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Apple's New iPad Lineup Causes Potential Confusion With Inconsistent Features
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There's nothing confusing here at all... Is the 10th gen iPad kinda pointless? Yes. Confusing? No.
Steve would slash at least 1 third of the products Apple sells today.
The 9th Gen and Air would both be gone. The Pencil Gen 1 would be gone.
The cheaper AppleTV would be $99 or just gone.
The Watch would be just Gen 8 and Ultra.
The iPhones would lose most models and have just the latest (14) range and perhaps the one before last (12) Series Plus models.
The laptops are similarly too many. The 13Pro M2, why? The MacBook Air M1, why?
Perhaps Tim Cook and team need to revisit what their founder was so good at and take that lesson to heart.
The 9th Gen and Air would both be gone. The Pencil Gen 1 would be gone.
The cheaper AppleTV would be $99 or just gone.
The Watch would be just Gen 8 and Ultra.
The iPhones would lose most models and have just the latest (14) range and perhaps the one before last (12) Series Plus models.
The laptops are similarly too many. The 13Pro M2, why? The MacBook Air M1, why?
Perhaps Tim Cook and team need to revisit what their founder was so good at and take that lesson to heart.
There could be a lot of organizing - not only to help consumers, but to also help the manufacturing line not have so many variations.
The good thing about the M1 and M2 processor, is that the same processor can go in whatever box you want - including the iPad. I am benefiting greatly with the MacBook Air with M1 processor - I am running two Windows 11 VM's, One Linux, and one Mac VM all at the same time, while rendering video and numerous other tasks!
I think that Apple's biggest issue is timing - there was no need to put the M2 in the MacBook Air until all the MacBook Pros had the M2 processor in the two grades - Pro or basically - why even have the Max? Just have the "Pro" and put the Max in the iMac. The Mac Mini has a Studio Ultra variant for those really needing the speed.
I think any iPad that uses only the Pencil Gen 1 should have been gone as soon as the iPads were released with Pencil Gen 2 - I mean, still sell the pencils but come on!
Recently announced that Apple is cutting orders for the 14 Plus - no duh! People are really liking the iPhone Pro - the plus should only be designated for the Pro line. And Apple really needs to go back to the size that they originally had when first released.
Anyways - I get the feeling that there are just as many Apple variants as there are different brands selling Windows laptops!!!!
Everybody knocking on the Air, and here i am still happy with my purchase, as I did not need stuff; like the LIDAR scanners and such... I even have my own Magic Keyboard Folio with the Combo Touch from Logitech
This disappoints me the most, with the new design and price hike I was expecting a laminated display. Been updating my wife’s iPad annually for <$100 (Veterans discount), but this year I’m being hit with both a price hike and a reduced trade value compared to the last few years…
Folks, it's really not that hard as long as you know what you want to do with an iPad. If you don't know that, then you're going to be confused even if there were only 2 models. For instance, if I knew I was going to be using the iPad to read sheet music, I wouldn't even bother with anything other than the 12.9 Pro. If I were just using it for basic browsing, YouTube, Facebook, etc. I'd go with the cheapest one that has a big enough screen size for my liking. If I wanted it to be ultra-portable, then I'd go with the Mini. If I know I wanted to store TONS of local photos/videos/music, etc. I'd go with a Pro due to the larger storage options, etc.
Take advantage of Apple's handy "compare" feature. It makes this so easy:
Take advantage of Apple's handy "compare" feature. It makes this so easy:
Terms like 'fully laminated display' , '2360‑by‑1640 resolution at 264 ppi', 'SDR brightness: 500 nits max (typical)' and RAM/Core counts mean absolutely nothing to the average person.
Which is why the "average person" will just focus on the broad features they want and not care about those. For those who DO get into those specs, they're there for their information. What's the problem?
This is a long one mainly with iPad mini gripes. Skip if un interested. Perhaps it should go in some other discussion, but here it is.
I have a real problem with them getting rid of the headphone jacks. These are media consumption devices and need to be able to charge and be capable of using headphones at the same time. If you are traveling and want to watch a movie or anything else the battery will drain quickly. I do not use and will not use Bluetooth headphones. I tried the AirPods and perhaps I am sensitive, but they give me headaches and make me feel spacey and weird, and no, it's not my imagination. I've always been perfectly happy with wired headphones and have never wanted bluetooth in my head, and the added hassle of a headphone adaptors is annoying. If they added a MagSafe charging or a MagSafe charging port on iPads like on the MacBooks in addition to having a port that can be used for headphones, that would be great and a potential solution.
