Those were good times. Late 2010 Apple store. No compromises anywhere. Sure, iPads have evolved from what they once were, but still – did it have to become what it is now?
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iPad Anyone miss the old Apple lineup?
- Thread starter mectojic
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It certainly made more sense. Best was the i/Power lineup. Easy.
Rose colored glasses and wishful thinking. There were compromises *everywhere* in that lineup.
The 13" laptops were still on C2D despite Arrandale being out. C2D in 2010 was already looking pretty crusty - the Penryn chips they were selling were 2+ years old.
The 15" MBP had a standard 1440x900 screen. You had to pay extra for the 1680x1050 panel, and antiglare was also extra.
Amusingly, despite being a newer CPU generation, the Intel chipsets in the 15/17" Pros were capped at 8GB of RAM. The 13" non-Air models with Nvidia chipsets could run 16GB.
Both 2010 Air models had no backlit keyboard, the only generation not to.
The original iPad was kneecapped from the start by only having 256MB of RAM, which meant it dropped iOS support just two years later with 5.1.1, while the iPhone 4 with the same A4 chip but double the RAM got software through iOS 7.1.2 in 2014.
They did the same storage shenanigans with iPods then as they've done since with iPhones and iPads - the Touch was 8/32/64GB, and going from 8 to 32 was just $70 more. It also had a crap "Retina" display that wasn't up to par with the iPhone 4.
The Mac Pro? That thing still had SATA II ports, when the SATA III spec had been final for over a year. It was already just a speed bump of the 4,1 - enough so that you can flash a 4,1 to thinking it's a 5,1. Not a great look for a pro tower.
Mac mini had the highest base price of a Mini up to that point.
This isn't to say it was total trash - it's to say that they've *always* had compromises and tradeoffs in the lineup. Did they *need* the polycarbonate MacBook for $999 when they had the 13" Pro for $1199 - and the Pro came with 4GB of RAM standard instead of 2, plus an aluminum case and backlit keyboard and FireWire? I bet those were lively debates back then too, about like people today asking why the $449 iPad exists when then the Air 5 has double the RAM for just $150 more. 😄
I could individually refute each point, but I think that's not the point. Most of your refutations apply more to "pro users" rather than the average consumer. Apple adopts new technologies fast enough, even if not instantaneously – and I'm sure they have good reasons for that.
What is more important is, customers who came to the Apple Store looking for a device in 2010 had a very, very easy time working out what to get. The same can't be said today, when higher price points can often mean less features.
Just wanted to comment that the iPhone 4 is unusable on iOS 7, and widely considered one of the worst iPhone/iOS combos ever.
Apple has an installed base of 2 billion active devices. Do you seriously believe they could achieve that with such a simple lineup?
A single iPad to serve pro content creators and everyday media consumption users. Sure, if you don't mind overpaying for features you don't use.
A single iPad to serve pro content creators and everyday media consumption users. Sure, if you don't mind overpaying for features you don't use.
I don’t know why everyone goes on about apples line up being ‘complicated’. I mean - it’s pretty easy to work out.
You would need to be pretty dense to go on their website and not work out what you want, by either price or features.
Once you know either one of those metrics (and whether you want a phone, a tablet, a computer, a watch, a tv box, or some kind of speaker - pretty easy choices to know in advance of browsing there in the first place), it’s excruciatingly simple for anyone with even average intelligence to work out what to buy.
Ever tried going to an average pc vendors website and trying to pick a config? That’s next to impossible for an average tech challenged person.
You would need to be pretty dense to go on their website and not work out what you want, by either price or features.
Once you know either one of those metrics (and whether you want a phone, a tablet, a computer, a watch, a tv box, or some kind of speaker - pretty easy choices to know in advance of browsing there in the first place), it’s excruciatingly simple for anyone with even average intelligence to work out what to buy.
Ever tried going to an average pc vendors website and trying to pick a config? That’s next to impossible for an average tech challenged person.
I don’t get why this matters so much to so many people. In a sense, this line up still exists (excluding the iPods obviously) but with the added benefit of choice.
Apples growing line up is not like the Apple Steve re-inherited in the late 90s. There is a lot of products today but they remain split across only a small number of well defined categories.
Apples growing line up is not like the Apple Steve re-inherited in the late 90s. There is a lot of products today but they remain split across only a small number of well defined categories.
As others have said, Apple website is very well structered and very clear (much more than their competitors, including Samsung, Microsoft etc.). Today we simply have more choice and that's a good thing as long as it's clear and well structured.
