All iPads Can someone Eli5 the rage over new products getting better?

[Ghost31]

I feel like I'm in the minority amidst all the outcry over this, but I genuinely don't understand how people feel "slighted" or "ripped off" because they bought a 12.9 iPad Pro at launch and now there's another smaller one later with slightly better specs. It seems like a no brainier doesn't it? As time goes on, tech evolves and gets better and updates happen. So naturally if you know a new product comes out, you know it'll have a slightly beefier spec sheet than the one you currently have.

I mean...right? Shouldn't there, among adults who go through life buying things, be a certain acceptance with that fact? It's like some of these people believe they have a personal relationship with Apple like it's their girlfriend and they feel they need to have their hand held along the way on everything. What SHOULD apple have done? Held back features on a new iPad to make you feel better about your current purchase? Let you return your used iPad for a new one for free because Apple just owes you so much? When I bought my iPad Pro at launch, I looked at what it was and decided for myself whether it was worth my money. I took the product as it was and said "I think I would be happy with that for a long time. I don't feel anything important was held back that I need later. I feel this is a complete product and worth my money". So I bought it and have been a happy panda ever since. Even watching the keynote (which was the most boring keynote I've ever seen from Apple btw) I didn't suddenly look at my iPad Pro and think "what is this piece of crap? Like 1980's tech?! I'm so angry I could break something!"

I'm not just trying to be snarky I'm seriously asking what was expected. There must be something I don't understand or something I'm just not privy to. Sometimes I don't pick up on nuance or certain unwritten rules so I don't know? Maybe I just don't get it. After seeing the backlash I thought there must be some killer feature that Apple have omitted from the first iPad Pro until now. I mean this has to be some feature that would change my day to day life DRASTICALLY right? Nope. Watched the keynote knowing the backlash and saw...it's got a camera hump with a camera I've never used and some "true tone" crap I also don't see myself using a lot.

What am I missing? Please...someone tell me I'm stupid or something and that there's some perspective I'm just not seeing, cause currently I just don't get it

 

[iregret]

People like to complain. They buy a product that's the "best" and want to hold on to it as long as possible. Now they're not special anymore. The truth is, no one is special, you're one in 7 billion, but that's not what Apple is selling.

People are complaining, this very day, about how they got ripped off when buying their iPad 3, or how their iPad 2 doesn't support every feature that the current model does. As if Apple owes them somehow. It's ****ing ridiculous.

 

[Mcdevidr]

If you have been on this forum for a while you would realize how much of a waste of time asking this question is. In fact it is not just on this forum it is in life in general. I know we all like to think we are geniuses because we buy apple products but that doesn't really seem to be the case.

 

[east85]

I'm not really sure to be honest. I use old tech because I don't feel like filling the world with garbage and I buy used tech because I don't feel like directly feeding the garbage problem. As long as it can do what I need it to do I'm content. I think people get caught up in the fleeting high of owning something brand new and better in a highly competitive society and feel slighted when their expected yearly refresh doesn't go as planned. I may be way off base here but I can't comprehend how a slight update would potentially make their tech any less capable or functional. It's still doing what you expect it to do, and all you really need is for it to do what you need to do. As long as your basic computing needs are met the numbers are mostly irrelevant.

 

[Mcdevidr]

I think it is mostly the Mac rumors intelligentsia that "feel" slighted. Most people in the real world could care a less.

 

[ZombiePete]

I would imagine that at least some of it has to do with the fact that a lot of people who are part of the Apple community today came around after 2007 when the first couple of iPhones were released. This generation of Apple users got used to a lot of innovation hitting all at once, and now that we're in a more incremental improvement phase they're not getting that same high that they did when new products were being released and it feels disappointing.

I also believe that some of it has to do with the fact that Westerners aren't the only audience that Apple is catering to anymore, and it's changing the dynamics of Apple in a way that makes it seem sort of foreign in some ways. The new iPhone really isn't for most of us; it's for emerging markets and Asian consumers. So it feels underwhelming to some of us because it's not for us, and that can feel like a letdown.

Finally, I think some of it is just consumer fatigue. After several cycles of improvements and replacements at some point you're either on-board to get the latest and greatest every year regardless, or you have to be driven by a major improvement to buy the "new thing" and this time around a lot of folks aren't feeling that compulsion and therefore are sort-of left wanting. So my iPA2 is good enough to not warrant an upgrade...is Apple losing its touch? No, you're just a satisfied consumer. It just doesn't feel that way.

Yeah, a lot of talk about feelings because that's what drives many of us as consumers. It's kind of silly when you get down to it, but there's a reason ads don't focus solely on tech specs and capabilities.

