Apple to Launch 128 GB iPad on February 5 for $799/$929

[Buck987]

If you don't like Apple's prices go and buy a Samsung or Asus. Either that or sit in the corner with your iPad and shut up.

while we sit in the corner we can watch the stock fade away.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

I am an Apple fan, but I still wanted 1080p, Android features such as separate user accounts, larger screens on phones, better graphics cards, blu-ray playback, etc.

Good post. Nothing wrong with individuals feeling however the feel (pro/con Apple spin). The issue I'm poking fun at is how passionately some fans will argue pro-Apple in all things, then flip flop with Apple when Apple changes direction.

I'm with you on some of those same wishes quoted above. But try posting those in dedicated threads about such features and prepare for the beat down, "99% would never want or use", "stupidest feature want ever", etc... until of course, Apple rolls it out and then it is "best new feature ever", "I can't believe how great this is", "shut up and take my money", etc.

And then- a few years later- we'll "remember" that Apple innovated that feature by pretending it didn't exist before hand.

 

[nia820]

Uh, wasn't the whining crowd around here lamenting that the iPad 3 was "too soon", cramming too much power into too limited a space and suffering overheating, weight problems, etc. and should have been delayed until <insert vapid rationalization here>? Now we've got a cooler-running device running twice as fast for the same size/price, and for just $100 more get double the storage. What would make you happy?

The ipad 3 was released 1 year after ipad 2. The same should have been done with ipad 4.

 

[yakapo]

As others have posted, I assumed the next ipad would have been 32/64/128 for $499/599/699.

 

[samcraig]

Good post. Nothing wrong with individuals feeling however the feel (pro/con Apple spin). The issue I'm poking fun at is how passionately some fans will argue pro-Apple in all things, then flip flop with Apple when Apple changes direction.

I'm with you on some of those same wishes quoted above. But try posting those in dedicated threads about such features and prepare for the beat down, "99% would never want or use", "stupidest feature want ever", etc... until of course, Apple rolls it out and then it is "best new feature ever", "I can't believe how great this is", "shut up and take my money", etc.

And then- a few years later- we'll "remember" that Apple innovated that feature by pretending it didn't exist before hand.

I could also link to several threads that talk about how talking on any phone with a screen larger than 3.5" would be huge/not fit in my pocket/hilarious/like talking with an iPad next to your face, etc. Whether it was anti-Android rants - or when rumors began about Apple's 4" iPhone.

You just have to laugh. But never point these things out to most people here - they have short memories.

 

[Pegamush]

dat price..

 

[Eidorian]

eMMC is both the package and the interface. It's a bit confusing, I know.

Image

Here's block diagram of TI's OMAP4430, as you can see MMCSD is separate from USB:

Image

There are two reasons why eMMC is rather slow. We are usually dealing with only a few NAND dies (e.g. 16GB is two 8GB dies at 2Xnm) so there isn't much room for parallelism (the reason why SSDs are fast is because you're dealing with multiple NAND dies/packages. Bigger capacities are often faster because of this). Especially write performance is heavily dependent on the amount of NAND because writing to NAND is a much more complex process compared to reading (takes around 20 times longer to program a page than read it).

Another reason is that eMMC controllers are often pure crap. Even a single NAND die can be read in the magnitude of hundreds of MB/s (e.g. assuming Tr = 7*10^-5 sec, 16KB page size and no controller overhead or other bottlenecks, the raw throughput would be 228MB/s). I know Anand has been pushing vendors a lot to use better eMMC solutions but so far most have stuck with the slower ones. I guess it's because "this is fast enough".

Now this is what I was looking for. eMMC, now it is coming back to me. And I agree, vendors do just go with what is "good enough".

 

[iphone5att64]

Thanks for stating the obvious. But wouldn't it be nice if Apple "innovated" by making something more accessible to buyers instead of even it more unaffordable? Apple's guiding principal is to push the market to the limit of what it will bear.

How Apple prices its flash memory is a joke. I can routinely pick up flash for 50c a GB and sometimes 33c a GB at retail. Apple uses flash storage as a "hostage" marketing tactic, enabled by its closed locked-down devices.

Apple's stock price reflects that there are only so many suckers in the market, and Apple will have to find an "innovation," other than gouging the customer, soon.

See refurbished iPads if you want affordable. You're talking about the latest generation of their products. Movie theater tickets are more expensive than renting. You're paying to not wait. Has it ever occurred to you that Apple charges more for higher capacity to make lower capacities affordable?

 

[dazza611]

Lightning

if only they would allow that ****ing lighting to sd adaptor to work with iphone then a iphone 128gb would be ideal!!!

 

[bevsb2]

I'm happy with my iPad 4 with 64GB which has more space than I need. If I wanted more space I would get the 128GB iPad 4. It's an option folks and some people will be happy to buy it. For the time being I'll wait to see what the iPad 5 offers and may or may not upgrade. I'm not offended by this announcement. There will always be a top end model that may not be available/desirable for many. Buy what works best for you.

