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Oh boy... Although I liked the both Air and Mini updates, all Apple product line-up is still getting more confusing. Please stop Tim Cook about this. Now we have, 5 different iPads.
 
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The iPad outsells the Surface, so Apple wouldn't need to realise a competitor for the GO. Besides the iPad and Surface are two different things, one is a device that claims it can replace a laptop and a tablet (in my experience it can't) the other is simply a tablet.
Just because it doesn't out sell it doesn't make it a threat. Here's my experience with a Surface. I used to have an iPhone, an iPad and a MacBook Pro, the surface replaced it by being a tablet whenever I want it(and yes I am aware people say windows is horrible for touch. They have a tablet mode that's just like iOS and a desktop mode. I choose to use Desktop mode and have no problem at all using just touch on it. I throw on the Type cover, which is nothing like the horrible keyboard attachment Apple has for the iPad. It feels better than the new keyboards on the MacBook Pros and IMO the trackpad is now on par with Apple's. It's nothing like the old Track Pads I promise. Then if I want I can dock it with a Large monitor and keyboard and mouse and basically have a desktop as well. and at anytime I can also hook up any thing that uses USB. Before, I used to use my phone a lot when mobile around the house to browse things and now its reduced to pretty much just being something I use to call people or text.

iPads aren't even good at being tablets as long as they run iOS which is really a mobile phone OS proof being even Apple hasn't optimized it for tablets.

And once again here is the proof that it is able to replace all of these by a sub thread here on Mac Rumors which is very active and people are happy with their Surfaces.
 
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The mini is a tough pill to swallow. Sure it’s faster but would a mini user notice the A12 over the A10? It’s more expensive for half the storage and Pencil support.

The old Mini was an A8 though...

Air:
  • Faster A12 Processor
  • 13g lighter
  • Cheaper than the now-discontinued Pro
  • Possibly only 1st Gen Touch ID, products with 2nd Gen Touch ID were specifically noted in their tech specs page
  • Old, 1st Gen iPad Pro camera
  • No camera bump
Pro:
  • ProMotion Display
  • Brighter display (600nits v 500nits)
  • Quad Speakers
  • 4K optically-stabilised video, 12MP photos from f1.8 aperture camera

The Air is also missing the camera flash. Probably also missing the 4GB of ram. I think that the A12 won't be that much faster than the A10X in the 10.5....
 
But without Pro Motion.

I had to look this up. For anyone else wondering, "Pro Motion" is Apple's branding for 120 frames per second. Throughout most of history, 30 frames per second was considered great and 60 frames per second is perfect for anything less than AR/VR (where your subconscious can notice the difference and induce motion-sickness if it's under 90 FPS). Over 90 frames per second is definitely overkill, where you won't even subconsciously notice a difference with the screen strapped to your face.
 
Just when iPad was getting simple Apple complicates it again. Why the need for iPad and iPad Air? And the new mini is more expensive than the bigger iPad. And all of these iPads require old 1st gen Pencil support when the 2nd gen Pencil is so much better.

To up the selling price. The iPad 9.7 would have slim margins. This way they can perpetually sell the 9.7 to education and low end users but still have a modern non pro 'standard iPad' but charge a lot more for it.
 
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Tempting, but pricey. I don't think I that I need an upgrade of my 6th gen ipad enough (or at all, really) to justify purchasing one of these.
 
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I think the new iPad Air is a great offering for a lot of consumers. The $499 price point is going to be a winner. The 64GB standard storage will work for a lot of people, and this might be a good option for someone that could not get by with just 32GB in the base model.

There are a lot of complaints on this forum, but I think the iPad Air will check most of the boxes for many consumers. If iOS 13 delivers significant new features, the iPad Air should be able to take full advantage with the A12 Bionic chip. This could be the iPad that allows many people to move to the iPad as their primary personal computing device. The iPad Pro was just too expensive and close in price to a MacBook. If I had an employer provided computer, I would really have no need to purchase a Mac of my own for my personal computing needs.
 
I had to look this up. For anyone else wondering, "Pro Motion" is Apple's branding for 120 frames per second. Throughout most of history, 30 frames per second was considered great and 60 frames per second is perfect for anything less than AR/VR (where your subconscious can notice the difference and induce motion-sickness if it's under 90 FPS). Over 90 frames per second is definitely overkill, where you won't even subconsciously notice a difference with the screen strapped to your face.

120HZ is what sold me on my iPad Pro. It just looks so much better for every single iOS animation. Sure it is a luxury but it is just so nice.
 
