My my, such anger and indignation!!!
But you seem to speak from both sides of your mouth because Amazon's Kindle Fire which you tout "witht its tons of conents" [sic] only has 8GB of storage.
Jobs was the spiritual leader at Apple, but he wasn't the only guy present at the start of the iOS revolution. Apple has one of the finest management teams in the world. The 16/32/64 storage models will sell just fine. The only storm that will be present is the one futher blowing Android tabs closer to the margins' ultimate edge (Samsung admits sales are poor).
The reality is the man and woman on the street don't clutter up their devices with apps they never use or songs or movies they never listen to or watch. Some apps will expand in size b/c of Retina, sure, but we've been here before with the iPhone 4. It's not that significant if you manage your iOS device and developers code efficiently.
Sure 128GB would be great for the 64GB price but obviously Apple couldn't swing that deal w/ suppliers and isn't going add another model (too many already) or jack up the price to the point a iPad costs as much as an Air.
You seem to have a knack at missing other people's points and replying to straw men.
The kindle has 8gb but it's, a. Way cheaper, b. has more integrated content from amazon, and also positions itself as mostly a reader. It's not the convergent post pc device that the iPad is with all the roles and requirements the ipad has to fulfill. My point was that there is competition and they better be careful. I mentioned amazon as competition from the low end and from another very powerful content provider as opposed to google+samsungs competition. How all that seems to have gone over head I don't know, could be the kool aid.
I don't care what delusions you have about fine management teams that constantly eschew errors, but for me apple is a hobby not a religious, hence when logic and common sense, as well as other people's informed ideas here conveince me that they have erred I am willing to accept that they can err...
You convenentially omitted responding argument to argument on specific capacity requirements from average users, but of course you are best friends with the man and woman in the street so we should take your word for it... Until though you reply point by point on specific capacity needs you are not helping yourself seem like you are in the right. The reality is that the man and woman in the street DO clutter up their devices with apps that's why the app store is so successful, and that's why iPhones as well are so successful because I have yet to meet someone who's told me I don't much care for apps, everyone I ve met asks me and tells me I got this or that great app what do you have.
Your iPhone 4 example with retina is again seriously misguided, but that's what happens if you take the apologists hat and defy logic: First of all iPad apps are by definition heavier and more demanding in storage than the iPhone, because iPhone is a smart phone and iPad is a much more capable tablet. Secondly retina on the iPhone meant double resolution but on a 3.5" inch device, not an 9.7", because the latter will have much higher bitmaps to take care off, so no it's not like the iPhone. Thirdly what the heck has efficient coding to do with anything? Can you efficiently code a larger bitmap away?
To come to your last "point", it's a matter of opinion if apple was or wasn't able to get the right prices from suppliers. Surely if they wanted to maintain their margins and not take an infinitesimally small hit compared to their volume of sales then there was not much of a chance to begin with. But in any case no one would have blamed them really if they kept the pricing constant for the first few models with an entry one of 32gb and jacked up the high end a bit.
All in all it's just ludicrous that you ve ended up arguing with me the self evident. That a 16gb model is just a bad joke in terms of capacity, . It was a joke even a year ago. The air from 4 years ago had close to quadruple the storage and the iPad now has much more app content and, arguably, usages than that air ever had. 16gbs of storage won't fit more than 40-50 retina apps, a game or two, 5-6 music albums, 2-3 audiobooks, a few pictures and home made clips, one movie (and not an hd one) (but the man and woman in the street I guess won't be using their cameras...) and it will be close to capacity. I am sure then that the man and woman in the street will be very happy that their device in principle can do so many things but in practise they 'll have to keep swapping content in and out to do anything. We are in 2012 and 16gbs seemed to be too low even for an iPod a few years ago, apple are simply audacious to sell the entry level iPad in this day and age with this capacity.
The iPad seems to be a superb device and I can't wait to buy one but in terms of storage apple has crippled it, and they are their own worst enemies with this.
But sure because apple have the finest management team they can do no wrong and we should abide contrary to all logic and usage requirements.
If indeed the entry model is 16gb I won't of course be suggesting it to anyone, and it will be the iPad 3s biggest downfall, mark my words. There will of course be many people rationalising their 16gb purchase but in time we 'll get to the point of people admitting yeah it's great but with the limited storage I can't use it to do ****.
