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Apple Launches New 10.5-Inch iPad Air With A12 Bionic Chip and Apple Pencil Support, Starts at $499
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If Apple’s site adds those details to the refurbished area, that’s great. But that’s an appendage they added and not part of the standard/original model name, and not universal at other resellers.
We’ll also not proceed to discuss how less convenient it is to compare offerings at the refurbished site now vs. before, where the current space-wasting picture-heavy grid layout replaced the much more “easy to quickly cross-compare via list orientation” (seeing a common theme here from today’s Apple?).
Also. For items by cars which ironically are much more easily differentiated across years, they can be used almost forever as long as you keep up them maintained and up to date.
For items like iPads which become virtually unusable (or obsolete according to Apple) as early as four years after purchase, it’s a damn shame that Apple doesn’t do a better job of differentiating them better especially for the common non-macrumors member type of shopper.
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The 2018 entry model has stereo speakers. Other than that, spot on reasoning.It might seem inexplicable, but there are some quite simple reasons the larger iPad is $329 while the iPad mini is $399:
- iPad mini has a much higher quality display. It’s laminated, has an anti-reflective coating, has P3 wide color gamut, True Tone and it’s a 326 ppi display (vs. 264 ppi for the $329 iPad).
- iPad mini has an A12 processor vs the A10 in the $329 model
- iPad mini has 64GB of storage vs. 32GB
- iPad mini has a 7 megapixel FaceTime camera vs 1.2 MP
- iPad mini has stereo speakers and dual microphones vs. one speaker and one mic
- iPad mini has Bluetooth 5.0 vs 4.2
So the extra $70 from $329 entry level model to $399 mini buys a lot of upgrades, albeit with a smaller display. If you want all those same upgrades (except the 326 display ppi) in a larger display, it’s only $100 to go from the mini to the $499 10.5” Air. (The mini is actually a smaller version of the $499 iPad Air, not the $329 9.7” iPad.)
- Other minor differences, such as iPad mini is 6.1mm thick vs. 7.5mm
Re: the iPad Air, it’s actually returning to the lineup. When it was discontinued for the $329 iPad, there was a certain segment of buyers that were very unhappy with the $329 entry level device, mainly due to the lower quality display. Yet the Pro is overkill for most users.
So with a $329 entry level model, a $499 mid-tier Air with some very nice upgrades and then the $799 Pro model, the customer has more choices. And Apple makes more money
More than likely these are "excess" iPhone SoC chips. They will probably be just like iPhone chips because if Apple was selling iPhone at much higher volumes that is probably where these would have gone for the next 2-4 months. They aren't selling at higher than predicted levels so using these iPads to help soak up the "excess" chips.
The very few internal updates do not justify a 20% increase. In the past Apple has done better upgrade while keeping prices the same. And your mention of 16RAM and 1.5 options are misleading since still in 2019 Apple is shipping with a pathetic 8gb ram and 128SSD.
FYI macbook sales were declining year over year. Second, I do not believe Apple releases sales per model. So your 10M MBP sales per year are another misleading quote.
An even if Apple sales 10M that does not mean it is a well designed quality product, up to what the old Apple standards use to be.
As a 10.5" Pro owner, go A12. You wouldn't miss what you didn't have. A 60hz screen is fine for most uses. What I can't go back to however is watching a video in landscape with just one side outputting sound but that's moot if you use headphones.
I
I would get one.
I think most could live with 2 speakers in a mini. Edge-to-Edge screen, A12x processor, pencil 2 support, Etc. This would require faceID though.
I would get one.
Nice chart, series 3 watches are 38/42, other than I think you nailed it.
What the chart omits, however, is the pricing. Many times, price has a major influence on which models would be under consideration by the customer.
MacBook: $1,199 Air - $7,049 Pro
Mac: $799 mini - $6,999 Pro
iMac: $1,099 21.5” - $13,199 Pro
iPad: $329 9.7” - $1,899 12.9” Pro
iPhone: $449 7 - $1,449 XS Max
Apple TV: $149 - $199 4K
Apple Watch: $279 S3 - $849 S4
What jumps out at me is the min/max price range within a product line, and also the affordability of the entry level products, except maybe for Mac/iMac.
The iPad is also my least essential hardware. That said, it's the device I love to use most. I'd cheap out on phone (2.5 years) and laptop (~4 years old?) before the tablet.
Nope, not in the least. I mean exactly what the words say. If you’d like me to explain anything reply again to that post and give me your questions, comments or which parts you take issue with
Again: everything requires a little research to be sure it is worth spending one's hard-earned money on. If one jumps on an iPad Air for $199 without looking at Apple's site to at least see what the regular price is (and if that comparison doesn't elicit a little critical thinking as to the $300 price difference), then nothing is going to help that person.
You ignored basically the entirety of my post in two separate responses. You have not told us a better naming convention that does not require SOME background knowledge or minimal research. Does naming the watch Series 3 help anything without knowledge of the Series 4? Does naming a TV Samsung Q7 alleviate any need for research? Does naming an iPad "iPad (2018)" help right now--in March 2019? Without the willingness to do even minimal research into each of those products, I submit that the answer to each is: no.
Why walk away from the simple naming scheme and product options, I do not know. Seriously, why is it so hard to follow something that makes sense, that made Apple stand out compared to the competition. Who decides to do this?! The Mac lineup is a mess, and now this. Why fix a formula that isn’t broken? I don’t get it.
