There is a legendary story about how Steve Jobs, upon his return to Apple, drastically cut-down the number of models that they offer. How on earth have they forgotten that lesson? Trying to figure out the differences between the 9.7" iPad and iPad pro is not easy, and regardless, it makes it harder to buy.
From a Reddit comment, in addition to the bump from a A8x to A9 chip:<p>- It's as thick as the iPad Air 1 (and thus thicker than the Air 2/9.7" Pro).<p>- No laminated display (and no AR coating, True Tone, or wide color).<p>- Air 2 quality camera.<p>- The iPad mini 4 is now only available in 128GB, at $399.<p>- The chamfers look matte, like the iPhone SE.<p>Also, no Pencil support or smart connector.
I've gotten a lot of use out of my iPad 3 and, up until it stopped getting updates and the touch screen started breaking down in the past few months, found no reason to upgrade or replace it. I use it nearly daily but mostly for reading textbooks and novels, reviewing language cards, and occasionally watching YouTube videos. It's been extremely useful for taking to the gym and allowing me to study while on the elliptical.<p>But I got it in a different time. There weren't many tablets available at the time and a retina screen was critical for small text. As I've looked around recently, it's become very hard to justify getting a new iPad over something like the surface.<p>How do people justify the purchase in 2017? Seriously asking as I am looking to replace my iPad with something in the next few weeks.
I just hope for the one big presentation where they refresh iMac, Mac mini, Mac Pro, and maybe some "next big thing" for desktop PCs.<p>And for the love of god, if they do this please have some USB-A ports...
I know kids and grandparents that use tablets all the time but not really anyone outside of those age groups. Is anyone else finding that to be the case? I know I personally haven't used the ipad in months if not years at this point.
Starts making a lot more sense when you try to forsee the future product lineup:<p># Was<p>iPad Mini 2 (7.9)<p>iPad Mini 4 (7.9)<p>iPad Air 2 (9.7)<p>iPad Pro (9.7)<p>iPad Pro (12.9)<p>MacBook Air (13)<p>MacBook (12)<p>MacBook Pro (13)<p>MacBook Pro (15)<p># Becomes<p>iPad (9.7)<p>iPad Pro (10.5)<p>iPad Pro (12.9)<p>MacBook (12)<p>MacBook Pro (13)<p>MacBook Pro (15)
I use my iPad 2 every day. I bought it in 2011, so it's basically 6 years old and battery is still in great quality. I disabled a few animations/transitions and such, and I run iOS 10. It's not as fast as it used to be (newer iOS not being optimized for slower iPads) but it's still perfectly usable for reading books on the Kindle app, some surfing etc. When I am not using it, I tend to put it in Airplane mode.
This might get me back into iPads. I had a 4th gen, and it broke right around when I transitioned into the Plus sized iPhones. Spending $500 on a new iPad didn't seem like it was all that necessary considering my phone now did an OK job replacing it.<p>But at $329 it's a lot more attractive.
Can anyone see what changed with the iPhone SE? They seem to have updated it as the store now says "place your order starting 3/24", but all the specs look identical to me.
The scrolljacking on that page is painful. Maybe it's just the massive images they're loading that's causing the chug on my machine (Macbook Pro), but it's really off-putting.
Looks like they tried as much as possible to make a low-cost full sized iPad. Would've been a good opportunity for Apple to have P3 wide color displays on all their lines.<p>Even more surprised it doesn't have laminated display, possible reason why it's thinker and heavier than the 9.7" Pro.
For me the choice is easy: do I need a 7" tablet for every day use, a 9.7" tablet for reading and watching movies, or a big iPad 12.9" with a Pencil for graphics?<p>If the choice is storage space and LTE, I go with what I need or want. If any of this seems confusing, I recommend stopping by an Apple Store, they can clarify features and benefits.