Sure some minimalists won't like it, but as every vocal minority, they need to learn to live with it...
And we live in a very different world than the Steeve Jobs' one, with different and more advanced technology.
Sure some minimalists won't like it, but as every vocal minority, they need to learn to live with it...
And we live in a very different world than the Steeve Jobs' one, with different and more advanced technology.
The iPad is the new iPod... The many options for iPod before are now the many options for iPad...
The difference between products now are getting blurred... It seems to me that the best iPhone lineup would be from late 2018...
iPhone 7/7 Plus
iPhone 8/8 Plus
iPhone XR
iPhone XS/XS Max
The difference between products now are getting blurred... It seems to me that the best iPhone lineup would be from late 2018...
iPhone 7/7 Plus
iPhone 8/8 Plus
iPhone XR
iPhone XS/XS Max
Just replace all the different iPods with iPads and iPhones.
But I do miss the iPod, and Leopard. Leopard was special
I miss that $99* iPhone lol
*subsidized
*subsidized
It was so much easier when I had my LC 475.
Not if your primary metric is light and pocketable.
The iPhone form factor peaked with the 3GS.
I used an iPhone 4 on iOS 7 for a year. It was tolerable, honestly, even pairing it with an iPad Air.
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
This kind of thinking is ALSO longing for an Apple Inc that was a fraction of its size today. Ask those holding a lot of AAPL stock if they would like revenue & profit to fall back to the days of a much smaller number of products... and thus have their shares fall back to share prices that reflect a much smaller Apple.
Do a search for the list of companies with TRILLION dollar valuations and then look at the product mix they sell to be on that list. Amazon? Microsoft? Etc. The closest one to Apple in terms of relatively small number of products is Saudi Aramco... a gigantosaurus, "Big Oil" company. Here's their core product mix.
A lot of us armchair CEOs/Marketers seem to have this idea that "simplifying the product mix" down to even single choices can somehow bring in even more revenue: 199X-200X Apple product mix but 202X Apple revenue & profit records.
Apple revenue has long-since outgrown those days. They don't make several variations of each core product because everyone wants to buy only one of them. To segments of buyers for each variation, each is the ideal one for them.
Apple cut a VERY POPULAR Mac from the lineup this year- iMac 27". Apple cut a very popular (original) HomePod when sales did not grow as they expected. They cut the dogs or those that don't yield enough towards "another record quarter of revenue/profit" contributions. They are certainly NOT just making stuff to make it... or to make "us" pay up for the higher-priced alternative by also offering weaker variations that "no one wants to buy."
If anything, Apple needs to roll out some MORE products, as the existing players are unlikely to keep carrying the "another record quarter" weight on iterative changes. Thus, we have rumors of Goggles and Car, etc. Cutting back to ONE iPhone model and ONE iPad model would yield a much louder wail calling for more consumer CHOICE... more variations that have what "I" want... "like they used to have back in 2022."... "I want a little <bigger/smaller> <iPhone/iPad/Mac>"... etc.
Is there any room for some simplification? Probably. 5 distinct iPad "silos" does look like 1 too many to me too. But I'm confident Apple is NOT offering 5 because no one buys 1+ of them. Each must be sufficiently profitable to offer 5, else 1+ would be cut... just like iMac 27" and HomePod.
If anyone knows better, go pitch a lucrative consulting gig with Apple and fix their terrible problem. Be sure to take a LONG ladder to climb over the mounds of cash piled up around the donut so you can actually get to the decision-makers to wake them up to the right way to run the company.
Do a search for the list of companies with TRILLION dollar valuations and then look at the product mix they sell to be on that list. Amazon? Microsoft? Etc. The closest one to Apple in terms of relatively small number of products is Saudi Aramco... a gigantosaurus, "Big Oil" company. Here's their core product mix.
A lot of us armchair CEOs/Marketers seem to have this idea that "simplifying the product mix" down to even single choices can somehow bring in even more revenue: 199X-200X Apple product mix but 202X Apple revenue & profit records.
Apple revenue has long-since outgrown those days. They don't make several variations of each core product because everyone wants to buy only one of them. To segments of buyers for each variation, each is the ideal one for them.
Apple cut a VERY POPULAR Mac from the lineup this year- iMac 27". Apple cut a very popular (original) HomePod when sales did not grow as they expected. They cut the dogs or those that don't yield enough towards "another record quarter of revenue/profit" contributions. They are certainly NOT just making stuff to make it... or to make "us" pay up for the higher-priced alternative by also offering weaker variations that "no one wants to buy."