I miss Steve.
Point taken. As you say, 'Air' now means something to the consumer (i.e. light and mid-range, 'good enough for most people' etc.), but it's a terrible name in terms of making Apple's product lineup make any sense.
Apple will absolutely release 'A' SoC Macs.
What will they call them? Will they just be 'MacBook'? That's Ok, but what about the Air?
Riffing on your example, how then would you describe the difference between the Air (I assume it'll be intel powered until it's EOL) and the new A class MacBooks to the average consumer?
And what about the 'iPad' i.e. the most basic iPad? Now let's assume that the new 'MacBook' will not be basic. If not, the naming scheme will just not make much sense across the lines.
I assume though that eventually the line-ups will make way more sense in time as Apple transitions away from Intel in Macs.
Mind you, this is the company that just launched the XS, XS Max and XR... And the iPad Air!
The entire marketing brilliance of a simple product matrix was to take the indecision out of buying a device. If people can’t make up their minds because of too much choice, some of them will walk away without purchasing.
This was so successful for Apple that other companies followed in their footsteps. Some of those online mattress companies like Casper and Endy offer one mattress in 3 sizes and that’s it. It’s a big departure from going to a mattress store and having to choose between soft, extra soft, waterbed, 4 varieties of filling, box spring, no box spring... That’s what Apple is becoming now.
The old 10.5’ PRO is the winner whitout a doubt. It only lost in CPU by a small margin but on the other hand the graphic part is better in the A10X than on the A12...and it’s almost sure that the air will only have of 2 or 3GB of RAM so even in performance department it’s dubious if the A12 will real have an advantage over the A10X.
Plus it is better than the air in other things...camera, screen, speakers...possible better Touch ID etc.
Apple are not being generous, they put this air cheaper than the old 10.5’ because only the performance will be...MAYBE...better than the old 10.5’ PRO.
In my country in this moment the old pro is 80€ more expensive than the air...even with that difference i honestly think that the people should buy the old pro while they still can. It is a better product overall.
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The iPad is also my least essential hardware. That said, it's the device I love to use most. I'd cheap out on phone (2.5 years) and laptop (~4 years old?) before the tablet.
I’m the exact opposite.
$1000 on a laptop? Sure, no problem.
$1000 for a phone? Not thrilled about it, but okay.
$500 for a tablet? Nah, it’s not going to do anything that my current one doesn’t.
Wrong. The Retina screen alone is worth $200, not to mention everything else from my list. And 8GB is plenty of RAM for most users of an Air, it wasn’t until 2018 that more than 8 was even available. 128GB for an internal boot drive is also sufficient for many; not everyone has large video files. And those who do often use external drives. Apple’s ASP across all Mac models is something around 1,400—so it’s obvious many are buying the base models.
Just because you need or want 256 or 512GB doesn’t mean those who don’t should have to suffer a price increase so you don’t have to pay to upgrade. Base models are for those with modest needs. If you need more, buy it.
Mac sales are not declining year over year. Some years are up, some are down. Here are the unit sales figures for the last 10 years (in millions)
2018—18.2
2017—19.3
2016—18.5
2015—20.6
2014—18.9
2013—16.3
2012—18.2
2011—16.7
2010—13.7
2009—10.4
Keep in mind that these sales figures are against a backdrop of declining overall computer sales, from 350 million desktops/laptops in 2012 to 255 million in 2018—a decrease of over 25%. In other words, Apple having roughly flat sales between 2012-2018 means they actually increased their market share.
Apple averaged 18.6 million units/year during those 7 years. They sold slightly more in 2016-2018 than they did in 2013-2015. Apple sold 56 million in the last 3 years, and they’ve said >80% of their sales are laptops. That means at least 45 million were sold between MB, MBA and 3 models of MBP—13” nTB and 13/15” TB.
My 30 million estimate for MBP comes from that 45 million overall laptop figure. Maybe it’s closer to 25 million, I’ll grant you that. But presumably rather few 12” MB are sold, while Air no doubt does much better, since it’s cheaper. However many MB and MBA were sold, the balance of those 45 million laptops were MBP. Model it however you wish, come up with your own MBP estimate... I’ve given you the best data available.
In any case, sales the last three years are virtually the same as the three before that. Sure there are keyboard (and other) issues, but overall repair rates are lower with this generation compared to the previous one, according to AppleInsider. That doesn’t support your claim that quality is not up to previous standards.
Didn’t you read? The user ask if they are at the same price and i explicitly said that in my country it only costs more 80€.
I don’t know where you live but i saw users before saying that they bought the old pro in the lasts weeks at only 499$...the new air costs 349$???? Or you have a contract with Apple and you are only authorized to bought the product in their website or Apple stores?
I don’t understand, for us, europeans, having the old pro at only 449 will be a dream, it only be 396 euros!!! Do you know how much they cost? 660 euros (with promotions!!!!! Otherwise will be 749 euros). Yes they are expensive, and the new ones costs 579 euros so the difference is really small considering the promotions on the old ones!
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Yes you are right, of course; my mistake.
The 2018 $329 iPad does indeed have stereo speakers, as did the 2017. I’ve edited my original post, thanks for the correction
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