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4GB DRAM and GPS with WIFI model or no buy. Also, iOS needs training wheels removed.


GPS is a good point. I don't buy things without GPS, except, unfortunately laptops, because there are no laptops with GPS.
 
I just found this on Engadget about this iPad and almost threw up.

"After a careful look at Apple's iPad comparison page, we've found the new iPad's Achilles' heel. Its screen isn't laminated to the glass and doesn't have the anti-reflective treatment found on the screen of every other iPad. The iPad Air 2, by comparison, had a fully-laminated screen, which removes a visible gap between the display and the glass cover. If you've used a device with a laminated screen (which includes most phones out there now), the notion of going backwards there isn't promising.

Indeed, as a device that is basically meant to be a giant window to the internet, skimping on the screen here is a bummer. The new iPad's price point is still excellent, but there's no doubt this is a budget iPad compared to the Pro."

This is another legendary move by Tim "Bean Counter" Cook.
 



Apple today announced it is launching a new 9.7-inch iPad equipped with an A9 chip and a brighter Retina display to replace the iPad Air 2, which has been discontinued. The tablet, which Apple is simply calling "iPad," is Apple's new entry-level model at the 9.7-inch size, starting at $329 for 32GB and $429 for 128GB.

ipad-9-7-low-cost.jpg

The new 9.7-inch iPad is similar in many ways to the iPad Air 2, which had an A8X chip and started at $399, but slightly thicker and heavier with a faster A9 chip and a brighter Retina display. Another difference is that the new 9.7-inch iPad does not have a fully laminated display or anti-reflective coating per its tech specs.

Beyond the A9 chip, those specs include a 9.7-inch screen with 2,048-by-1,536 resolution and 264 PPI, 8-megapixel rear-facing iSight camera, 1.2-megapixel front-facing FaceTime camera, two speakers, Lightning connector, 3.5mm headphone jack, Touch ID with Apple Pay, Wi-Fi 802.11ac, and Bluetooth 4.2.Given its price point, the tablet lacks most iPad Pro features, including a True Tone display with a wide P3 color gamut, Smart Connector, Apple Pencil and Smart Keyboard support, 4K HD video recording, LTE Advanced, Live Photos, True Tone flash, and four-speaker audio.

The new 9.7-inch iPad is available to order beginning Friday, March 24 from Apple.com, and starts delivering to customers and arriving next week in Apple Stores, through select carriers, and at Apple Authorized Resellers in the United States and more than 20 countries and regions.

Namely, the March 24 launch will also include Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. Denmark, India, Mexico, Norway, Russia, Turkey, and other countries will follow in April. Brazil and Taiwan, among others, will follow in May.

This low-cost 9.7-inch iPad was accurately rumored by KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo in August 2016.

Article Link: Apple Debuts New 9.7-Inch iPad With A9 Chip to Replace iPad Air 2, Starting at $329
 
Hmm. It is clear that Apple has abandoned the pro market: No new iMacs, no new MacBooks and no new Mac Pro. Ok, its all about the mass consumer market. Here it the thing though....if the cool people stop coming....its only a matter of time before the bridge & tunnel crowd follows suit. It is shocking how many video editors, pro photographers, designers, art directors, trend setters and creative decision makers have switched to the Windows platform over the past couple of years. I mean the Surface Studio puts the iMac to shame. What has it come to when Microsoft is more innovative than Apple.
 
Hmm. It is clear that Apple has abandoned the pro market: No new iMacs, no new MacBooks and no new Mac Pro. Ok, its all about the mass consumer market. Here it the thing though....if the cool people stop coming....its only a matter of time before the bridge & tunnel crowd follows suit. It is shocking how many video editors, pro photographers, designers, art directors, trend setters and creative decision makers have switched to the Windows platform over the past couple of years. I mean the Surface Studio puts the iMac to shame. What has it come to when Microsoft is more innovative than Apple.

Wat? The iMac and MacBook have never been targeted at the pro market. Why do you go on about pro market and then talk about consumer products?
 
I just found this on Engadget about this iPad and almost threw up.

