You mean like these?
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iPad Jason Snell and John Gruber on the confusing iPad lineup
- Thread starter Rogifan
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There are people who are going to be confused regardless of the number of options available to them. I'm half tempted to come up with an interactive buyer's guide where people rank the importance of various features and capacities and at the end, a recommendation based on those weighted answers is presented.
But as we've witnessed in numerous "which should I buy.." threads, the requester often hasn't given much consideration to their needs/wants or want contradictory things like, "I want a 12.9" iPad but want it to be small and compact".
The current lineup offers something for everyone at every price point. I appreciate that. Those who want to go all-out and buy a $1900 iPad, Apple provides one for them. For those who want a basic iPad at an affordable price, they offer that too... and everything in between.
But as we've witnessed in numerous "which should I buy.." threads, the requester often hasn't given much consideration to their needs/wants or want contradictory things like, "I want a 12.9" iPad but want it to be small and compact".
The current lineup offers something for everyone at every price point. I appreciate that. Those who want to go all-out and buy a $1900 iPad, Apple provides one for them. For those who want a basic iPad at an affordable price, they offer that too... and everything in between.
Apple has good, better, best (10, Air, and Pros). The 9 will be discontinued soon and the Mini is unique due to its small size.
The current 10 sells for $449, the 9 is $329. Unless one of those price tiers goes away the lineup is muddy. But Apple won’t sell an Air for $449 or a 10 for $329 so…
exactly, regardless of the final price of the entry level iPad it's a temporary situation.
No one thought that the iPhone SE muddied the iPhone lineup, so I’m not sure why the iPad 9 caused confusion.
Some people seem to be bothered by having more choice... or think they are smarter than Apple when it comes to the product range that maximises their profits in a given timeframe..
So does the 10 become $329 and then there’s an 11 for $449 or is there nothing for $329 any more?
I agree with this.
Also we seem to get a hit of lazy bad takes from YouTube and Tech Bloggers whenever there is a slow news week for Apple. The pressure to make content (when there is no news) means looking for an angle to make a video or a podcast on, which can lead into some ridiculous takes.
Tech bloggarers get confused over one iPad. Their confusion scales exponentially with the number of IPad options as none of them behave like a Mac Laptop. /S
iPad SE, AX-1, 10 inch
iPad 9,11, 13 inch A17 Pro (air design)
iPad Pro, 12 and 14 inch M3
iPad studio 15-16 inch M3
Maybe if they move the camera to the long side, we can get a USB-C in each short side?
iPad SE, AX-1, 10 inch
iPad 9,11, 13 inch A17 Pro (air design)
iPad Pro, 12 and 14 inch M3
iPad studio 15-16 inch M3
Maybe if they move the camera to the long side, we can get a USB-C in each short side?
That would be a great idea. They will move the camera eventully, but a second USB port would be too radical for Apple
I think the iPad Air should go.
the 10.9 with the new pencil is a great stop gap between base and pro.
the 10.9 with the new pencil is a great stop gap between base and pro.
I recall at one point the iPad Air kind of went a way because that was just how redundant it became also. This problem has happened before with Apple at least one two other times with their iPad line. I think it should go like this:
-All iPads can use either the new pencil or 2nd gen pencil (or whatever replaces the 2nd gen pencil next year)
-the iPad mini becomes the $330 option or just make it $350, seriously why the hell is the mini $500?(which I think it actually was at one point)
-iPad 9 is faded away
-iPad 10 (or 11 whatever comes next) maintains its $450 price
-iPad Air maintains its $600 price but it gets Touch ID, 120Hz screen, and basically becomes last years iPad Pro
-IPad Pro gets two new sizes, completely new design (start it at 12.9, have it go up to 14-15 in) and have the price at somewhere like $1000 starting price.
Really the easiest way to do this is to just make the screens bigger and better for each model up. So then you just have good, better, best, the bestiest lol
-All iPads can use either the new pencil or 2nd gen pencil (or whatever replaces the 2nd gen pencil next year)
-the iPad mini becomes the $330 option or just make it $350, seriously why the hell is the mini $500?(which I think it actually was at one point)
-iPad 9 is faded away
-iPad 10 (or 11 whatever comes next) maintains its $450 price
-iPad Air maintains its $600 price but it gets Touch ID, 120Hz screen, and basically becomes last years iPad Pro
-IPad Pro gets two new sizes, completely new design (start it at 12.9, have it go up to 14-15 in) and have the price at somewhere like $1000 starting price.
Really the easiest way to do this is to just make the screens bigger and better for each model up. So then you just have good, better, best, the bestiest lol
And once the 13" MacBook got a metal case, the line stopped because it was redundant compared to the 13" MacBook Pro.
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You would remove the mid-price iPad Air so that a buyer who wants to get a laminated display in order to avoid the annoying screen reflectivity of the old and new base models (which makes them pretty much useless outside) has no choice but to jump all the way up to spending $800 for the Pro model?
Really cruel, dude.
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I was in Target the other day. I overheard a dad commenting on the Nintendo Switch Pro Controller. Basically mocking that it’s only for professionals. It got a small chuckle out of me as I thought about all these random things that have Pro in the name.
Well, clearly Apple thought better of that strategy since they found that most of the people in the entry-level demographic were either unwilling or unable to pay $461** more for ”Pro” features they did not need or want, but a significant portion of them would “stretch” to $599 for an iPad Air that was better in meaningful ways (an assumption which turned out to be true).
Since neither of us have built and run a 3 trillion dollar company, I‘m pretty sure Apple knows better than us how to sell iPads.
**(and before you say that the iPad 10 is $449, remember it will most likely drop in price once Apple discontinues the iPad 9.)
9 is a good product, especially when you can get it on sale for $250. Not everyone needs something blazing fast. And really the home button works well and is familiar to many.
No reason to spend nearly $500 for an 8 year old or an 80 year old with basic needs.
Very true, many of my retiree students bought that same iPad for that same price, and they couldn’t be happier.
Myself, I tried one as a smaller iPad for out-and-about (my 12.9 is too cumbersome for this), but I couldn’t deal with the extreme reflectivity of the non-laminated display, so I returned it. When Best Buy had the iPad mini 6 (which does have a laminated display) on sale for $399, I grabbed it. Turns out it’s an even better carry-around device than the iPad 9.
People often mistakenly, or intentionally to try make a point, compare the sale price of one thing against the new price of another. While the iPad 9 is a great iPad at $250, and you're correct that is all many people need, although I would argue that an 80 year old eyesight would benefit from the 10's larger screen, the iPad 10 is currently discounted to $400 so it's not "nearly $500".
It's not a matter of blazing fast, all current iPads are... it's many other things and not just the screen, also the speakers, the RAM with constant reloads of tabs in Safari with 3GB but it's all relative, since much depends on how one uses the device (for instance my old mini 2 is used just for one app and is great at that, so I could say it's a great device for what I use it for... but admittedly terrible otherwise..)
$450 + tax is indeed nearly $500.
And in the past 12 months, it's been much easier to find the 9 on sale for $250 than it has to get the 10 on sale for $399. Even on sale the 10 is 60% more than a sale-priced 9. $150 is not insignificant.
Also the 7/8/9 share the same case size, and you could even have accessories from an old Air or iPad Pro 10.5 that would work all perfectly fine.
If you're making the choice between spending and extra $150, and when you may already have accessories on hand, the 10 is a much harder choice.
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