Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
All iPads iPad is a poor value proposition in Brazil compared to competitors
- Thread starter skaertus
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Yes.
What is your use of the iPad that it makes it so much better for you than an Android tablet?
I am not sure what of is Samsung's strategy, but I think the best course of action would be for all these large companies such as Apple and Samsung to lobby for lower taxes in Brazil which would benefit both their businesses and the needs of local customers.
Most of the time watching movies or YouTube. When not doing that browsing the web, twitter, iMessages, and the occasional game. Absolutely nothing demanding like video editing.
It’s not that I couldn’t do most of my tasks on an android but there would be no advantage to using an android tablet other than saving a few bucks. Disadvantages would be shorter support life and not quite as stable. Also I prefer the iPadOS interface but that’s just me.
Preference is key because it's you using it !
Apple safeguarding iMessage surely has an impact on some users like myself who have an appreciation for having access to messages amongst other devices. I for one like being able to respond to messages on my iPads, and I can't do that with an Android tablet given that I have an iPhone. I have no intention of switching to an Android phone any time soon.
On the contrary, in most of the rest of the world, where iMessage barely matters and where Whatsapp dominates, you have no whatsapp app on iPad while you have one on Android tablets.
To be clear, I only claimed that there was an incentive to stick within the ecosystem for people like myself who use iMessage and value the ability to communicate through the app on various Apple products including the iPad. I’m not sure why you think that I am somehow implying that this applies to some kind of major market share, I made no such claim. In fact I postulated that some like myself are influenced, not all.
Honestly, this doesn't HAVE to be hard. If you're using Gmail to sync contacts and calendars, it's REALLY easy to switch between the two. Same for if you're using Outlook.com/Hotmail/Live. If you're all in on iCloud, it will be hell. But that's not inherent to having an iPhone and a Samsung tablet. That's inherent to having all of your data revolve around iCloud and not some other provider that has services on other platforms. You can also migrate that data over. I'm not saying it's fun or that it isn't work. Apple makes it that way on purpose. But it's not insurmountable.
Again, same argument. In fact, even less of one because macOS and iPadOS don't directly sync anything. They just talk to the same services. Change those services on your Mac to match what's on your Android or vice versa and you're fine. Do you get continuity features? No. But if that mattered to you, you wouldn't be engaging on a thread that discusses switching platforms.
How many apps do you pay for? Like, do you have home screens upon homescreens of paid apps? Let's say you're spending an average of $9 per app (which is a lot), how many apps are we talking about? Seems like it's not going to be a huge problem.
You're locked into whatever you want to be locked into. I'm not saying that Apple doesn't make it hard to leave their ecosystem. But if you were willing to put in the effort to switch, you could.
Most apps aren't optimized for a large screen, but it otherwise performs fine. In the same way that iPadOS is basically iOS on a larger screen with a few multitasking UI elements, so is Android on tablet, for the most part.
Oh no, I was not thinking you were implying anything. Just pointing out that iMessage is probably a big factor in the US, so it gives the iPad an advantage there for iPhone users. In the rest of the world it isn't. Not that I wish it was, I am perfectly fine with whatsapp as the primary messaging app all over the world (ex US), but as an iPad user (I use my iPads clearly more than my Android tablets) I am penalized by Meta keeping the iPad app in eternal developement (will it ever be available, I doubt it...) to favor Android tablets, where they can better track users (since there is no do no track option).
Sure, when the rest of the world android phones are dominant. It’s a good thing I don’t live in the rest of the world though 🤷♂️😂
Android is king in Brazil, and many other countries because the price difference to Apple is out of reach to most.
It all boils down to app quality, friend. Android tablets are ok but they're not half as flexible as an iPad.
The best Google tablet is in face just an iPad with GApps installed.
The best Google tablet is in face just an iPad with GApps installed.
That's your take, mine is that other than for some pro apps, the vast majority are just as good
You seem to be implying that I was intentionally stacking the deck in Apple’s favor, but that was hardly my intention. Afterall, the listed price was the in-store price of the Galaxys (S9 Ultra MSRP is $1199 for 256GB, S9 is $799) after the current discounts and Apple price listed was MSRP.
I compared the Airs to the S9 because that’s what the OP bought and I also felt was the closest match, between the better SOC and support for Apple and pricier displays on Samsung. But the general argument should still hold for iPad Pro (MSRP $1299 @ 13” M4 w/256GB). All specs considered, pricing is pretty on par and it mostly comes down to platform preference.
FYI, I just recently bought a new M2 iPad Air (11” 128GB) which is currently on back to school discounts at Apple Stores. That came out to $549 + $100 Apple Gift Card (or $449 if you consider the card a discount). An 11” Pro w/256GB would’ve been $899 + $100 Apple Gift Card. As a general consumer, Air is cheaper and Pro on par with Tab S9 in the US ATM. But that felt like more detail than needed here.