"After a careful look at Apple's iPad comparison page, we've found the new iPad's Achilles' heel. Its screen isn't laminated to the glass and doesn't have the anti-reflective treatment found on the screen of every other iPad.

Sure, it's not as nice to look at, but for schools this is very competitive pricing—at least for Apple. And not laminating the screens saves us around 50% on repairs.
 
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Another difference is that the new 9.7-inch iPad does not have a fully laminated display or anti-reflective coating per its tech specs.
Person walks into a store...
Sees a big iPad for $329
Seems a smaller iPad for $399, with a slower processor, but with 4x the storage...

That seems confusing
Indeed, one of the most confusing product updates I've ever seen. Step forward in some ways, step backward in others; a sibling with an older processor, smaller/dimmer screen, but more storage and a higher price.

Apple is acting like it badly wants to go back to the 90's, and drop half their Macs at the same time.
 
Wat? The iMac and MacBook have never been targeted at the pro market. Why do you go on about pro market and then talk about consumer products?

I don''t know when the last time was you set foot into an advertising agency, a graphic design studio, a web designer studio, an art director's office etc...they are full of iMacs, Macbook Pros and Mac Pros.
 
This is a good price! Those extra speakers are why I sold my Air 2 and got my 9.7 Pro.

I think this will sell a lot easier at this price point.
 
Ever since then that resolution has been easily handled by the A-Series

Except the only other time they used a non x version of the a series processor - the iPad Air 1 with the A7 that struggled and still struggles graphically.

An 18 month old phone processor stuck inside an iPad at prices just below what flagship iPads used to cost isn't impressive.
 
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Many comments seem clueless. The minute the iPad Pro line was released you knew they were gonna differentiate it from the iPad line. The new iPad is a great value! The Air 1 was $500 about 2 years ago. Sure the iPAd Air 2 was better but too close to the Pro models in design.
Remember paying $750 for a 32gb iPad 1 3g... This new iPad is many times better and half the price!
I think all the Pros will move to borderless screens over time.
 
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Come on folks - wake the F up and smell the rotten tomatoes.

Apple is just giving you exactly what you don't want. A cheap iPad that's just backwards. They are SO CHEAP just to increase profit margins it's so clear. Every iteration they release a better/more advanced iPad. Except now they clearly bring back this junk. Sure it has an updated processor which is probably gimped as well. You take out the display, take even the rear camera flash - and don't expect the camera to be the same as the 9.7" pro with flash model or else you'd have no reason to upgrade to that model. well that and the pencil support.

Sure it's better than the iPad 2 but that junk was outdated 3 years ago. Yet they still sell it at full price until the suckers stopped buying it.

This company is run by a bean counter and it shows. It's great for investors because I guess apple answers to stock market con artists. iPad hardware was never really the problem it's the damn software that sucks. Year after year you get mediocre software and it's time to leave this pathetic ecosystem. The surface pro 5 can't come soon enough even a full laptop surface book 2 that can't be detached but has touchscreen is welcome than these new mbp with touchbar.

There is absolutely nothing apple wants more than to increase profits. If this isn't clear enough for you then you are really the type of person to keep spending on apple products because you feel it's innovative. Gimp here and there reducing this and that and sell for just a tad cheaper but underneath they are making more money than before on the same product. It's like subway sandwiches using the same crap to make a "better" sandwich for cheaper.
You're so right and if you don't have an emotional band with the brand it's an insult to their customers intellect. I'll see what the next iMac will be like, if it doesn't fit my needs it's goodbye Mac and together with that iPhone and iPad too. Competitors offerings have never been this good.
 
Except the only other time they used a non x version of the a series processor - the iPad Air 1 with the A7 that struggled and still struggles graphically.

An 18 month old phone processor stuck inside an iPad at prices just below what flagship iPads used to cost isn't impressive.
Thats an interesting point. I have the iPad Air and agree using it for browsing the Web I can be frustrating. So much so I much prefer to use my iPhone SE! I've always put this down to lack of ram rather than the processor.
The reviews are going to be interesting.
 
