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I was speaking more about the upward trajectory of the price as a whole not being good. They started out slightly less than the dollar figure, even including VAT. Then they were the same as the dollar figure, now they are more than the dollar figure.

I know what you mean. I can't see it improving much in the short term.
 
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CONFIRMED, the screen is NOT laminated and does not have the anti reflective coating. Stick with the Air 2. This iPad is a downgrade in everything but processing power.
 
I waited long enough and kind of had a feeling that new macs wouldn’t be coming out anytime soon. Nonetheless, I jumped ship and bought a Windows PC system over the weekend – a Kaby Lake quad core i7, 8gb DDR4 ram (expandable to 64), 4gb Gefore 1050ti graphics card, 256gb SSD and 1TB HDD, umpteen ports on the back and front, etc., etc., all for the price of an i5 dual core mac mini that cannot be upgraded. Windows 10 is not as polished and elegant as MacOS X, but it works well enough, does what I want and the system is blazingly fast. The best part is I can upgrade the system to my heart’s content.

I’ll miss MacOS, but I’m not paying those kinds of prices for inferior and outdated tech, especially when I can’t upgrade it. Apple's priorities are not on desktops and I don't blame them - the money is in mobile, especially when people upgrade every 2 years or so.
 
Hence, the cut the cost. I.e. It's cheaper.



A full 32g heavier. For comparison, a pocket full of change/coins weighs as much. Also, lower price point.


The drama here is funny, but not unsurprising.

It's just tiny bit cheaper, the difference is even tinier on the Cellular models.
 
Can't believe ignorant comments here and especially from people that didn't even read the article. This is great news for the iPad, you'll get a lot more choices and a new iPad for about $300 come on people it's great. The iPad Pro updates are coming.
 
I wasn't expecting anything major like newly designed iPads, because Apple usually announces major upgrades & new products at public events, and not quiet online reveals.

I guess I applaud Apple for lowering the price of the entry level iPad. And of course product red iPhones are for a great cause. Hard to tolerate people with 1st world problems being all whiney about something that will hopefully help cure AIDS.

So I'm not gonna complain. I am however waiting for new iPad pros. Guess the rumors of Apple delaying them till late Spring/early Summer may be true. Cause it doesn't make sense that Apple would quietly drop a lower priced 9.7" iPad....and then have an event on April 4th to announce brand new iPad pros. Why not just wait to add the low priced iPad to an event a couple weeks later? Seems odd.

I'm currently using an iPad mini 2 and want to upgrade to a Pro iPad to be able to use the Apple Pencil. Would like an iPad mini Pro but I'm hearing conflicting rumors over wether Apple will include one alongside the updated 12.9" iPad Pro & the rumored 10.5" bezel-less iPad Pro. So it's worth waiting for me. If they don't release an iPad mini Pro, I will get one of the other ones.

Personally, I wished all iPads worked with the Apple Pencil. And perhaps someday they will. It just seems a bit silly to denote the ability to use an Apple stylus to Pro models only. I mean people have to pay extra for the pencil anyway. But I guess that is currently the best way for Apple to upsell people to the "Pro" iPads.

Lastly, if Apple is delaying the iPad Pro event for later this summer....maybe it's because ALL the iPad pros will be bezel-less? Just a theory, but I think that's the way Apple will eventually evolve all the iPad pros. Perhaps the 10.5" will be the only bezel-less model initially, because it's replacing the 9.7" iPad Pro, and Apple wants to get people to buy it. Perhaps the following year Apple will then remove the bezels from the 12.9" & possible 7.9" iPad Pro.

Okay...back to patiently waiting.
 
You think the Air 2 is a better purchase? For money for less HP?

The iPad line has had more than enough processing power to handle anything iOS throws at it since the Air 2. I spend most of my time reading and watching movies on my iPad rather than playing games. Any task requiring serious horsepower gets done on my Mac. I'd take a substantially better display and lighter chassis over a slight bump in processing power any day of the week.
 
The new 9.7-inch iPad is essentially the same as 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.

So they are using an Air 1 case and Cook is feeding it to us as a new product.
 
The iPad line has had more than enough processing power to handle anything iOS throws at it since the Air 2. I spend most of my time reading and watching movies on my iPad rather than playing games. Any task requiring serious horsepower gets done on my Mac. I'd take a substantially better display and lighter chassis over a slight bump in processing power any day of the week.

Good point. I was thinking for longevity the performance is probably a better option, and at a lower price too. I only use my iPad inside so I don't think I'll lose anything from the degraded screen, but the extra HP might mean another 6-12 months of useful life. Who knows. I'll likely take the new iPad and then walk into a store to do a side by side comparison once it arrives. I can return/swap it if needed.
 
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Now it seems more unlikely that there could be a spring event to announce new iPad. Unless they've decided to release these minor updates first to focus on more important stuff, like Mac and iPad Pro updates/redesign later on.
April is yet to come, so we'll see.
 
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Can't believe ignorant comments here and especially from people that didn't even read the article. This is great news for the iPad, you'll get a lot more choices and a new iPad for about $300 come on people it's great. The iPad Pro updates are coming.

Yep, this doesn't change the iPad Pro update. That is what I'm waiting for. Will buy it with Pencil and I think really get a lot of use of it at work.
 
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Good point. I was thinking for longevity the performance is probably a better option, and at a lower price too. I only use my iPad inside so I don't think I'll lose anything from the degraded screen, but the extra HP might mean another 6-12 months of useful life. Who knows. I'll likely take the new iPad and then walk into a store to do a side by side comparison once it arrives. I can return/swap it if needed.
Yeah that's definitely a good point about longevity. Guess it really depends on what you use it for! Hope you enjoy yours!
 
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