My old iPhone lightning jack on my old phone has been partially broken and barley works and only works when pushing the lightning cord and propping it against something at a certain angle to charge and headphones no longer work in it so I walk around outside speaking on speaker phone to everyone. Which is annoying for everyone. Then you're out of options for the headphones unless using bluetooth. It was out of apple care and was too expensive to repair, so I haven't been able to use any headphones on it for the better part of this year while I waited for the 14 to release. My point being when you only have 1 port for both headphones and charging it gets more use and it likely to fail faster which it did.
And my main iPad lineup gripe is with the iPad mini, but some of these issues apply to other iPads.
It's just weird that it's more expensive than the bigger regular iPads. I know it currently has higher specs, but it hasn't always (there have been many years when it had older chip and tech than the regular iPad) and has always been at a higher price point. Now it seems positioned between a pro and entry level iPad I guess, so it was more like an iPad Air mini until they updated the design on the regular iPad. It's sort of in limbo now and seems they should either align it more with the pro and call it that or align it with the regular iPad and make it cheaper than it. Or better yet have a mini pro and mini regular. But I do think they should just combine the iPad Air and updated regular iPad.
After the first gen iPad, I've always been an iPad mini (with white bezels) user. It is the perfect portable size for me. I'm glad they kept the size and finally upgraded it but this was after years and years of neglect and often embarrassingly negligible upgrades (for example iPad mini 3 update from 2 only added touch ID, that's it). People have long thought they were going to kill it. But I really think the neglect and pricing was the reason for any low sales. It has always been more expensive than the bigger entry level iPad, and most of the time with fewer features and being several generations behind in tech and features. Had they kept it up to date and positioned it better, I'm sure it would have sold better.
I actually bought the mini 6 but returned and bought a used mini 5 with white bezels (coming from a broken mini 4). Reasons being:
1. No more headphone jack. Boo. And with the mini 6 moving to usb-c, Apple doesn't even make wired usb -c headphones, and they only offer a usb -c to 3.5 mm adaptor, and not usb-c to lightning adapter, so I don't have the option to use all my apple lightning headphones (or cables) that I've purchased for my phone and previous apple devices. (I just ordered an iPhone 14 pro which still has the lightning port and will require lightning headphones)
2. jelly scroll,
3. no more white bezels
4. bezels too wide-they are proportionately too big on such a small screen. The bezel size is the same as the bigger iPads and thus it takes up a bigger %/proportion of the screen since the screen is smaller. This has a much bigger impact on the mini. And no, (just like with the iPhone) you don't need bigger bezels for a place to hold onto it.
5. the side bezels are wider than the older side bezel making the screen narrower than previous gen. It's a noticeable difference especially in landscape.
Had the bezels been either white or much thinner like the iPhone I probably would have kept it. There is something about the big black bezels that makes the screen feel narrow and confined that I've never felt with white bezels. But I know a a lot of people prefer black bezels. I prefer white. In general across all iPads, I think they should have kept the white bezels for the lighter colors and had black bezels for the darker colors so people who prefer white can get white and people who prefer black can get black. The white looks better with the lighter colors IMHO.
6. too expensive for what it is and to have all the above things I'm not happy with (I bought a cellular 256 and it was $799) If it had more parity with the pro, this price might be more reasonable.
I'm perfectly happy with the Mini 5 and prefer it to the 6 as it doesn't have any of the above issues. It would be nice if it supported Apple Pencil 2, but oh well.
Hopefully they keep updating the mini on a regular schedule. The main things I'd like to see are much smaller bezels, lower price, and fixed jelly scroll. That's not a lot to ask. Also, can't they bring down the cellular upgrade cost a bit? Make it $99? Haven't cellular chips gotten cheaper at all in all these years? At this point I'm sure there's no hope for them bringing back the headphone jack and white bezels. It will probably take years of updates for the bezel to be as small as I'd like as they will only decrease it by such a tiny millimeter smidge with each update instead of just making it as small as the iPhone and giving people what they want. They clearly can do it, but they'll just unnecessarily drag it out for years. It's annoying.
I have a real problem with them getting rid of the headphone jacks. These are media consumption devices and need to be able to charge and be capable of using headphones at the same time. If you are traveling and want to watch a movie or anything else the battery will drain quickly. I do not use and will not use Bluetooth headphones. I tried the AirPods and perhaps I am sensitive, but they give me headaches and make me feel spacey and weird, and no, it's not my imagination. I've always been perfectly happy with wired headphones and have never wanted bluetooth in my head, and the added hassle of a headphone adaptors is annoying. If they added a MagSafe charging or a MagSafe charging port on iPads like on the MacBooks in addition to having a port that can be used for headphones, that would be great and a potential solution.
