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Yes and outside the US, its even more. So here in the UK its equivalent to $236 (£180) difference between base M1 Air and base Pro 11. There are also many people who have an upper limit as to how much they are prepared to spend on a tablet. Like someone else said on this thread, with the Pro models you are stepping into Macbook Air territory which really takes advantage of the M1 chips creative power.

But the more options, the better, then everyone can buy what they wish. What annoys me are the comments on MR from some people who say the Air is an ‘oddball’ in the line up, yet it sells significantly more units than the Pro models. In reality the 64gb M1 Air will sell like hot cakes, they are already selling out on early discount deals.
I stand by the oddball comment 100%. Massive overkill for content consumers (most iPad users) and lacks the high end features that really set the pro apart. Just overpriced and lacking a clear point.
 
If not said by anyone else already, my theory is that I believe Apple went with M1 for iPad Air is because of A13/A15 chip shortage due to COVID19 situation. I believe based on the stock availability of the various products, A13/A15 are in high demand, so they went with M1. Also, they might keep iPad Air with M1 for couple of years without updating, iPad Pro will get updated to M2, M3 and so on.

Like many, I was in the same situation Nov 2020, torn between iPad Air and iPad Pro, but went with iPad Pro. Not wallet friendly and iPad Air stock availability issues that time.
 
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Still too expensive for a limited toy. Have been holding out hope for MacOS on my iPad Pro M1 but looks like I'm going to declutter and get rid of it.
 
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With A13 in the 9th Gen iPad, that is going to be best selling iPad. Period. iPad 9th gen ($329/$479 64GB/256GB) great value especially during holidays where shoppers looking out for deals and Christmas presents; Generally if i am not wrong there is a average price where the products move faster. $249 used to be the price during iPod days... it could be around $400 range these days.
 
every damn thing said here by anyone is a opinion, not a fact.

This is so obviously not true I don’t know what to say. Makes no sense to argue with anyone who thinks there’s no difference between opinions and facts I’m afraid.
 
I do not like the 64GB option either like many here since iPhone 13 and several models already moved to 128GB. Same applies to iPhone SE 64GB. To me, that is not longevity; i wish it was 128GB just for mother earth and just environmental reasons alone. It is very difficult to recommend 64GB version of anything to parents, grand parents and even hands me down products in 2022... then they end up buying android stuff for the 128GB inflated price of iOS devices, yikes to be in that situation.

Contrary to the believe, consumer needs more storage space than the Prosumers who have access to SAN/NAS and such. Even Mac Pro starts now with 512 GB (from 256 GB earlier), they did the change just last week.
 
…I think my story might be similar to a lot of others.

I was using a mid-2012 MacBook Pro for a while, but then around 2016-2017, I was getting antsy for something newer and faster… but the MacBook offerings are that time weren’t great. There was the weak, issue-prone 12” MacBook, the soild but very outdated MacBook Air (which I had previously had in 2010), and the expensive, and kind of restrictive, MacBook Pro, with the touchbar and magic keyboard.

So, I figured I’d try an iPad Pro with a keyboard. Wasn’t great at everything, but decent nonetheless. Way better screen than the 2012 MacBook. So, I used both for a while.

After a few years of the using the iPad Pro (continuously), I began to grow more and more annoyed of its limitations, and kept hoping that Apple would open up more functionality.

Obviously that never happened, and in 2020, I bought the M1 MacBook Air. That solved pretty much all the problems I was having. And as I stated above, I haven’t touched the iPad Pro since.

tl;dr: no need for a new iPad Air.

Edit: I should mention that I did actually have a first gen iPad mini for a while when it came out as well. But it was too small and weak to do much of anything useful. (Other than watch YouTube or Netflix or whatever…)

Edit 2: I also just remembered that in late 2019 I purchased a mid 2015 13” MacBook Pro used. (Last 13” before the new gen.) It was really great… until the logic board died less than two months later. I was pretty pissed, to say the least (and out like $500 or something).
 
