making content even more immersive.

“iPad created an entirely new mobile computing experience, and the new iPad Air is another big leap ahead," says Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing.

"It is so thin, light and powerful, once you hold one in your hand you will understand what a tremendous advancement this is.

"iPad Air with its 9.7-inch Retina display weighs less than half a kilogram and packs the incredible performance of iOS 7 running on a 64-bit desktop-class Apple A7 chip, and delivers all-day battery life in the lightest full-sized tablet in the world.”

Schiller says iPad Air’s Retina display makes web pages, text, images and video "look incredibly sharp and realistic," and the new power-efficient A7 chip allows the battery to be even smaller, helping reduce the overall volume by 24 percent from the previous generation while doubling its performance and maintaining its up to 10-hour battery life.

Featuring two antennas to support Multiple-In-Multiple-Out (MIMO) technology, the updates bring twice the Wi-Fi performance to iPad Air and iPad mini with Retina display at a blazingly fast data rate up to 300 Mbps.

FaceTime

iPad Air and iPad mini with Retina display now have a next generation FaceTime HD camera with improved backside illumination sensors featuring larger pixels for better low-light performance.

The iSight camera with 5MP sensor and advanced optics, combined with iOS 7 and the image signal processing of A7, further improves still image and video capture on iPad bringing faster auto-focus, up to three times video zoom, five times still zoom, better dynamic range and automatic image and video stabilisation.

iOS7

The new iPads come with iOS 7, featuring a stunning new user interface, completely redesigned with an elegant colour palette, distinct, functional layers and subtle motion that make it feel more alive.

iOS 7 has hundreds of great new features, including Control Center, Notification Center, improved Multitasking, AirDrop, enhanced Photos and Safari.

Pricing & Availability

iPad Air with Wi-Fi models will be available in silver or space grey starting for a recommended retail price of NZ$749 for the 16GB model, $899 for the 32GB model, $1,049 for the 64GB model and $1,199 for the 128GB model.

iPad Air with Wi-Fi + Cellular will be available for $949 for the 16GB model, $1,099 for the 32GB model, $1,249 for the 64GB model and $1,399 for the 128GB model.

iPad 2 is available for $579 for the 16GB Wi-Fi model and $779 for the 16GB Wi-Fi + 3G model.

Update: At this stage no specific date for release in New Zealand has been announced...