My old iPhone lightning jack on my old phone has been partially broken and barley works and only works when pushing the lightning cord and propping it against something at a certain angle to charge and headphones no longer work in it so I walk around outside speaking on speaker phone to everyone. Which is annoying for everyone. Then you're out of options for the headphones unless using bluetooth. It was out of apple care and was too expensive to repair, so I haven't been able to use any headphones on it for the better part of this year while I waited for the 14 to release. My point being when you only have 1 port for both headphones and charging it gets more use and it likely to fail faster which it did.
And my main iPad lineup gripe is with the iPad mini, but some of these issues apply to other iPads.
It's just weird that it's more expensive than the bigger regular iPads. I know it currently has higher specs, but it hasn't always (there have been many years when it had older chip and tech than the regular iPad) and has always been at a higher price point. Now it seems positioned between a pro and entry level iPad I guess, so it was more like an iPad Air mini until they updated the design on the regular iPad. It's sort of in limbo now and seems they should either align it more with the pro and call it that or align it with the regular iPad and make it cheaper than it. Or better yet have a mini pro and mini regular. But I do think they should just combine the iPad Air and updated regular iPad.
After the first gen iPad, I've always been an iPad mini (with white bezels) user. It is the perfect portable size for me. I'm glad they kept the size and finally upgraded it but this was after years and years of neglect and often embarrassingly negligible upgrades (for example iPad mini 3 update from 2 only added touch ID, that's it). People have long thought they were going to kill it. But I really think the neglect and pricing was the reason for any low sales. It has always been more expensive than the bigger entry level iPad, and most of the time with fewer features and being several generations behind in tech and features. Had they kept it up to date and positioned it better, I'm sure it would have sold better.
I actually bought the mini 6 but returned and bought a used mini 5 with white bezels (coming from a broken mini 4). Reasons being:
1. No more headphone jack. Boo. And with the mini 6 moving to usb-c, Apple doesn't even make wired usb -c headphones, and they only offer a usb -c to 3.5 mm adaptor, and not usb-c to lightning adapter, so I don't have the option to use all my apple lightning headphones (or cables) that I've purchased for my phone and previous apple devices. (I just ordered an iPhone 14 pro which still has the lightning port and will require lightning headphones)
2. jelly scroll,
3. no more white bezels
4. bezels too wide-they are proportionately too big on such a small screen. The bezel size is the same as the bigger iPads and thus it takes up a bigger %/proportion of the screen since the screen is smaller. This has a much bigger impact on the mini. And no, (just like with the iPhone) you don't need bigger bezels for a place to hold onto it.
5. the side bezels are wider than the older side bezel making the screen narrower than previous gen. It's a noticeable difference especially in landscape.
Had the bezels been either white or much thinner like the iPhone I probably would have kept it. There is something about the big black bezels that makes the screen feel narrow and confined that I've never felt with white bezels. But I know a a lot of people prefer black bezels. I prefer white. In general across all iPads, I think they should have kept the white bezels for the lighter colors and had black bezels for the darker colors so people who prefer white can get white and people who prefer black can get black. The white looks better with the lighter colors IMHO.
6. too expensive for what it is and to have all the above things I'm not happy with (I bought a cellular 256 and it was $799) If it had more parity with the pro, this price might be more reasonable.
I'm perfectly happy with the Mini 5 and prefer it to the 6 as it doesn't have any of the above issues. It would be nice if it supported Apple Pencil 2, but oh well.
Hopefully they keep updating the mini on a regular schedule. The main things I'd like to see are much smaller bezels, lower price, and fixed jelly scroll. That's not a lot to ask. Also, can't they bring down the cellular upgrade cost a bit? Make it $99? Haven't cellular chips gotten cheaper at all in all these years? At this point I'm sure there's no hope for them bringing back the headphone jack and white bezels. It will probably take years of updates for the bezel to be as small as I'd like as they will only decrease it by such a tiny millimeter smidge with each update instead of just making it as small as the iPhone and giving people what they want. They clearly can do it, but they'll just unnecessarily drag it out for years. It's annoying.
That those features are the ones that are the actual points of differentiation between the devices.
