Apple unveils its latest offering, iPad Air

Apple has unveiled its newest offering and its latest effort to stop the competition from taking market share.

It’s a top-of-the-range tablet called the iPad Air that is 20% thinner than the previous version and powered by the same A7 chip found in the company’s iPhone 5S.

The 9.7in computer is 7.5mm thick and weighs less than 500g, which is said to be the lightest full-sized tablet in the market.

Apple also announced a new version of its iPad Mini.

Its 7.9in screen has been upgraded to feature 2048 by 1536 pixels - the same as the larger model. It is being branded as "retina" to highlight the increased resolution.

The company has also announced that the latest version of its Mac operating system, Mavericks, would be offered at no cost to owners of computers already running any version of OS X released since 2009.

It is the first time the company has not charged for a major Mac OS upgrade.