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I just think people will moan about anything. This wasn't even an Apple event and yet people have still found things to moan about.

Moaning is a British term you know. For our friends across the pond moaning = making sexy noises :D
 
Many comments seem clueless. The minute the iPad Pro line was released you knew they were gonna differentiate it from the iPad line. The new iPad is a great value! The Air 1 was $500 about 2 years ago. Sure the iPAd Air 2 was better but too close to the Pro models in design.
Remember paying $750 for a 32gb iPad 1 3g... This new iPad is many times better and half the price!
I think all the Pros will move to borderless screens over time.
Tech is getting cheaper by the day. You have to compare with what's on the market today. And by that, it's still expensive and dated.
 
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So from the news today it sure looks like I will want to wait for the iPad Pro refresh. I really want to see if they have the A10 chip or A10X chip in the 12.9" iPad Pro with more than 4GB of ram.
 
Hmm. It is clear that Apple has abandoned the pro market: No new iMacs, no new MacBooks and no new Mac Pro. Ok, its all about the mass consumer market. Here it the thing though....if the cool people stop coming....its only a matter of time before the bridge & tunnel crowd follows suit. It is shocking how many video editors, pro photographers, designers, art directors, trend setters and creative decision makers have switched to the Windows platform over the past couple of years. I mean the Surface Studio puts the iMac to shame. What has it come to when Microsoft is more innovative than Apple.
You're right! I'll probably make the jump too. After being a loyal Apple customer for more than twenty years I don't recognize anything I was very proud of being an Apple user. Tim & Co pushed me aside with outdated obscene priced tech with clunky software.
 
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Remember paying $700 for a 32gb iPad 1 3g... This new iPad is many times better and half the price!
That's how progress is supposed to work, many times better at less cost. It's also true that the iPad 1 was a first-generation product, and therefore sold at an inflated price compared to even the next model iPad 2.

But that progress happened before the iPad Air 2 was released in October 2014, so it makes sense to be comparing this newly-released iPad with its predecessor instead of a model released 7 years ago. And when making that comparison, it is actually a downgrade in some key areas. The lack of an anti-reflective coating alone is enough to put me off replacing my Air 2.
Sure the iPAd Air 2 was better in lots of ways but too close to the Pro models in design.
Can you clarify what you mean by this?
 
Scary thing is Apple really do think the iPad is the future of computing and the iPad Pro is the way forward.
IOS is the main limiting factor imo. As it stands iPad is great for consumption not creating.
 
Yes because Apple didn't promise anything, I could understand if they had set up an event or something but nothing was promised. I would like to have seen updates to the MacBook 12" the iMac and the iPad Pro 12.9" but we didn't and that's my thinking not Apple. There was no event but they will more than likely announce new stuff later on in the year at actual events.
You could expect from a company the size of Apple to renew their total category line at least ones a year. It's been 6 months now after the MacBook Pro ergonomic touch bar disaster they release a phone with some other colored lipstick, a bit more ram in a refurbished SE and another processor in refurbished dated model iPad. It an insult and a shame they still earn that obscene amount of money.

Maybe you're new to the Apple brand but the Apple brand I new took their customers seriously. They've never been the cheapest but you were assured that you had the best for the premium price.
 
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More confusing... for Watch buyers, is calling a 2nd gen Watch the 'Series 1'. The bigger selling orig Series '0's are now flooding the used markets and being incorrectly called Series 1. I think Apple had some reason for this, trying to erase (or forget) the under-developed original Watch.
 
So there is 1 "new model" i.e. the beginning of the end for the 9.7" iPad which will be replaced in April with the 10.5" iPad.
This new 9.7" iPad (with an A9 processor, actually, A9 or A9X?) at $329 will be complemented in a month or two by a 10.5" iPad Pro (with an A10 processor and all the 'Pro' label attributes of True Tone, wide gamut, Smart connector, Pencil, USB 3 speeds, fast charging) at $599.

The SE provided the template, keep the industrial design (and smaller screen size) of a previous model around but update the internals and sell it significantly cheaper alongside a new industrial design with additional features and a larger screen at a higher price point.
 
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