I see a lot of arguments against purchasing deeply discounted older generation iPads in the name of future proofing. Personally, with how fast technology moves, I don't think there's such a thing as future proofing.
Really the "with how fast technology moves..." argument holds substantially less weight than most people think it does. Technology becomes obsolete for one reason and one reason only: It's not fast enough to do what you THEN need to do.
I'll give you a relevant example: When the original iPad mini came out a year and a half ago, it came out with a processor that was a full year behind its iPhone and full-sized iPad counterparts. As a result, it will lose OS and app support a full generation before those iPhones/iPads.
That iPad mini's successor, the second generation (retina) iPad mini, came out with a processor that is on-par with the contemporary iPhone and full-sized iPad, meaning it will age similarly. Given that the first gen was one processor generation behind and the second gen is in lock-step, that means that there's a two generation disparity between the two generations of iPad mini, which means that the first generation will age more quickly than the second, making the first generation iPad not as good of a buy for its time as the second generation is for its. It's all relative.
Long story short, technology does age and some more rapidly than others. You only rent computers, tablets, and phones. It is sensible to get the best return on your dollar; there's a virtue of spending $500 on a 16GB iPad Air versus $400 on a 16GB fourth generation iPad because for that extra $100, you will get at least one extra year's worth of life out of it.
I just upgrade when there are new features I find useful at a price point I'm willing to pay.
Certainly that's a good reason to upgrade too. But with iOS devices, the processor (especially being that it's a system on a chip) is the most important feature as it determines how long a device will be powerful enough for the newest software.
So now this made me curious, do people actually keep their iPads long enough to lend credence to the future proofing argument? How long have you guys had your iPads?
I kept my first generation iPad until I got my iPad Air in January (mind you, after buying it in April 2011). I tried to offload most of its duties to my iPad mini, but found that would only do so much (it'd fall short in areas where I actually wanted to do a lot of typing). I plan on keeping this iPad for at least three years; only replacing it sooner if I run out of storage and they come out with a 256GB iPad.
My iPad mini is a bit of a different story. Given that it came with the A5 (year old tech out of the gate) and given that the A5 is showing signs of age, I'm planning on upgrading to whatever mini comes out this fall, especially since, with this mini, Apple seems to have kept the iPad mini on par with the contemporary full-sized iPad and flagship iPhone rather than one year behind. Again, man, the tech is all relative.