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Honestly, there is no such thing as processor overkill or too much power. I have some apps and games that stutter or take a while to open on iPad Air 4. There are also a lot of re-loading apps, likely due to ram limitations.

I traded in my Air for $335 and paid $214 for the new one. $214 to upgrade to a desktop level processor, Center Stage HD camera, and 8 gigabytes of ram. That's not bad. I can either keep it long term or spend another $200 in a couple years to upgrade again.

Apple stuff is expensive, but no one ever mentions resale when they talk about that.
This is what I try to tell people. With the trade-in program you can keep your tablet updated every year for not much money!
 
Makes me wonder if we will be seeing a redesign with the next iPad Pro model. M2 and a new form factor sure would help to further set it apart from this iPad Air.
Honestly, how much more different can the iPad Pro be redesigned? It is, for the most part, perfect.
 
Apple’s managed to trick everyone that the middle of the road at yesterday’s high end prices are great value. That’s the really clever thing about this iPad.
 
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The 64Gb clearly there to make it seem better value when the 799 iPad Pro starts at 128GB
few years back there was big cue and cry about 32GB from the press and even from apple fan boy journalist then apple caved in moved to 64GB, so we might have to do the same again ... lolz...

640KB (64GB) is enough for everyone ... 1984 won't be like 1984 ...

If M1 on iPad Air 5 has 8GB RAM then it even more bizarre combination with 64GB. RAM is 1/8th of the storage space.
 
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I stand by the oddball comment 100%. Massive overkill for content consumers (most iPad users) and lacks the high end features that really set the pro apart. Just overpriced and lacking a clear point.
That’s your opinion, but you make it sound like the Pro has so many high end features over the M1 Air, when in reality it’s just the Pro motion screen. The landscape stereo speakers on the Air are very good, just second best to the quad speakers on the Pro. Most people use their AirPods Pro or proper high end headphones if they want the best sound anyway.

The big differentiator that the Pro had before was the performance of the M1 and its 8GB ram over the A14 in the Air 4, and now it does not have this advantage anymore. That was worth paying the $200 more. Apple didn’t even put the 7 core GPU, they gave the Air the full fat 8 GPU core M1!

64GB is fine for the vast majority of people, who were used to it on their 64GB iPhones, and then have iCloud storage and the options of adding USB C external storage as they see fit, it’s really not that difficult at all.

Everything else is identical between them except the Air has 5 different colour options (blue is just stunning)

The clear point of the Air line is to provide that Premium midrange experience to the masses, and this M1 IPad Air achieves that for a reasonable £569 (and the previous air 3/4). It sells in the millions and cannibalises the Pro 11, where as the Pro models sell in their thousands as luxury niche devices.

Dave 2D sums it up perfectly with his review

 
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it would be much easier if apple had 64, 128, 256 GB option for iPad Air, iPad 9th gen.

We all know 64GB to 128GB costs $50 more, 128 GB to 256GB costs $100 more, why that option is removed in some products but available in other products?

Then it will be starlight forward fight between $649 iPad Air vs $749 iPad Pro... then iPad Air wins or losses ...
 
it would be much easier if apple had 64, 128, 256 GB option for iPad Air, iPad 9th gen.

We all know 64GB to 128GB costs $50 more, 128 GB to 256GB costs $100 more, why that option is removed in some products but available in other products?

Then it will be starlight forward fight between $649 iPad Air vs $749 iPad Pro... then iPad Air wins or losses ...
Their market survey probably says iPad Air wins, hence the removal to upsell customers to the iPad Pro.
 
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another differentiator favor iPad Air, generally you will see lot of sales from best buys, targets and costcos for non pro iPad models and seldom for iPad Pro models. During holiday sales it is even higher, 3 or 4 years back many of the retailers even stock up these iPads for holidays and combine them with store gift cards to generate even more sales.
 
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