If anything, Apple needs to roll out some MORE products, as the existing players are unlikely to keep carrying the "another record quarter" weight on iterative changes. Thus, we have rumors of Goggles and Car, etc. Cutting back to ONE iPhone model and ONE iPad model would yield a much louder wail calling for more consumer CHOICE... more variations that have what "I" want... "like they used to have back in 2022."... "I want a little <bigger/smaller> <iPhone/iPad/Mac>"... etc.
Is there any room for some simplification? Probably. 5 distinct iPad "silos" does look like 1 too many to me too. But I'm confident Apple is NOT offering 5 because no one buys 1+ of them. Each must be sufficiently profitable to offer 5, else 1+ would be cut... just like iMac 27" and HomePod.
If anyone knows better, go pitch a lucrative consulting gig with Apple and fix their terrible problem. Be sure to take a LONG ladder to climb over the mounds of cash piled up around the donut so you can actually get to the decision-makers to wake them up to the right way to run the company.
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I agree that "no compromises" was the wrong framing but the other, main point was correct: each product had a clear purpose.
MacBook: The entry-level laptop. Is price your top concern? Go here.
MacBook Pro: A hardware upgrade over the entry-level model, with more advanced config options.
MacBook Air: For those who don't mind sacrificing raw power for portability. The 13-inch Air in 2010 was 33% lighter than the same size Pro (3 pounds vs. 4.5).
Just go from that comparison back to today. What is an iPad Air exactly? It's 1.9% lighter than the 10th-generation iPad. Why is the new 10th-generation iPad not the base model? Imagine if, in that 2010 screenshot, they were still selling the non-unibody mid-2009 MacBook for $899.
The only thing Apple seems to have clarity on is that the Pro level is where they have their most advanced hardware, although rumors of an "iPad Ultra" may make a farce of that as well.
It's still there. In the US carriers will basically give you an iPhone 14 if you trade in or add a new line.
I would disagree on the no compromises part, but in terms of cleanliness of the lineup, it surely did look much better and simpler back then, especially on the iPhone/iPad.
Take the iPhone. Apple released one flagship, and the last year's model slide down in price. People who want the latest and greatest can always get the flagship, and others can get last year's flagship, fully featured, for less. Very simple and addressed different pricing tiers at the same time.
Prior to the iPad Pros, the iPad was quite simple as well. There's the regular/flagship iPad, a smaller version iPad mini, and then the cheapest basic iPad usually for education. Simple as well.
The current iPad lineup is probably the worst that Apple had ever done. We have an old basic iPad that never had any price reduction regardless of its age, then we have a newly released iPad 10 but it was shortchanged with old accessories for whatever reason. Then we have the iPad Air and mini that unlike in the past, have no relation with each other. It used to be the mini simply the smaller version of the Air.
Even the Macbook lineup gets confusing, especially the 13" Macbook Pro that sits in between the Macbook Air and the 14" Macbook Pro.
Exactly.
“Do you want a mini iPad? No? Scratch off iPad mini.
Do you want the most expensive, most advanced iPads? No? Scratch off the Pros.
Do you want an iPad with an old fashioned Home Button? No? Scratch off iPad 9.
Do you care about a nicer display or a magnetically connected Pencil? No?
Great, you’ll enjoy the new iPad 10. Which color do you like and how much storage do you want?”
It’s asking a series of questions about what people actually care about in their iPad purchase, as in features, size, and price.
The M1 Air. It’s the most bang for the buck PC released by any manufacturer, ever, and certainly by Apple. I’ll take a fight on that one no problem.
That alone makes me cherish today’s lineup more than ever. I bought my own first Mac back in -94, so I’ve had a few.
I think the lineup is strong today! If you buy an iPad today, any one of them, it’ll last at least five years.
That alone makes me cherish today’s lineup more than ever. I bought my own first Mac back in -94, so I’ve had a few.
I think the lineup is strong today! If you buy an iPad today, any one of them, it’ll last at least five years.
Disagree. It slowed down but was useable. Had an iPhone 4 as my main phone when iOS 7 was released. 7.1 sped it up as well.
iOS 9 on the 4S, now THAT was a complete train wreck. Where the 4 with iOS 7 was slow, the 4S with iOS 9 was shocking - apps would just not load or take minutes to load. Nothing stayed open.