Unlikely Apple will unveil AI enabled feature with new iPad, says Cleo Capital's Sarah Kunst

It’s been almost 14 years now since the late Steve Jobs announced the very first iPad model back in 2010. Is there room for a third category of device in the middle, something that’s between a laptop and a smartphone? We think we’ve got something that is and we’d like to show it to you today for the first time, and we call it the iPad. Now, this event is a crucial moment for Apple and that third category of device, the iPad. Last quarter, iPad revenue plunged 17%. So will this product launch give the segment the boost that it needs? Joining me now is Cleo Capital Managing Director Sarah Koontz. Sarah, what do you think? What are your sources telling you we’re going to see next week? I think that, you know this is one of those things where it’s like OK, meet the new iPad. It is the same as the old iPad. The reality is it is pretty similar it it the street is a little bit bigger, but the reality is that we’re not seeing some huge form factor shift. It’s unlikely we’re going to see some crazy new AI enabled feature. If they have those, those are more likely to come out, you know at their their later later conferences this year. And so I think it’s, it’s going to be a pretty incremental thing. I think that’s why it’s a smaller event. It’s really aimed at press. It’s, it’s aimed at a time zone where people can watch it worldwide, including in China where you know the iPhone has really struggled as it’s become a device you can’t bring to work many places. And so that was so interesting. I think we should foot stump that because they’re doing this event now for the first time, it’s at 7:00 AM local time, right. So they’re trying to capture the European market and the Asian evening market. Buyers there will be able to sit down and watch that and they’re getting up very, very early on the West Coast of the United States to do that. I think that tells you a lot about what the Chinese market means to Apple, right? Absolutely. You know, if you haven’t spent a lot of time at tech companies, they tend to start around 10:00 AM. So if seven is early and it shows that there is something here that they want the rest of the world to see, right. So I guess the question is if you’re looking at this as an incremental product improvement, where are the new buyers for this incremental new product? I mean I just look around my life and I see you know, iPads largely being used these days to entertain toddlers strapped to the backs of car seats and stuff like that. I mean if if that market is kind of saturated, I mean they, they do make new toddlers every year, but you know, ultimately there’s only so many parents you can sell to. Where are the new buyers going to come from exactly? I I do think that the iPad Pro could be interesting for for business. You know they’re getting bigger, right? So they’re they’re getting to a form factor where it does make sense in a in an enterprise setting. And I think when you put it with that Magic keyboard, which is a very silly name but you know you end up with a product that is actually it’s a cheap laptop. You can get the the I think the the 9th generation right now for starting around $400.00 and and then you add that $300.00 Magic keypad less if they’re furbish. You’re looking at something that does compare price wise to an ultra cheap, you know, laptop of a of another brand.