(Yicai) May 8 -- US tech giant Apple and its biggest rival in China, Huawei Technologies, both released their latest tablet computers and other smart products yesterday as competition in the high-end intelligent device market intensifies.

Apple unveiled its new iPad Pro and iPad Air, with starting prices of USD999 and USD599, respectively. It also released the next-generation smart stylus, Apple Pencil Pro, costing CNY999 (USD138). All three products are due to hit the market on May 15.

The iPad Pro comes equipped with Apple’s all-new M4 chip, which offers a 50 percent improvement in central processing unit performance compared to the previous-generation M2 chip. The graphics processing unit performance has also been quadrupled, the Cupertino-based firm said.

The same day, Huawei launched its MatePad, at a starting price of EUR399 (USD428), which comes with Huawei's latest operating system, Harmony OS 4.2. It also unveiled a number of new laptops and smart watches at the event held in Dubai aimed at overseas markets.

Both Apple and Huawei have held product launches on the same day many times in the past but competition between the pair has extended in recent years from mobile phones to other smart products such as tablets and wearable devices.

Apple was the world’s top tablet seller in the first quarter at 12 million units, according to market research firm Canalys. But this was a 14 percent decline from the same period last year. Huawei, meanwhile, ranked third but is catching up fast. Sales jumped 70 percent over the period to 2.7 million tablets.

Editor: Kim Taylor