Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
iPad Air 2 Material Costs Hold Steady Starting at $275, but New Storage Tiers Erode Profit Margin
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I got my son an iPad Air 2 for Christmas. It's sitting in the closet for another 2 months and I can't play with it. 1st world problems.
Use the excuse: 'I was just checking it was working, that's all'. That means you need to push the CPU to it's limits (game time
), max out the RAM (lots of tabs in Safari), check the camera... 
Should do your research so you don't sound like a (complete) ignoramus. iPad Air 2 does have 2GB.
The 16GB versions are really for the folks who just use the thing as a reader + web surfing device and to stream movies. There are a whole lot of those folks (i.e.: folks who would be just as well served by a Kindle Fire, but are already invested in Apple's ecosystem so they get an iPad).
The problem is that people who want to play games and use productivity apps think they can get away with 16GB of storage and they simply cannot and expect a decent user experience.
My friends asked my advice to buy an iPad mini Retina last year and I emphatically told them to go with 32GB of storage. My daughter saved up all her allowance and birthday money for a 16GB iPad mini last year and we chipped in the extra money to go with the Retina model with 32GB and AppleCare+ as a Christmas present. I just could not see her buying the equivalent of an iPad 2 with only 16GB of storage in late 2013. Sadly, Apple still sells the original iPad mini (again targeted at web surfer and eReader crowd), but I expect them to drop it from the lineup after Christmas.
While I agree with you on the iPhone, because of picture taking, I can say that several people I know use their iPads as an internet appliance and 16GB is enough.
Because it isn't for you. Is that really that hard to understand? People seem to forget that there is an educationa and corporate market out there that doesn't need and in many cases doesn't want gobs of storage.
I think it is misleading to suggest that the profit margins will be lower on the current model because the choices Apple made with the storage will cause more sales to go to the higher capacity models that they would have in the past. I think, just like with the iPhone, far more people will pick the mid range option than the low-end option.
Don't be dense, speakers have made sound by vibrating ever since they where first developed.
*were
Until iOS 9 anyway
----------
It is actually an issue - The whole iPad vibrates like a speaker cone. It's quite uncomfortable to hold without a case.
Are you really that out of touch? This model does come,with 2GB of RAM. In fact just about everything got updated on Air 2.
Well that was unfortunate on Apples part. I wouldn't be surprised if it is a production issue. Apple single handily is tying up a lot of 20 mm production.
Huh? This is an iPad Air 2 bud. You get the RAM update and frankly a far faster SoC. A totally revamped iPad Air.
Why would anyone that needs a lot of space buy a 16BG model? The 16GB model is perfect for my wife. She's never needed more than 3/4 of the memory. Why should she be forced to pay for more storage if she doesn't need it?
Also targeted at schools, point of sale uses, airports (haven't you seen the lounges with row after row of iPads), hotels (a free iPad for use in the hotel room isn't that uncommon at higher end hotels), events (I was handed an iPad at an event as basically an easy way for everyone to have the material for the conference, gave it back at the end of the day), locked down work environments, etc. There are tons of ways in which 16Gb is perfectly acceptable storage. It just shouldn't be purchased by a consumer. So you guys did the right intervention here and sales persons should be able to educate the typical consumer to buy the 64gb.
I think margins are going to go up, because the 64gb is going to be the most common iPad. However I also think the 16gb has another year of life in it, so that Air 3 will also come with 16gb. It is sufficient for so many uses.
Checked out the new iPad in store, and was kinda shocked how much it does vibrate compared to my iPad air 1. Maybe they'll be a market in anti-vibrate covers for it. How did that get past quality control?
You can do the estimate yourself.
Even assuming the price difference was $1.00, 10 million iPads x $1.00 = 10 million dollars.
And you can buy a 16 GB SSD for $10... so it being a $50 increase seems exactly right.
Edit: Yep, just checked the full article (from re/code) and it says that Apple pays $9.20 for the 16 GB SSD and $60 for the 128 GB SSD).
That still doesn't explain why Apple is sitting on over $ 125,000,000,000.00 in cash.
It's companies like Apple that are sitting on billions and billions of $ that are slowing down the economic recovery. US companies are sitting on TRILLIONS of $. I'm all for profits, but with Apple one has to ask: what for? I don't even think Apple has an answer to that question.
The 16GB model does have a place, albeit a minority of users. For consumers 16GB doesn't make sense, but for single purpose use such as kiosks, businesses using Square or other POS, or bulk deployments, the 16GB would work just fine.