New iPads Are Coming This Week...

Jay Yarow

Oct 13, 2014, 17:30 IST

Apple
Here's what will be on people's minds during the next seven days in tech:

Apple is hosting a media even where it will release updated iPads and Macs.

Apple teased this event by saying, "It's been way too long," on the invite. This added some intrigue, since we just saw Apple last month when it released new iPhones. The iPad was just updated last year, so that doesn't feel like it's been "way too long."

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So, what could it be? There's two possible products that haven't seen major makeovers in a few years - the MacBook Air, and the Apple TV. The MacBook Air is expected to get a "retina" display. "Retina" is Apple's marketing language for a high resolution screen. As for the Apple TV, it's long overdue for an update, but there's been little indication that Apple is planning anything at this event for the Apple TV, so we're not expecting anything.

If there is no Apple TV, the star of the show will be the new iPads. The iPad business was once seen as the next major leg of Apple's business. It was expected to approach iPhone-like levels. Instead, it's stumbling. In his weekly newsletter, Andreessen Horowitz analyst Benedict Evans said, "sales have effectively been flat for over a year." Evans says, "there is no obvious growth lever to pull" for Apple with the iPad.

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The new iPads are expected to come in gold, a new color for the iPad. They're also expected to have TouchID, Apple's fingerprint scanner. Neither of those features are going to reignite growth. Apple could possibly lower prices, but that would be un-Apple-like. And, it's not clear it would make that big a difference.

With Apple releasing bigger iPhones, we expect iPad sales will be stunted further. Why buy an iPad Mini when you can get an iPhone biggie? They're somewhat redundant.

Anyway, we expect Apple to address much of this on Thursday. We'll be covering it live here. You can also watch a live stream of the event at Apple's website.