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Thinner, Lighter 5th Generation iPad to Arrive in March 2013?
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Why? Because there is fierce competition. Android tablets have largely matched the iPad on form factor and size. And no, just having iOS isn't enough anymore. For most people "good enough" is good enough. Unless Apple is ok with ceding 75% of the market.
I am fine with this development. If Apple can improve the iPad, do it. Don't wait for some arbitrary time and get passed by others.
Apple did this with the iPod. It was effective. They constantly moved the bar higher, not allowing the competition to catch up until it was too late.
I would much rather have fast releases than a repeat of the computer and phone markets, where Apple loses massive amounts of share.
Exactly.
My iPad 2 didn't magically stop working, forcing me to buy a new one.
The only people complaining are the sad consumerists that have to have the newest thing.
I wonder, do those same people replace their computer every 6 months when a new rev comes out? Or replace their car every year for the newer model? Do they wail and gnash their teeth when those products come out?
Try again. Rather like jailbreaking, Apple doesn't give a poop about the resale market. So yeah it could happen.
Some people do replace their cars every year with the newest model, it's called leasing.
oh really? I've never heard of anyone getting a 12 month lease. Unless they are a company or enjoys throwing money away.
Actually it's probably good that we're hearing this now. It's a good reason to not buy anything new if in March Apple's going to drop a new iPad, and very shortly after that the iPhone 5s. A least in my experience the best time to buy is when they release a new product. Then one can enjoy it while it's new and before it's about to be updated. With the very rapid pace Apple is operating at, the last thing I want would be to buy a device only to have it revised in a month or two.
Your lack of historical context is notable.
Some people remember when Apple didn't have the resources to complete iOS and OSX at the same time, delaying OSX. Now, Apple turns out releases mostly on schedule and with few issues, maps being an exception which will be rectified.
As for hardware, the only product that hasn't seen a "new" release is the Mac Pro. Everything else has been updated recently, and quite a bit of it simultaneously, most with options for SSD's.
None of that would have happened without the success that Apple created with the previous iPod and Mac products, limited as that appears today against the massive earnings.
Why do people believe that Apple isn't innovating? Could it be that Apple is following its traditional and successful path of evolving its products and building on its ecosystem? Could it be that Apple doesn't preannounce new products (hence the popularity of this site).
Does anyone really believe that Apple isn't working on products that won't be seen in five years, 10 years or even next fall?
Windows success right around the corner...
It's not like we haven't heard that before.
Perhaps loss of market share due to limited but expanding manufacturing capacity while generating the most income is the desired business goal. Eventually, Apple will have the production capacity to build and sell a purpose built low cost iPhone to regain market share.
Meanwhile, Apple is selling a premium product and prices accordingly. Most of the Open Handset Alliance excepting Samsung are not generating much if any income from handset sales while iOS generate about 80% of industry profits. Not to mention that Apple's Mac line is very profitable and most models are design benchmarks for the industry.
Apple being able to create product revisions biannually is a sign of strength, not weakness.
Problem is apple don't just increment the hardware and carry on, they also roll out new features, via iOS then "omit" them from support on the "old" hardware, Siri is a great example of an iOS "feature" that was only held back from the early iPhones, iPads and iPod touches to drive people to upgrade, as a software feature it would run fine on all Models right back to the 1st gens (Siri runs fine on the 1st Gen iPhone, on wifi... very laggy on 2G)
Apple has also done this with it desktops, with new macs getting features in a new OS release that up graders don't get unless they buy new hardware.
i am just now thinking of upgrading my 1st gen iPad, im waiting for the 2nd iPad mini release (because i have tried, and it fits in my jacket pocket perfectly) but im waiting for the 2nd gen mini because i KNOW from past experience it will have all the features the 1st gen should have had, but apple withheld to get extra $$$ from the "faithful" Retina display being the single biggest and most obvious oversight.
ive jumped to android for my phones, even though i HATE the droid ecosystem, but then when i get the mini that will let me have the best of both worlds, an iOS device with large enough screen to read books on and a battery that lasts the day, and a phone that has a battery that lasts the day...
Yup. I'm on the first gen iPad. It runs like ***** but I can't afford a new one yet so oh well. I'm not somehow pissed that new models are coming out and its not like this is my first Apple product. I knew new models would come out and I didn't begrudge Apple after they announced them.
Most Android tablets now even have better displays than the iPad's Retina.
They basically cost less for a consumer while offering the same/better specs.
Remember when Apple would hold features for its next devices to make people upgrade? Its going to be very hard to do that now with this type of competition.
Those aren't ground breaking. They're iterative. There is nothing groundbreaking to introduce to iPhones or iPads anymore.
Is any one shocked by this? New iPads have always come out in march. People thought because we had a refresh that some how that was going to postpone the next ipad release. But they were so wrong.
So glad I waited this out. Maybe I will dump my ipad 2 now for ipad 5.
So glad I waited this out. Maybe I will dump my ipad 2 now for ipad 5.
That's why it's used in combination with adamantium and mithril to stabilize it, durrrrrrrrrrrr.
I think you're both wrong. I don't think the second hand market is the reason they won't release more than once per year a new product (that's a different interesting conversation), but they do care about it.
I just listed the second hand market as something no one really thinks about, and something that would suffer if they released more often.
One of the big things that forms part of their premium brand image is perceived value. If their products were suddenly not worth much on the second hand market, how many cycles do you think it would take before people stopped always upgrading to the newest version? 1 or 2 (max) is what I think. At that point people would go to sell their existing product and realise they couldn't get much for it, so they'd then have to shell out nearly the entire amount again on a new version (which would be more expensive, because scale of economies wouldn't be realised with shorter product life cycles, and Apple isn't willing to compromise on profit margin).
Apple is not a commodity product company, they sell premium products at premium prices. The moment they start acting like the other guys is the moment they join the race to the bottom, where it's all about cost (meaning quality will suffer) and slim profits, the only way such companies garner attention is to release a bunch more products on the heels of the products they just released (sound familiar? - loads of companies do it, but make no money compared to Apple, who has a different business model).
Apple cares about customers and they care about their image, and the second hand market is a key indicator of what people think of their products. They aren't going the commodity, same as the rest crowd. And they won't release more than once per year, it's not Apple for a lot of reasons.
The first iPad was revolutionary, the rest of them have been evolutionary. I still have my first iPad and it does the same thing as the other iPads do minus the retina display and the camera. The screen resolution on the Retina display is a non-factor, and you would never catch me taking a photo with an iPad. You can argue as much as you want. But the bottom line is that you can't expect a breakthrough technological innovation with each new iPad model that is released
Apple, like all other companies, are driven and motivated by profits, and as long as they can make profits from incremental changes to the iPad, they will continue to release new models every six months.
Apple, like all other companies, are driven and motivated by profits, and as long as they can make profits from incremental changes to the iPad, they will continue to release new models every six months.
Nexus 10 has 300ppi.
Couple others by Huawei and Asus, other android manufacturer. One is already coming out with a 488 ppi display.
Do you honestly believe that any significant number of iPad '3' owners upgraded to the iPad '4' because it has a faster processor?
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I'd say 99% of all iPad or iPhone users only ever upgraded every two years. That will not change with this.
