Apple Inc. AAPL is all set to offer its 12.9-inch iPad Pro tablets for the Major League Baseball (MLB) dugouts. Though the tech giant clinched a multiyear deal from MLB, it has refrained from disclosing the financial terms.

MLB extended this offer to Apple just after the restriction regarding the use of electronic equipment in the dugouts was lifted. Now with the use of iPad Pro, the teams can efficiently use insights obtained from statistics to improve their game.

As Apple puts it “We’re not just replacing binders with tablets, we’re actually helping them do things that weren’t possible before”.

As a part of the deal, Apple will be offering an inbuilt “MLB Dugout” app that will take care of the data analysis process. In addition, managers will have everything, from performance data (both past and current) of each player, the probability of pitching/hitting in future games and even quick access to videos from earlier games on the field itself.

Apple and MLB's Advanced Media division will be coming together to design this app. Each team will have their own proprietary data uploaded in the tablets prior to a game. Going ahead, the technology will likely be upgraded to support real-time data as well.

The use of data analytics will literally prove to be a game changer for the MLB, provided Apple does not repeat the mistakes that Microsoft MSFT did back in 2013 when it had received a $400 million deal for providing Surface tablets to the National Football League. The deal had turned out to be a nightmare for Microsoft after a few teams reported malfunctioning in tablets.

Nonetheless, for Apple, this could be an opportunity to breathe new life into slumping tablet sales. In the first quarter of 2016, Apple’s unit sales and revenues from iPad declined 25% and 21%, respectively on a year-over-year basis.

At present, Apple carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). A couple of other tech stocks worth considering include Yirendai Ltd. YRD and Limelight Networks, Inc. LLNW, both having a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

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