 

[melendezest]

Yeah, I do not think most people will buy this. I would rather buy a laptop instead, now Apple is not smart and very bad at business, and really showing "HOW HUNGARY THEY ARE"!

This shows me that they are desperate, and that is not good. Instead of having smart, methodical releases, they are jumping the gun and doing whatever.

So sad I would have bought one too and i am sure so many would have.

BUT THAT IS JUST TO MUCH MONEY FOR A TABLET!

I will skip it and I have never even had one yet! Will wait till price goes down. I am smart and methodic like apple should be. I am the ultimate hit man and only buy when right. I shoot sheep-- I am a sheep hit man.. but never a sheep.

Bye kiddies. Oh, and be smart this time around. If no one buys the price will go down, guaranteed! If you do buy then you are part of the price problem.

Peace

No. You are arguing against a laptop alternative.

For people who need/want the form factor of a tablet, a laptop is not a viable solution. There is, and never has been, a one-size-fit-all solution for all situations or customers. But the iPad does most of what many people were forced to use the laptop form factor for.

While I agree that the price is high, I must clarify that it is high for me.
There may be customers out there that need (or want) the storage amount increase and are willing to pay for it. Why are we raging against an additional choice??

 

[macs4nw]

.....the drawbacks that I see on other platforms are deal-breakers for me (ugly, fat hardware, jerky operation, unreliability, lack of security, style). I see Apple advantages that I cannot do without (OSX, smooth as hell trackpads, thin, sexy hardware design, security, reliability, stability). My prioritization of these things is highly subjective and a matter of taste.

Therefore, I'm forced to wait until Apple "catches up" on a feature here or there, because there are simply no alternatives for everything else, when looking at the big picture of an Apple device.

So don't give up on us Apple fans; there's still a few reasonable ones left..

Agreed 100%.

Spoken like a true Apple fan.

When the specs are favorable to Apple, tout 'em. When the specs are unfavorable, discount or dismiss them.

It reminds me of the old days of G4/G5 vs. Intel CPUs. "Mhz doesn't matter", etc. Intel was only "inferior" until Apple announced the switch. Then, Intel was superior almost overnight. Did the G5 change? Did Intel suddenly change? No... Apple decided to flip flop on the long-standing argument that the G-series was superior to Intel.

Or when TV was capped at 720p. "I can't see the <1080p> difference", "until national bandwidth is expanded...", the chart, "crash the whole internet", etc until Apple rolled out 1080p and then all that evaporated overnight.

Or when iPad 1 launched without a front-facing camera. "Why would anyone want that?", "how could I possibly hold it stable enough for Skype?", "who wants to be looking up my nose when I talk to them?", "it would be stupid to want an isight camera in an iPad", etc. Then, Apple rolls out iPad 2 with "facetime" and we gush, "shut up and take my money", "I'm already in line", "credit card is ready", etc.

Patent law is stupid when it works against Apple. Patent law is excellent- "Die Samsung Die" when it "protects Apple IP... as it should" and similar.

We're such a fair weather group here. If it's good for Apple, we're all for it. If it's bad for Apple, we dismiss it, discount it, pretend it doesn't matter, make fun of it, even try to change the argument to something else, etc. Do we all have careers in PR and Marketing?

Hardware specs are as important to an overall system as software specs. Better is better. Ferociously exceptional software running on crappy hardware is yielding a lessor experience than running that same software on better hardware. We whine with every Mac release that it didn't have the latest graphics card or the latest CPU, etc but then we'll spin how specs shouldn't matter when Apple is on the wrong end of that comparison with another Apple product. Pick a side and stick with it on both the sunny and rainy days.

Well put, and I believe that many people on this site, and other sites like it, are generally happy with the APPLE ecosystem, but there is absolutely no excuse for 'blind worship', and some of the rants appearing here occasionally, are indeed laughable.

 

[ecapdeville]

128Gb is great news! the time for me to change my ipad 2 is approaching... I will wait until the new version later in the year though.

My little girl will be really happy... more movies for the road!

 

[ctdonath]

The ipad 3 was released 1 year after ipad 2. The same should have been done with ipad 4.

Why? Lacking a reason, I assume the reason is "because I got my iPad 3 and now I'm pissed that doubled the storage & processor speed and now I don't have the latest greatest and don't have the money to go get an iPad 4 Mk II before one year has passed."

 

[melendezest]

No Thanks.

I can buy 2 or 3 4g Android tablets with sd card slots for the price of 1 4g iPad. For a a hundred or so dollars more I could buy a mackbook air and a 4G mobile hotspot.

I used to love Apple. Then I woke up

Based on your comments I'd say you never really loved Apple, you were just infatuated.

