Apple upstages Microsoft with new, fourth generation iPads - alongside iPad mini

iPad mini more expensive than expected at $329 - or £269 in the UK

Apple has trumped Microsoft's big week of launches by releasing its own radically updated, fourth generation iPad, alongside the unveiling of all-new laptop and desktop computers, and capped with the widely expected launch of the iPad mini - the new, smaller, cheaper 7.9 inch screen iPad.

The new, fourth-generation iPad was the biggest surprise of the day. It comes just six-months after 'The New iPad' and is powered by a new A6x microprocessor, which the company says provides twice the performance of the A6 in the third generation iPad. Apple claim that wi-fi will be twice as fast, too, and that it will also work on 4G LTE networks - although it won't be supported by carriers in the UK, yet.

The iPad mini, the event that press (and Apple staff in the audience) had been summoned for, once again, was the main event. It was expected to drive Apple into direct competition with the Amazon Kindle Fire and Google's Nexus 7 - both low-cost tablet computers starting at about $199.

However, at an announced price of $329/£269, the iPad mini is widely regarded as too expensive - especially when it is just $70/£60 shy of the $399/£329 iPad 2, which has the better display and a bigger screen. The iPad mini and the fourth-generation iPad also add extra complexity to a confusing line-up.

The iPad mini has a 7.9-inch display - which is 35 per cent larger in total area compared to more common and cheaper seven-inch display tablet computers - as well as a 1024-by-768 non-'retina' display screen. It runs on an older A5 dual core microprocessor and has a high-definition webcam at the front and a five mega-pixel camera at the back.

It sports the new, thinner 'Lightning' connector, a ten-hour battery life, but weighs just over 300 grams.

The reason for the particular size of the display, said marketing manager Phil Schiller, was so that apps designed for the original 10-inch display iPads would work unaltered on its smaller cousin.

Apple's iPad line-up now spans from the $329/£269 iPad mini, the $399/£329 iPad 2 and the $499/£399 fourth-generation iPad.

Apple upstages Microsoft with new, fourth generation iPads - alongside iPad mini

iPad mini more expensive than expected at $329 - or £269 in the UK

Slim pickings

But it was the unveiling of a refreshed desktop and laptop line-up that surprised the most.

Kicking off with the 13-inch screen MackBook Pro, it is 20 per cent thinner than the model it will replace and weighs 1.6 kilograms. Its 'retina' display offers a resolution of 2560-by-1600 pixels - greater than a 1080p high-definition television by some distance.

It will come with a dual-core Intel i5, eight GB of memory, voice dictation software, cloud storage and PowerNap - the ability to update and synchronise data while in a power saving 'sleep' mode. Its price, though, is starts at a very hefty $1699/£1499.

The Mac Mini will be Apple's entry-level offering. The 'box' offers a dual- or quad-core Intel i5 microprocessor offering wi-fi, bluetooth, 4GB of memory and a 500GB hard-disc drive from $599/£499 - monitor extra. Some $999/£849 will buy a quad-core Intel i7 version for corporate server usage.

The highlight of the standard PC launches, though, was the iMac. Like all of Apple's launches today, it offered an even thinner display, with all the hardware integrated into the monitor enclosure, which had been glued together using 'friction-stir welding' to create a one-piece machine.

The displays come in either a 21.5 inch or 27 inch size, offering either 1920 by 1080 or 2560 by 1440 resolutions respectively, for starting prices of $1299/£1099 or $1799/£1499. Both sport Intel i5 microprocessors running at either 2.7 gigahertz (GHz) or 2.9GHz.

Unlike Microsoft's and Nokia's recent unveilings, all the devices launched by Apple today can be ordered now and will be shipping imminently.

CEO Tim Cook described the launches as "innovation that only Apple can deliver". He added: "It has been an incredible year with all of these new products, applications and cloud services."

Reactions from observers and the wider 'Twitterati' were mixed. While most cooed over the ultra-slim displays of the desktop and laptop releases, prices - as always - were considered 'full'.

The iPad mini, especially, was criticised for its pricing and the comparisons CEO Cook drew with the Google Nexus 7, which is some 70 per cent cheaper. Most criticism, though, was reserved for the obsolescence of The New iPad just six months after release with the fourth generation iPad.

Most, though, predicted that all products will sell by the truckload.