What is the difference between the entry level iPad they announced yesterday and the existing Air model?
Easy using the compare tool:
iPad - Compare Models
Compare resolution, size, weight, performance, battery life, and storage of iPad Pro, iPad Air, iPad, and iPad mini models.
www.apple.com
iPad 10th: older processor, Apple Pencil 1 only, Magic Keyboard Folio only
iPad Air 5th: newer processor, Apple Pencil 2 support, Magic Keyboard Folio OR Smart Keyboard Folio
And then there's the differences in the displays that you referred to. While granted the average person probably won't know what a "fully laminated display" is, the average person knows how to use Google. And most people can understand what the term "antireflective coating" means.
Again, what's the problem?
Easy using the compare tool:
iPad - Compare Models
Compare resolution, size, weight, performance, battery life, and storage of iPad Pro, iPad Air, iPad, and iPad mini models.www.apple.com
iPad 10th: older processor, Apple Pencil 1 only, Magic Keyboard Folio only
iPad Air 5th: newer processor, Apple Pencil 2 support, Magic Keyboard Folio OR Smart Keyboard Folio
And then there's the differences in the displays that you referred to. While granted the average person probably won't know what a "fully laminated display" is, the average person knows how to use Google. And most people can understand what the term "antireflective coating" means.
Again, what's the problem?
That the average person wouldn't understand what the difference is between the two models, as you have just admitted.
Huh? I did no such thing. You're talking about ONE technical difference that most people wouldn't care about. All the rest I mentioned are easily understood. You're trying so hard to make this an issue that you're literally ignoring what I said and inserting your own made up interpretation to try to prove your point.
You just said a potential buyer should google the technical details 😂
Lets be honest the main difference between those two iPad models is the screen, the Air has a laminated P3 display the new 10th gen doesn't. The laminated display would be very noticeably better even to the average user but they wouldn't know that from the product descriptions because Apple users terms like 'liquid retina display' for all of them.
It's a confusing mess.
ONE detail. You're acting like every single detail is arcane. I'd say an M1 processor is a pretty major difference. And I've never seen an iPad with a bad looking/functioning display, so if one of these "average" people you keep talking about is too lazy to look up ONE term they don't understand, they're still going to end up with a beautiful display and not know what they're supposedly missing. It's only a "mess" if you want it to be one.
Nobody is likely to notice any performance difference from the silicon and the non laminated screens are pretty bad looking by modern standards.
The notion that the iPad mini is "The full iPad experience designed to fit in one hand" seems dubious, considering Apple is investing so much into Stage Manager without any obvious pathway for it to end up on an iPad mini. And, if the prevailing logic there is that Stage Manager doesn't really make sense to be on a device that small, then that goes against the notion that it's "the full iPad experience" to begin with. At that point, it'd be a totally different device category in and of itself - which, honestly, wouldn't be a bad thing.
The use cases for my iPad mini for are largely different from those that I would otherwise use my iPad Air for, which are also largely different for the ones I'd use my 12.9" iPad Pro for. Yes, they're all iPads. Yes, they all run iPadOS. But some are wildly better at some use cases than others are.
The use cases for my iPad mini for are largely different from those that I would otherwise use my iPad Air for, which are also largely different for the ones I'd use my 12.9" iPad Pro for. Yes, they're all iPads. Yes, they all run iPadOS. But some are wildly better at some use cases than others are.
So easy that you had to write an essay to describe just a few possible scenarios and then told people to use the compare tool for more. This shows how confusing the lineup is. Most buyers aren’t like us here. They will be overwhelmed with options.
130 words on a forum is an "essay" . . . right.
You guys are really something else!
TONS of software/hardware products have compare tools on different manufacturer's websites to compare the features of their various products--some features will be basic and others more advanced. There's nothing new here. I'm glad Apple isn't dumbing down its product line, because apparently they don't think people are as stupid as you and others do.
Please inform us on their thinking after your meeting. Hopefully they don't try to blow smoke up you guys wazoo. As much as I want an iPad mini or air, I absolutely despise iOS and it's ultra limited functionality. But being able to not carry around my ludicrously expensive Apple laptop does have its charms.
I am having quite the kick out of the onslaught of criticism from pretty much every single Mac focus website and reviews and the verge. It's incredibly consistent for good reason. Cheers.
100% an indicator of Timmy's knowledge of product and marketing. It's like an old school Microsoft lineup. Confusing AF and an abomination. Timmy loves making more frankenstein models with all the overflowing parts bins he's accumulated.