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Apple Winding Down iPad 2 Production After Three-Year Run

zorinlynx said:
I figured they were done manufacturing, and were selling old stock at this point. We ordered 30 iPad 2s for the purpose of doing classroom surveys, and they all came with iOS 6 installed, so they were likely produced mid-last year, at the latest.

I laughed to myself as I used Configurator to bump them all en-masse up to 7.0.4, thinking about all the people who accidentally upgraded and whined about losing iOS 6. Bwa ha ha ha.

iPad 2s are great for this purpose; they're less expensive, sufficiently fast to do the job and less attractive a theft target than iPad Airs or Minis would be.

EDIT: I should add that if you have to configure a bunch of iPads and haven't played with Configurator, to do so. It's one of the coolest apps I didn't know existed! We bought an ergotron cart with built-in USB hubs that lets you plug up to 32 iPads into one Mac. They all show up in Configurator, and you can mass-wipe, install profiles and restrictions, and mass-restore a backup to all of them to make them identical. Really neat stuff, with absolutely NO similar software available for Android, which is why we went with iOS for this purpose.
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Configurator looked really useful, actually. I had downloaded it at one point for something unrelated (pretending I know how side loading works, looking at logs, something like that) and the app itself looked really promising. Unfortunately I haven't yet acquired a fleet of iDevices to play with it, yet. :D
 
zorinlynx said:
iPad 2s are great for this purpose; they're less expensive, sufficiently fast to do the job and less attractive a theft target than iPad Airs or Minis would be.
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Less expensive, yes, but less attractive as a theft target? I suspect opportune thieves could hardly tell the difference.
 
musika said:
It's been a great run. Such a good device.
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Gudi said:
Who are you kidding?
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It has been, and still is a great device for my family. It runs like a champ. My wife and 2 kids use it daily... and often. I don't get to use it as much as I used to because my girls are more connected now. I had to separate my tools from theirs.

To borrow a phrase from Timex - it takes a lickin' and... you know the rest:D
 
The iPad 2 was ****ing awesome for quite awhile...but the fact that Apple pulled such an Apple move as to continue selling it at only a slightly reduced price for years longer than they should have has sullied its reputation, in my mind.
 
The iPad 2 made a lot of sense to keep around for its low cost production it was a good profit maker for the company. Not everyone has the cash to buy the latest devices and a lot of parents liked to save $100 on the 2 to give to their kids. In other markets around the world where there devices are priced higher, the iPad 2 was more attractive.
 
Amazing that people were willing to fork over $400 for a 3 year old device. Kudos for Apple to keeping the price high and eye roll at customers who bought this when they could have gotten an Air for only $100 more.
 
Had a choice between the iPad 2 and the iPad 3 when it was released. I chose the iPad2 as I felt it's successor was a step backwards in terms of heat generated and battery life.

Haven't regretted my decision since. :D
 
TWSS37 said:
Amazing that people were willing to fork over $400 for a 3 year old device. Kudos for Apple to keeping the price high and eye roll at customers who bought this when they could have gotten an Air for only $100 more.
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Again... it may have been $100 more in the US but in other markets across the world it was often more than a $100 difference and even more when you factor in the value of the currency. $140 dollar difference in Switzerland for example.
 
So many businesses used the iPad 2 extensively and not only that but the compatibility with accessories was perfect which was why businesses kept buying them.

Now they will need to switch all of their accessories to lightning.
 
Richardgm said:
Mine still runs like a champ. Well, I neglected to put iOS 7 on it, so that may be a contributing factor.
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It would run better with iOS 7.

Aspasia said:
LOL, mine was getting doggy until I installed iOS 7. Since then, it's been all smooth sailing.
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@Richardgm - See?

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D.T. said:
Bummer.

I still recommend the iPad2 over the iPad Air, or [Retina] Mini ...

... you know, because, umm ....

:D
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No. We do not know.
 
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Tiger8 said:
A5 will get iOS 8, and that would be the final OS they will get.