 

[ChristianVirtual]

Nice to get more storage, no problem with it (but also right now no need). The sliced approach is questionable. 128GB should have been announced at least when iPad 4Gen got introduced. Well.

I wonder about how people should make a backup of a device with that capacity. iCloud tops out at 50GB; half of the new storage capacity. Guess we will soon see a change here, too.

I will keep my money for fall with iPad 5; but will in addition have a close look on a Surface Pro.

 

[melendezest]

I feel like the full sized iPad is a lot like 17" laptops. Useful to some but not a super-popular item long-term. It's only been popular so far because it was the only iPad.

This is an excellent observation, but I disagree (slightly). If Apple redesigns the iPad as rumored (to look like the mini, smaller, lighter), the race will be close. Then again, I'm a 17" MBP fan...

I think the iPad is more like the 15" MBP, the mini like the 13" MBP. The 13 was always more popular, but the 15 won't be removed, unlike my beloved 17.

I'd love to see a 13" iPad though (iPad Pro?)

 

[Smartass]

1000$ for a Surface Pro? really? for 1000$ you'll get a MacBook Air.

well considering that both iPad and Surface PRO are tablets (let us forget RT one) you're argument with MacBook air really doesnt belong here. And suddenly Surface PRO which has both (mobile and dekstop) worlds becomes much more interesting at that price range. Lets be honest, buying an iPad for 1000$ is completely stupid since the only extra thing you'll be capable of doing on it is storing and watchig more movies.

 

[iphone5att64]

if Apple ever priced an ipad over $1000, just because of more storage, then I don't care what anyone says... It's like BUYING a Mac.

You'll soon need a second job just to get it....

Either that, or no-one would buy it.

Then it's like buying a MacBook Air, then you consider upgrades, then it's like buying a MacBook Pro, then a Retina, then...

 

[0dev]

Why more expensive?

Moore's Law and also price per gigabyte has dropped by 50% in the last 12 months should mean the 128GB should be cheaper than the 64GB retina model when it launched.

16GB iPad is pretty useless even for a none power user. 8GB iPod is similar too.

Because why adjust prices based on significantly reduced cost when you can keep the current prices and still sell millions?

 

[xofruitcake]

Do you have anything a little less generic? I am still seeing the almighty 15-30 MB/s. Another reason why you are not going to see Thunderbolt speeds to sync your iDevice. Why slap on 10 Gbps bidirectional externally when you are never going to see those speeds internally. The memory bus is going to be reserved for the LPDDR2. USB 2.0 connects nearly everything else.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/5425/why-thunderbolt-wont-come-to-the-iphone-anytime-soon

USB 3.0 is something that does make Tegra 4 stand out and they are promoting it as a function supported by the SoC itself.

Because you only support those crazy speed for a few micro second if ever. If you have ever work on a hardware project, you would have known that spec and real life component are entirely two different world. The architecture tell us the upper limit of each piece of components and how they connect together. And each implementation of the architecture depend on the hardware components that are available and how much money one want to spend in the device. Your assertion of connecting the flash through USB don't make any sense. The USB controller connect to the peripheral bridge. I don't think you have any idea how slow the peripheral bridge is when it compare to the memory controller. The bridge has to resolve all the conflict between multiple nodes on the bus and everyone else will have to wait when one component has access to memory or the processor. If the USB controller can get 1/10 of the memory bus access speed, the hardware designer is already doing a really good job.

Good luck in finding anything more specific about how Apple implement their A6-A7 processor. If they want to disclose any information, it will be in one of those advance computer architecture conference or technical journal.

 

[melendezest]

Where have I heard this before.... Ah yes, before most Apple product releases!

It is a stop gap product that offers more storage and will reclaim some of the profit lost to the iPad Mini. It really is not that bad.

I will not be upgrading my iPad 2 anytime soon either - because it still works. There are plenty of people with maxed out 64s, dated iPad 1's and those that are not in the market yet. This will target them.

Agreed. I think it also positions the iPad as a laptop replacement for many.

If you have the money for a 64GB, $100 more doubles the storage capacity. I think Apple is very smart to target the high end customer (like me) with this. They will sell. I'll wait for the rumored redesign, and I'm in.

 

[Bubba Satori]

This would help to improve Apple's margin.

All this time I thought the answer was 42.

 

[canman4PM]

It might be but it certainly is something that is long overdue for a product that plays movies.

Hell, I've been waiting for NEXT doubling since iPad 1. When it first came out, I thought, "it needs a web cam (iPad 2), higher res (iPad 3 - call it what you will) and at least 250GB storage."

And now that Digital Copy has started going 1080P, I might now want 500GB...

 

[F1 Fan]

I'm glad there are options. But these prices are getting ridiculous for simply more storage.

Will be skipping this. I can buy a decent laptop with that money.

Congrats guys, you're now published tech writers! Just read these comments on the Sky News iPhone app