I had to look this up. For anyone else wondering, "Pro Motion" is Apple's branding for 120 frames per second. Throughout most of history, 30 frames per second was considered great and 60 frames per second is perfect for anything less than AR/VR (where your subconscious can notice the difference and induce motion-sickness if it's under 90 FPS). Over 90 frames per second is definitely overkill, where you won't even subconsciously notice a difference with the screen strapped to your face.

Wrong. You do notice the difference from 60 to 120 with regular iPad use. It’s why many of us are hoping they bring 120 to the iPhone as well. It does make a very noticeable difference.
 
All the specs are fine except the storage. If this started at $499 for 128gb I’d be all over it. I can’t justify $500 for 64gb anymore.
 
Even though I have a maxed Ipad6, I'm totally getting this. I tried using me iPad 6 as my everyday computer, and or more or less works. This has a bigger screen without the pro price. It's mine.
 
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To up the selling price. The iPad 9.7 would have slim margins. This way they can perpetually sell the 9.7 to education and low end users but still have a modern non pro 'standard iPad' but charge a lot more for it.
But why bring back the Air branding? What’s the difference between iPad and iPad Air that they need different names?
 
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The lineup is such a mess, I have no idea where the iPad Air fits in terms of price or even size.

The “Air” suffix was introduced to represent a special outside the standard/pro matrix device that is exceptionally thin and light. The MacBook and MacBook Pro continued to exist while the MacBook Air was an outside addition to the lineup tha was way thinner and lighter.

The iPad Air is neither thinner or lighter than any other iPad (it may in fact be the thickest and heaviest!) and I have no idea why it exists. I have no idea what the lineup looks like now.
 
Tempting, but pricey. I don't think I that I need an upgrade of my 6th gen ipad enough (or at all, really) to justify purchasing one of these.
I'm with you on that! I'm a year in with the 2018 iPad and it is just doing things just as competently as it did on day-1. I think maybe I'll wait a year and replace both my Mini 4 and 2018 iPad with a Mini 5....maybe. :)
 
Hmmmm, was holding off on a new purchase until updates were announced. Might go Surface Go at this point for $399.00
 
I get that *we* aren’t confused by the naming schemes but regular customers certainly will.

I think that is a bit over the top.


I had a hard enough time explaining to my coworkers what the differences between an XR, XS, and X were. I have no doubt that non-tech-savvy people will be scratching their heads over the differences between the iPad, iPad mini, iPad Air, and iPad Pro (which itself has 2 sizes).

iPad Mini being the smallest screen ..... confusing to regular end users? How> Mini -- small. Smallest screen
That is a huge stretch on confusion. That it is not the cheapest? Those looking for the cheapest will find out relatively quickly that it is not. Paying "extra" for smaller isn't that hard of a concept to grasp. It is a bit of a change from where mini started off ( to compete with the Android 7" tablets in the $200 range and being the affordable entry point for schools) but if taken on the current context it is relatively clear.


iPad being the mainstream isn't that hard. No adjective at the end ... regular one. Most inexpensive one so those looking based on price, this will be extremely easy to pick out. The primary task this model is assigned is to be affordable. ( edu bulk purchases. those on a budget. etc. )


iPad Air. Apple is going back to what they had a couple years back before the "Pro" showed up. How the "middle" of the line up gets 'Air' is a bit of a leap. It isn't a particularly insightful name all by itself, but if the other three are highly discernible this one "left over" is fairly easy to place into the sequence. If they didn't have 'iPad Air' laying around fallow/unused then they probably could have picked something better. But it is there (and in the refurb/clearance store and tech specs already ). Price wise this is the closer to the historic norm point, $499. If not on a tight budget, this is one without compromises to get to an affordable price point.


iPad Pro Apple consistently uses "Pro" on the product line up to mean "most expensive variant". Usually it has some unique features not available in the more affordable models. Most consumers are going to look at the price and say something to the effect of "Holy Cow" or "Holy bust the budget, Batman" and remove it quickly from consideration.
( if the iPad is being used to generate income/revenue in some professional capacity then cost won't be as much of an issue. that's where Pro comes in. )
 
iPad Pro, iPad Air, iPad, iPad Mini.

Not hard to follow...

Plus different pencil or no pencil support depending on which one you buy. Actually I am not sure if they still sell any without pencil support?

What’s the point of „Air“. Just call it iPad Mini, iPad and iPad Pro or is there still an 9.7 iPad? See, already confused.
 
Boring update i want airpods
I think you might want the event and new AirPod update announcement excitement more than the actual AirPods. And you shall have it soon. At least they didn't waste our time at the event with these announcements.
 
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