Currently Apple has the iPad 2, iPad Mini, iPhone 4s, and iPod Touch (5th) that use A5.
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I don't see any immediate reason they would single out the A5, I find it more likely that they would continue support through [iOS 8/9?/10?] and drop A4-A6 when they move the whole line over to 64 bit only* as per OS X's history. Granted the iPhone 4 would probably not make it to iOS 8 (if not for any other reason) due to the lack of RAM.

It should be noted that the Apple TV 2/3 is based on iOS 7 and is still stuck using the 32 bit A4/A5, it wouldn't make sense for them to fork the code at this point (although continued support for ATV2 is questionable - same reasoning as iPhone 4). The ATV3 having an A5 may confuse things in this manner.

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DCJ001 said:
It would run better with iOS 7.
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It may or may not, depending on what you mean by "run better".

Personally if I could somehow keep all the parts of iOS 6 that ran Safari for my 4S and somehow magically run it on iOS 7, I would. iOS 7 introduced some significant code changes possibly relating to memory use that made Safari much more crash-prone (and other Apps, although Safari is still the biggest offender). Other than that, iOS 7 performs better and runs smoother than iOS 6 ever did for me.
 
The iPad 2 was a great product, and the iPad Air is equally as good. I bet it has a run like the 2 did.
 
mobi said:
So that means Apple will continue to support iPad 2 with updates till?
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IF they discontinue it they won't likely support it in further iOS versions. iOS 7 would be the last.

Now this is not to say they won't have a $399 model. Prices for parts might finally work out that they can make the 16gb current model at 399 and so they are switching to that. Or perhaps to having a 16gb iPad air and the rest in the iPad air 2. Get the model styles in alignment to have only one style to support in home grown cases, cables etc. For the same reasons they could likely drop the 4s this fall
 
BenTrovato said:
Again... it may have been $100 more in the US but in other markets across the world it was often more than a $100 difference and even more when you factor in the value of the currency. $140 dollar difference in Switzerland for example.
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OK fine, but regardless - spending that much money on 3 year old tech is borderline ludicrous. Other alternatives exist with newer tech for lower, or just save the additional money. And saying, "for some people $xxx is a lot of money, so to save more is not practical," is not logical.
 
BenTrovato said:
Again... it may have been $100 more in the US but in other markets across the world it was often more than a $100 difference and even more when you factor in the value of the currency. $140 dollar difference in Switzerland for example.
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I also understand that while it was still offered through consumer channels, there were sizable verticals (like Point-of-Sale systems) where the size/fitment, connectors, etc., were all designed around the iPad2.


DCJ001 said:
No. We do not know.
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That’s OK, knowing is only _half_ the battle. :D
 
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Tiger8 said:
A5 will get iOS 8, and that would be the final OS they will get.
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What department do you work in again. I mean you must work at all to know that as the fact you give it

It is possible that none of those devices will get iOS 8. Or all of them will. Or even that this report is bollocks.
 
Nanasaki said:
iPad mini and iPod Touch 5 only gets 2 updates if iOS 8 is the final OS.


iPad 1 went from iOS 3 to iS 5. iPad 2 went from iOS 4 to iOS 8 (if it get supported), iPad 3 went from iOS 5 to iOS 8 (if it get supported).

iPhone 3GS went from iOS 3 to iOS 6, iPhone 4 went from iOS 4 to iOS 7, iPhone 4S went from iOS 5 to iOS 8.

So based on this tradition, most devices gets 3 software updates. So I suspect iPad mini and iPod Touch 5 could get iOS 9, possibly iPad 2 and iPhone 4S.
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But remember, Apple over the past two years changed patterns for many products, starting with iPad 3, iPad 4, iPhone 5. I wouldn't be surprised if come September, they discontinue iPhone 4s, October, the drop the iPad 2 and iPad Mini (maybe release an A6 version of non-retina iPad mini), and this would really mean that iOS 9 does not have to support A5 at all.
 
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