All iPads iDevice - is Apple's goal to have a single iDevice, at multiple sizes?

[BMcCoy]

With convergence of user interface, of specifications, and indeed of style and appearance, we could be forgiven for thinking that Apple are converging all their products to be familiar, even identical, apart from screen size.

Even the rumors we read about use naming conventions that push towards such convergence.. the whole Pro/Air/Mini/Nano naming styles, such as the rumoured 'iPad Pro'. But Apple haven't exactly followed that convention, introducing the iphone 6+.

Further, they seem to strengthen the branding of each product line, with increasing differential specification.

So are we going to see a future where there is iDevice.
But at screen sizes of 38mm, 42mm, 4", 4.7", 5.5", 7.9", 9.7", and many others in between?

I don't think so.
1. The individual product branding names are too strong (in a good way).
2. There is no sign of convergence across pricing:

- These graphs are based on the currently products, and their UK pricing. And all for 16GB models (including cellular).

[iPhones in red, iPad Minis in green, iPad Airs in blue.]

There are no definite correlations based on the screen through the product lines, just within each product. the mini iPad being the best value, and the iPhone most expensive.
The chip generation seems to correlate with price.

 

[Motawa]

yes

 

[Menel]

No

 

[s2mikey]

I'm not sure what's up apples sleeve but IMO the devices should remain separate at least to some extent. As long as documents and apps sync between devices, which they do, I'd prefer each device to excel at what it does versus trying to just be a smaller or larger version of another device in the lineup.

I think that's what I'm trying to say.

 

[Cool Pup]

It's happening, albeit, very slowly. I don't think there will be complete convergence between iOS and OSX, but it's clear that, one day a very long time from now, all of these devices will pretty much be the same in different sizes.

 

[iMacmatician]

My thought is that there are different forms of "convergence" when different types of devices are compared.

Across different OSes:

• The hardware convergence is in the sense of devices becoming more "appliance-like" and less upgradable. Obviously the iPhones and iPads are already there but the Macs are moving towards that point (Retina MBP, 2013 Mac Pro).
• The software convergence includes the property that Continuity features can be used across all devices. Of course, that doesn't imply feature parity in hardware or software. Feature parity may even be counterproductive, as a wider variety of device types makes it harder to attain (if not impossible depending on the devices).

Within an OS:

• Instead of convergence like the above, I think there may be a "doesn't diverge too much" property for different devices that use the same OS. So all devices running the same OS (OS X, iOS, Watch OS) behave the same in that all OS X devices use a pointing device, all iOS devices use a touchscreen, and all Watch OS devices use the Digital Crown. Also, no touchscreen variant of OS X (not iOS, the touchscreen variant of OS X that was speculated before the original iPad's announcement).