It sure feels like Apple is getting desperate. Not sure what's going on. I know this is a single data point but just a few days we went to our local Apple store. It wasn't quite empty but it was nowhere near as busy as it was, say, a year ago. No buzz.<p>At my personal level, we have not updated our iPads and iPods for a number of years. Don't plan to.<p>I still have a 4S. I have disliked everything Apple has done since then and so did not upgrade. The device is getting slow over time. This, by itself, is enough to bother me. It used to work fine. Software updates have made it sluggish. This is wrong. I know I will have to upgrade at one point yet I am not looking forward to upgrading to another iPhone. Apple probably has one shot at convincing people like me with iPhone 8. Hint: I am sick and tired of "thinner". I could not care less. "Thinner" ceased to be a benefit a very long time ago. They need to solve real problems. Beyond that, you can only say "beautiful" so many times before it becomes a joke. Beautiful, beyond a basic aesthetic, isn't a solution to any real problem. At least none I have.<p>Past that, we have pulled our last app from the app store. Actually, Apple required an upgrade and I decided not to invest the time and money to do it. Why? Because the app store is useless unless you get lucky, throw money at it or both.<p>App discoverability is impossible. The other thing that is also impossible is to create relationships with your users. Business is about relationships and this walled garden prevents you from creating such relationships. In a way I equate this to groups on Facebook. FB has made it so that you have to pay to reach an audience you worked hard to create. You can have a million person group and only reach a couple thousand or less people per post. If you want to reach more you have to pay. In other words, you don't "own" your audience the same way you would through an opt-in email list.<p>And so, it is goodbye to the App store, it isn't worth our time, money and effort.<p>All of the above leads me to conclude that the Apple era is in jeopardy if they can't come up with enough of a pivot to provide value and get people exited again.
I was kind of hoping for a revamped 12" MacBook but looks like we didn't get one.<p>I wonder if this bump is already the usual spring revamp or if something else will come in April
Anyone actually uses an iPad excessively? I owned 2 (non retina then retina mini) and it has been the least used Apple product over the last 25 years for me.<p>- Looks great in marketing/ads<p>- Want to read? Naaah too uncomfortable to hold<p>- Want to work? Naaah working on a touch-device is no fun<p>- Want to play? Naaah got a gaming-console for that<p>- Want some music? Naaah got my iPhone<p>- Everything else: iPhone
I think it's a decent product at a lower price point. I just got rid of my 1st gen iPad Mini and was looking at the iPad Air.<p>This product fits perfectly in my budget and what I wanted. I still wish that the cellular one wasn't $100 more though.
This is a nice upgrade, but my iPad2 is still going strong for what I need.<p>(If I could get an iPad with pencil support for $329 or even $429, that might be a different story. Looks like I'll wait another year.)
This feels like the release of the "the new iPad" which was after the iPad two, but housed a Retina display, internals were the same if I recall correctly.
Immediately googled "9.7 inch in cm" because it's hard to imagine size in proprietary units used in only one country. But then encountered "1 lb., 7.5 mm" on the website. That's unit trolling. They should've used megahartleys per decimal second for LTE speed.
I'm extremely put off by Apple line up getting frustratingly confusing. The devil is in the details here. There was a time, where you could simply trust that an Apple product is built like a tank, that a technology once introduced (like, say, glass screens, or force touch) will always at least be default in the upcoming models.<p>But it is frustrating that Apple started removing fundamental features in a random fashion, even from flagship products with no intimation of them. Retina Macbook Pro does not have a glass screen. Users did not realize that until the staingate issue cropped up. It feels even blowing air on the screen will pull off coating. In this iPad, they conveniently removed the lamination.<p>I cannot even imagine Apple doing that back in the day. Imagine a version of iPhone, let's call it 4E, which does not have 3G.<p>It feels like I have to do a spec comparison about <i>everything</i> before deciding which Apple product to buy. Because there is no knowing what they silently removed.
I'd almost hoped they would have released a refreshed Macbook Pro range. I realise they are unlikely to recognise the joy and immense pleasure working on a MBP has brought me over the years, with the previous MBP being the pinnacle.<p>Sadly I see the current MBP as something I will not be buying and will more than likely move back to a high end windows laptop.
Throw in old leftover components from a generation ago and call in NEW!!<p>Apple, do better than this. This is not how you answer critics, and the market, who are starting to question your products relevance.
The most comedic thing about Apple is that my raspberry pi3 with chromium has support for webmidi and webrtc but not even the iPad pro can do webrtc chat with mobile Safari. Sure I know they're not fans of the web but it has to be hurting them at this point when a $35 system has more browser capabilities than a $1000 device.