The 12.9-inch iPad Pro is Apple’s answer to the Surface Pro

Apple has announced a range of new products, including a new larger iPad, two new smartphones and a long-awaited update to Apple TV. In a now traditional September event held at San Francisco’s Bill Graham civic auditorium, 2,000 engineers, advertisers, executives and journalists saw Apple’s marketing chief Phil Schiller reveal a new 12.9-inch screen iPad that the company hopes will appeal to both professional creatives and committed tablet users. iPad Pro, which will be available from November, will have a 10-hour battery life, and be priced from $799 (£520) in the US. “This is the clearest expression of our vision of the future of personal computing, a simple multitouch piece of glass that instantly transforms into anything you want it to be,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s chief executive. It includes a faster, more efficient A9 processor and is being launched, for the first time, with Apple Pencil – despite vigorous statements by now-deceased former CEO Steve Jobs as recently as 2010 that the stylus is awkward and not as intuitive as a finger. The iPad Pro is a product designed for illustrators, designers and editors who need maximum precision, Schiller explained.