Do we need 500 different iPad models? Fkn hell man this character Cook is so desperate for sales but so stingy to drop the price of the over priced iPads. ....
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literally NO ONE complained about “so few models” when we had only ONE model for YEARS under jobs.
The world changed from when Jobs first introduced the iPad. At the introduction Jobs compared them to "netbooks". The iPad was better than a netbook. Well netbooks got better and the dece8bedents in the guise of Chromebooks started to kick the "one model iPad " out of a substantive number of sales in several markets (including education; especially in the USA. )
Apple tried the iPhone gimmick of sell "last years iPhone cheaper" that didn't work out.
Apple moved to sell a smaller screen as "more affordable" and that largely didn't work either ( Chromebook with 11-15" screen way different than a barely 8" screen. Similarly phone-tablets phablets started to pick up ).
Apple needed an affordable ( not physically changing much ) iPad. That is the current model. It regularly goes on sale for $250 ( and Apple is probably loosing no money at all at that level. It is goosed to $329, but the intention is probably that the average price is sub $300. ( the higher "normal" list price is primarily to promote "you got a deal" notion when the $40-60 discounts kick in. ). Every 2-6 weeks the discount wave hits... not sure who is actually paying $329 who is paying attention at all.
The mini survived because there is subset of business and embedded uses that just keep it around ( cash register in small biz , portable flight maps , retail inventory tool. ). It is not for everybody and definitely not for the most cost constrained. If Apple is about the tweak the screen to smaller bezels, I suspect that model will probably go comatose again in substantive upgrades for a long while like the mini 4 did. It is smaller submarket and probably will get a smaller resource allocation over time.
The current "iPad Air" is basically where the iPad was at all along. In the > $400 range. Not competitive with affordable chrome books and mainstream laptops, bit in the zone where the iPad did fairly well. ( Android still drops the ball here after all these years. ). [ Stuff from the Pro line will probably dribble down here over time as it gets more affordable to include. ] I suspect the larger screen being rumored recently is more likely for the Air ( to stretch the gap over the "affordable" iPad.
iPad Pro is another market that didn't exist when Jobs did his presentation. Serious Windows 2-in-1 and tablets ( Surface Pro and more than a few 2-in-1s for every major PC vendor Dell/HP/Lenovo/etc. Also the $500-1000 Chromebooks (2-in-1 , tablets ) . ). Keyboard with trackpad now and a USB-C socket can plug peripherals into. A high fidelity pencil also ( which Jobs dismissed but always was particularly useful for those who do lots of drawing. (as opposed to select button or follow web link.)
yes the problem is he is creating a platform to make more by giving you less product in return.
Hooey. The iPad market is large enough that there are different segments of users out there.
It’s quite easy to see actually. Under Jobs we got the best product at all times.
This is largely revisionist history. iPad sales hit a wall before the diversity of the market was address. It was relatively large but stopped moving. The 'affordable' iPad has it at least growing again.
This idiot increased the price of the best products by hundreds, sales went down, so he created a lesser product for the price we used to pay for the best
The middle iPad didn't go up at all.
"...
Many observers were surprised by Apple's entry-level price point of $499 for the iPad, with general consensus having been that pricing would come in significantly higher. ... "
The Wall Street Journal reports on a research note from Credit Suisse analyst Bill Shope based on meetings with Apple executives revealing that the...
www.macrumors.com
The current list price for an entry iPad Air ... $499 . Increased by hundreds when. Nothing increased. The name of the product in this position morphed a bit from plain "iPad" to "iPad Air" but this is still the same price point that the "holy" Jobs picked. Hasn't been moved at all.
. And now no ones buying the average iPad either so he’s giving you less...again. That’s how you ruin your brand.
LOL. the "affordable"/'edu' iPad is better than the first 3 generations of iPad in numerous ways and students can actually write on it to take notes. And it costs about $200 less that he price point that Jobs was charging. If want to pay the $499 price even better still.
Jobs was actually wrong here. "Netbooks" came and kicked butt. The iPad wasn't a "netbook killer". It took longer and shifting focus off of Windows ( to something more secure and utilitarian ), but the initiail wave of the iPad petered out after on the "one version for everyone" phase hit the wall.