The problem is they are fragmenting the products. There are already too many different iPads.
Cannot really clearly judge fragmentation of products without looking at the target markets the products are being sold into. There is lots of commentary here that revolves some notion of "the iPad line is confusing because they are trying to sell too many different units to me ... "
That is highly questionable. Apple is extremely unlikely trying to sell someone with a $249-449 iPab budget a $1,299 iPad. What they are doing is selling to a wider, more diverse set of people. As the general iPad product becomes more capable they are selling to a wider variety of folks ( e.g., pulling some folks out of classic PC form factors and into iPad. They don't have to pull 'everybody' out of the older form factor to have additional multiple millions of folks to sell a device to. )
Over the last year the iPad 9th Gen has dropped down to a $249 selling on more than several occasions. ( Amazon promos , holiday sales , etc. I happens about every quarter or two over last year). Little chance the 10th gen could have limbo under the $289 price point during that time period because it was a relatively much newer design (that isn't 'paid for' yet ).
There is a pretty good chance that Apple is going to take the iPad Pro with OLED into a more niche (higher priced ) space where compete against even more expensive "pro camera" and "pro design" hardware. That will leave a gap for a 12.9" iPad.
The reality is that the market is fragmented. Users have varying needs , budgets , and priorities. Most cases that leads to varying products to meet the varying needs. With a 50-60M units per year users base if a unit only sells 2-3M units that is a "substantial enough" addition to the line up even if it isn't a huge double digit percentage of the total.
If there is an iPad model that is "too big" , "too expensive " , "too small" for your budget and priorities .... don't buy it . It is just that simple. If Apple was packing 4-5 models into the same price range ( e.g., $599 +/- 200 ) that could get confusing , but they are not. If the add more while at the same time expanding the price point range the entire product line covers , then it the addressed market density is not going up.
[ Some folks get 'twisted' that more models means Apple is spread out thinner. That doesn't really happen on the iPhone line where most of it is sell older designs at new price points. The iPad is a bit different , but more than decent chance this 12.9 Air will primarily be just as scaled back iPad Pro 12.9 legacy design. ( strip off some cameras, Lasers, ProMotion, Some Color spectrum, etc. and sell at a lower price point with a "paid for" SoC ( M2). )
The lowest entry iPad will generally be an 'old' iPad chassis with some small incremental SoC upgrade that is also basically 'paid for' also.
In short, the older the iPad line up gets the more options there are to sell older, 'paid for' chassis at more competitive price points. Why is Apple going to give up on sell more iPads?
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