Apple unveils thinner, lighter iPad Air

Apple tried to shrug off accusations that innovation at the company was stagnating, unveiling its thinnest and lightest tablet to date.

Claiming to be the lightest full-size tablet on the market to date, the iPad Air weighs in at 1lb and is 7.5mm thick, making it around 20 per cent thinner than its predecessor. Apple has also reduced the bezel on the device

The new tablet includes the A7 chip and the M7 coprocessor seen in the recently announced iPhone 5S, and a 5 megapixel iSight camera for Apple’s Facetime video chat.

The device also promises faster wifi and more 4G LTE bands.

Set to go on sale on November 1st in Ireland, the iPad Air will replace the current iPad 4. Apple said it plans to retain the iPad 2 in its tablet lineup.

"This is just the beginning for iPad," chief executive Tim Cook said.

The iPad mini was also updated with Apple’s “retina” screen. The new version is set to go on sale next month with a slightly higher pricetag of $399.

Apple also announced the availability of the new version of its OS X desktop software for Macs, Mavericks, which will be free to download for existing users . The updated software is promising to deliver better battery life for its laptops, enhanced graphics and better performance due to compressed memory.

Chief executive Tim Cook took a swipe at the competition, describing them as “confused”.

“Our competition is different: they’re confused,” he said. “Now they’re trying to make PCs into tablets and tablets into PCs. Who knows what they’ll do next? “We have a very clear direction and a very ambitious goal. We still believe deeply in this category and we’re not slowing down on our innovation.”