Point taken.
The is a big difference between Samsung's MSRP and Apple's. You can virtually always buy Samsung at a discount, including on launch. So that MSRP has not the same meaning as with Apple, where it's the real price most of the time. Also with time store other than the Samsung's store lower the price and sometimes sell the products at discounts you'll never see with Apple. I got my S9 5G for $500 with full keyboard, that's very far from MSRP. And just a couple of months after launch. This doesn't happen with Apple.
This is where we disagree. S9 should be compared with a pro, and it came out when the M2 pro iPad was around.
And they are at similar prices (with the old pros, not with the M4 which got much more expensive) only on launch and in theory, since even at launch you get discounts or more storage or accessories etc.
So no pricing is not on par and the more into the life of the product the more prices decouple.
As for specs, it's all a matter of priorities, although sometimes people use priorities to make their arguments.
Is speed the big argument of the M4 pro vs the M2 air? I don't think so, even M1 is plenty for 99% of buyers.
What makes the pro pro are things like promotion, quad speakers, oled. All things that the air lacks and the S9 has.
In terms of support Samsung is at 4+1 and Apple at 7 for the air/pro. But the support for the air and the pro is the same, so comparing the S9 to the air to take support into account doesn't sound right to me. The similar support is for the base iPad which has only 5 OS updates, instead of 7.
Air is cheaper because it's an inferior device. Pro is not on par, it's a bit cheaper but not way cheaper in Samsung store.
Using the Samsung store current prices, which are certainly not the lowest, but not MSRP (which mean very little in Samsung world) the S9 and S9 ultra are cheaper than even the student price of the iPad pro and back to school promotion (which is not a discount on the iPad but on accessories or other stuff). And if you take both MSRP again the pro is more expensive, because Samsung matched the old pro prices, not the current ones.
Depends very much on the app.
Microsoft Office apps are the same on iPad and Android tablets. Many other big-name apps are also the same. If you use any specific app designed for the iPad (and there are plenty), then it will not have an Android equivalent.
But then, I do not consider the iPad flexible as well. Powerful as it may be, it cannot compete with a real computer. An 8th gen Core i5 Windows PC can do so much more than an M4 iPad Pro.
If you can handle your tasks with an iPad, but not with an Android tablet, then you belong to a minority of the population. I must have a computer anyway, and, here in Brazil, the price of an iPad is not worth it for me to be a secondary device, especially when the main competitor is less than half the price. Neither is going to fully resolve my needs, so I got the best value.
I mean to some people it might be niche stuff but being able to LiDAR scan a site and then edit a base onto the mesh using Shapr3D before 3D Printing is still pretty cool.
The Brazilian price of Apple devices is crazy! Just to be clear, this is the official price at a Brazilian Apple store? 2024 11" M4 iPad Pro base (256gb) in the US is $999. In Brazil, it's BR15,899 equivalent to US$2,789?! That's wild.
There's already the issue that, even when properly FX-converted, if in local currency the equivalent of US$999 in BRL (5,500) "feels" like a lot more money than an equivalent person in the US would for the US$999 equivalent price (ie. due to cost of living, average incomes, etc.)
That's compounded significantly if there's this import tax-related where the actual FX-converted amount is 2.7x higher (270%)?! I can completely see why if you live in Brazil, or another country with this dynamic, the value proposition makes much less sense...
For those saying but the Android tablet does not run iPadOS, sure.
Then the question becomes is iPadOS worth the extra premium over Android? For some people, it would be yes, for some, no.
Unless you have to use iPad exclusive apps or Apple features, not sure what is the significant advantage iPad has over Android. Saying this as someone who use both.
Then the question becomes is iPadOS worth the extra premium over Android? For some people, it would be yes, for some, no.
Unless you have to use iPad exclusive apps or Apple features, not sure what is the significant advantage iPad has over Android. Saying this as someone who use both.
In the rest of the world it simply doesn't matter what your preference is. WhatsApp works on all major platforms.
Yup that will be the issue for any luxury brand in a poor country.
On an iPad board on Macrumors that ship typically has sailed. It’s a board for people who sort of have figured the value proposition out by now. There are plenty of angles to perceive value, be it in software, in hardware, in privacy, in overall product appeal, design, etc.
MacRumors exists before the iPad or even the iPhone was unveiled.
So the users have not necessarily figured out the value proposition of theses devices.
And the Mac itself has gone through so many modifications and incarnations that its own value proposition has changed over the years.
That’s true, if one kept their head in the sand for the last 10-15 years a tablet might indeed be a new concept. I see Apple selling the Mac to the same mainstream consumer as they did 15 years ago and the changes weren’t necessarily revolutionary on Mac. More like evolutionary change and refining.