 

[Ghost31]

I'm not really sure to be honest. I use old tech because I don't feel like filling the world with garbage and I buy used tech because I don't feel like directly feeding the garbage problem. As long as it can do what I need it to do I'm content. I think people get caught up in the fleeting high of owning something brand new and better in a highly competitive society and feel slighted when their expected yearly refresh doesn't go as planned. I may be way off base here but I can't comprehend how a slight update would potentially make their tech any less capable or functional. It's still doing what you expect it to do, and all you really need is for it to do what you need to do. As long as your basic computing needs are met the numbers are mostly irrelevant.

Dude...I envy you. I've been stuck on wanting the latest and greatest for the past few years. Ever since I had a T-Mobile mda back in...2005? This has been such an exciting period for technology that it's hard not to feel like we live in something that scifi movies used to dream about. Video calling, fast smooth UI with fast internet, cameras and microphones on all our devices, always being connected. It's just...amazing. But now it's gotten to the point where things are slowing down and it might be time to just sick back and enjoy what we've got. I'm sick of always upgrading. I want to be one of those people who "uses something til the wheels fall off". That seems like the way to get the best value out of something.
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I would imagine that at least some of it has to do with the fact that a lot of people who are part of the Apple community today came around after 2007 when the first couple of iPhones were released. This generation of Apple users got used to a lot of innovation hitting all at once, and now that we're in a more incremental improvement phase they're not getting that same high that they did when new products were being released and it feels disappointing.

I also believe that some of it has to do with the fact that Westerners aren't the only audience that Apple is catering to anymore, and it's changing the dynamics of Apple in a way that makes it seem sort of foreign in some ways. The new iPhone really isn't for most of us; it's for emerging markets and Asian consumers. So it feels underwhelming to some of us because it's not for us, and that can feel like a letdown.

Finally, I think some of it is just consumer fatigue. After several cycles of improvements and replacements at some point you're either on-board to get the latest and greatest every year regardless, or you have to be driven by a major improvement to buy the "new thing" and this time around a lot of folks aren't feeling that compulsion and therefore are sort-of left wanting. So my iPA2 is good enough to not warrant an upgrade...is Apple losing its touch? No, you're just a satisfied consumer. It just doesn't feel that way.

Yeah, a lot of talk about feelings because that's what drives many of us as consumers. It's kind of silly when you get down to it, but there's a reason ads don't focus solely on tech specs and capabilities.

As always Pete, coming out swinging with great responses. Yeah man, you echo my feelings to a freaking T. I remember having the first iPhone and being blown away. And every single year after that there was always some big exciting feature to look forward to. Me and the family would be huddled around the tv watching the keynote excited to see how the devices we used everyday would change. We all waited years to have an iPhone with a really good camera. And that wait was actually kinda...fun. Seeing those improvements year by year. Or higher res screens. Better processors that made our devices feel noticably faster. Not by a milli second but to the point where it really improved the experience. The iOS updates that added all those features we users were begging for. Changing wallpaper, Notification Center, folders, etc.

Now it's just...what? What are we looking forward to? I remember we all had a giant check list of things we were dying to see coming to iPhone and iPad. Now that checklist is tiny. I remember losing my sh** thinking about recording in 1080p on a phone when my video camera couldn't even do that. Now we have 4K? AND on tablets? I don't even know what to look forward to on the iPhone 7. I'm pretty set right now with all the devices I got...

Which is why I can't really emphasize when people are losing their sh** over Apple adding true tone or something to the new iPad. I don't know...I went off on kind of a tangent. It's 5am and I've been up all night.

But my small version of how I feel: People got used to looking forward to things. Now consumer tech is kind of at a peak and it's easy to be confused

 

[Ries]

It is easy, Apple always screws us over somehow to pad their bank account. It is just becoming more and more visible, it used to be storage, now it is missing features, new products months after the last one and price increases due to lower sales numbers (a.k.a the three letter "P" "R" "O" tax, still need to be able to say we make more billions than last year, so you pay more for the same)

 

[Ghost31]

It is easy, Apple always screws us over somehow to pad their bank account. It is just becoming more and more visible, it used to be storage, now it is missing features, new products months after the last one and price increases due to lower sales numbers (a.k.a the three letter "P" "R" "O" tax, still need to be able to say we make more billions than last year, so you pay more for the same)

Oh I found one! Let me interrogate you for a second!

So like I said in my OP, tech evolves over time. Why shouldn't Apple have updated the iPad Pro 9.7 to have a couple more features? It came out later. Should they have held back? If so, why? Why should someone planning to buy a new iPad have a product with features being held back to make you happy about your purchase?

I'm curious. Maybe you can change my mind, because right now I don't feel screwed over with the iPad Pro 12.9 i bought a couple months ago. It's been the best product I've ever had, so seeing that Apple updated the camera in a smaller iPad didn't exactly hurt my feelings.

 

[Noble Actual]

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