Apple to serve many slices

Not just new iPhone

There’s plenty of other news due to come from Apple this week besides a new iPhone.

Apple is developing new features for the iPad to cater to professional users, along with new Mac laptops and desktops, according to sources.

Upcoming software upgrades for the iPad include wider operating system support for Apple’s stylus accessory, while hardware performance improvements are also in development, the sources said.

The refreshed Mac hardware line includes new versions of the iMac desktop, MacBook Air laptop and a 5K standalone monitor in collaboration with LG Electronics, in addition to a thinner MacBook Pro laptop.

The company hopes to ship the updated iPad software early next year, while the Macs are expected as soon as late 2016, said the sources.

Apple has not updated any Macs besides the 12-inch MacBook since last year.

While iPad unit sales have declined year-over-year for nine straight quarters, the average selling price jumped in the fiscal third quarter from purchases of pricier iPad Pro models.

That produced the first increase in quarterly iPad revenue in more than two years. New features aimed at higher-paying professional customers could support this trend, while the goal of the Mac updates is to keep the line’s sales numbers stable even as sales of rival personal computers continue falling.

Apple may also roll out new iPad software features as part of an upgrade to the iOS 10 operating system in the first half of 2017, or save the enhancements for the next major iOS version later in the year, said a source.

Apple began integrating features exclusive to the iPad last year with the release of a mode to work in two applications simultaneously.

The planned iPad update will include improvements to the Apple Pencil, a handwriting and drawing stylus aimed at professionals, according to one source. Apple has considered allowing users to annotate objects in many applications across the whole operating system, including in Mail, the Safari Web browser, and iMessage, similar to what Samsung Electronics offers on its Note smartphones, the source said. Currently, Apple only supports Pencil functionality in specifically developed apps.

The new iPad hardware will include faster display technology that allows for smoother zooming, panning and scrolling, said a source. Apple isn’t planning to update its iPad lineup until next year, when a new version of the iPad Pro will be released with a 10.5-inch display, up from the current 9.7-inch display, according to a recent research note by analyst Ming-Chi Kuo.

While the new iPad features aren’t expected until next year, Apple is planning to release some of the new Mac products as soon as October, according to sources.

The updated line includes tweaked MacBook Air devices with multifunctional USB-C port technology and iMacs with an option for new graphics chips from Advanced Micro Devices Inc.

A thinner MacBook Pro with a flatter keyboard is also in the pipeline, people familiar with the matter said earlier this month.

The standout feature is a digital function key display above the keyboard that allows for common tasks to be done more quickly for whatever program is being used, according to people familiar with the upcoming product. The feature is internally called the “Dynamic Function Row,” two of the people said, who added that Apple’s official name for thr product may differ. Bloomberg