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I’ve bought a new iPad almost every generation since they came out and have found them less and less useful each round. I have an OLED iPad Pro now with keyboard and pencil pro that add virtually no value to my life at all. I will not be buying another.
That’s probably because you don’t need to buy a new one almost every generation. The iPad is an extremely useful device but it’s not an annual upgrade type of device
 
I currently have an iPad Air 13in. and I really like it. This should do me for quite a few years. But I am interested to see what is coming simply out of technical curiosity as well as to know what I will be able to offer my customers.
 
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I'm happy you're happy, but you say you've bought every single generation? I must say I find that kinda nuts considering the upgrades between generations ever since the first and second gen iPad Pro have been minimal.

A good friend of mine who's an architect uses nothing but his iPad Pro at work and on the train, he uses it like a maniac. And even he upgrades only every 3 generations. He only just went from the M1 to the M4 and it wasn't even due to something the M4 offers that the M1 didn't. It was because he needed more RAM and he had made the "bad choice" to get the 256GB M1 which only had 8GB. So he has the 1TB M4 13" now. He hasn't talked to me about the display quality difference but I'm sure he must appreciate that too. But honestly, even the display quality difference isn't that great like between retina and non-retina for example.

Could you explain why you upgrade every generation?
Sooo maybe not everyone but dang near

First one- because
Second gen iPad. - so much better than the first. This was the iPad that Apple wanted to build. I used this so much for notes in college
Third gen- let me think. Oh yeah Retina display
4th gen iPad- your right I didn’t buy this one
6th gen - Apple Pencil
5th and 7th gen for the kids

iPad mini
First gen to take notes at school. It wasn’t great. Screen too small
5th and 6th gen minis - I really don’t use these much since I also had pros, but nothing beats the portability. And even though it is close in screen size to a phone, it runs iPad software like procreate.

iPad Pro
I bought the first iPad Pro (9.7” I think) just because, but I soon changed to the 12.9 with the keyboard portfolio. This was nice, but that iPad was huge and heavy with the bezels. Such a great experience drawing on such a large surface.

A12x iPad Pro 12.9 was a big upgrade in portability over the first gen. The new Apple Pencil was great also. Nice that it docked to the iPad and charged.
Magic Keyboard. This came out sometime after the iPad and wow it really added a new way to use the iPad. It still amazes me how different the device becomes when you put on that keybaord

A12z - no diff did not buy
M1 iPad Pro 12.9. What a great machine. I bought it on sale at Christmas, but it really wasn’t that different than the a12x version. They are all so fast now
M2 - I did not buy this
M4 Pro 13. - this is obviously the best one, mine is 16 gig 1Tb, I do wish I got the nano texture for drawing.
Apple Pencil Pro is great. In procreate the ability to twist the barrel of the pencil is so useful.

That’s about it. Sorry not everyone, but dang near. I have also traded in many of these to buy the new one. When I bought the m4 they gave me 540 for the M1 ipad pro. I still find that crazy that I used it for 2-3 years and it still worth half what I paid.
 
I’ve bought a new iPad almost every generation since they came out and have found them less and less useful each round. I have an OLED iPad Pro now with keyboard and pencil pro that add virtually no value to my life at all. I will not be buying another.
We either like iPads or not.
I have only mini's - a 5, that I don’t use more then as a timer etc, and a 6 that I use though.
I also bought a pen, that I forgot that I have. So not that interesting.
I love my My Mac's lots more ♥️
 
Agreed. Again I am a developer and clearly the pro has enough power to run things like Xcode and the terminal.

It runs the same hardware as the Mac mini, so yeah of course it can. You don't have to be a developer to see M4 on both product's spec page.
 
I am an Apple user since so many years now, I had an iPad 7 but well over the years it got slower and it came to the point where no app was even opening , recently I got an andrioid tablet, Xiaomi pad 7 and it is really great for the price, It is cheaper and way better than the base model iPad.

Phone is something which I use daily so I don't think so I will ever be able to move to android, if they make something as small as the iPhone 13 mini then I will think of moving. It is just that I am used to the iOS interface and android confuses me, but when it came to tablets, they make better for much less price.

My m1 macbook air works like a charm, this has to be the best Apple laptop I have gotten, before I had Macbook Pro's and Macbook Air's but they gave up within 3 to 4 years!

I will wait for the m5 Macbook Air, I hope they will be able to make it more thinner and lighter.
 
For me, the most interesting thing with the next MacBooks Air and iPads is whether or not they're getting price hikes because of tariffs or not.

My theory with 16e is that Apple launched it and set the price to match the value of iPhone 14 1/1 to fill the gap in the lineup that the EU forced Apple to create with the USB-C mandate, cutting SE 2022 and 14.

Some 10% added to the price of all new Apple products surely won't help sales in the U.S. or elsewhere.

The retail price difference between M2/M3 MacBooks Air and iPads Air M2 and the soon to be launched ones would be insane. No way I could justify an M4 MacBook Air over the older ones.

Then again, I do expect EU retailers to stock up on the new ones and struggle to sell them. So substantial sales within a few months or weeks? Would, of course, also depend on how many M2 and M3 MacBooks Air EU stores have in stock.

Fingers crossed that nothing changes. 😬
 
I’ve bought a new iPad almost every generation since they came out and have found them less and less useful each round. I have an OLED iPad Pro now with keyboard and pencil pro that add virtually no value to my life at all. I will not be buying another.
For me it’s the opposite. I’m doing almost everything on my iPP. Two years ago I had to get a new Mac for work. I really hesitated, because I don’t see using it much at all after I leave this job at the end of the year.
 
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For me it’s the opposite. I’m doing almost everything on my iPP. Two years ago I had to get a new Mac for work. I really hesitated, because I don’t see using it much at all after I leave this job at the end of the year.
That’s fair, I wish they would allow Mac OS to run on it, that would change things for a lot of people including myself. It’s far too hamstrung as it is.
 
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"No major design changes have been rumored..."

I'm certain that this is a lie. The new device will be extra thin so that battery life continues to be abysmal.

But they'll still have that "UP TO 10 hours" language that keeps them from having to improve...
 
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Here’s hoping that tariffs don’t affect the prices too much.

Would such tariffs affect Canadian buyers? We could get hit by changes to the exchange rate though. Currently US$1 = CA$1.4458, or CA$1 = US$0.6917

Right now the iPad is US$349 or CA$499, corresponding to an exchange rate of 1.4298.

I did commercial imports for many years. Tariffs are applied based on country of manufacture. In the case of iPads, since they are manufactured in China, any tariffs between the USA and Canada would have no effect even if the iPads were shipped from a warehouse in the USA.

The problem is I think Apple maintains a general stock in the USA for all of North America. In that case Apple would have to pay whatever tariffs are in place in the USA for goods manufactured in China to import new iPads into their warehouse. It would affect all of us in both countries equally unless Apple supplies Canada directly.
 
air?? didn't they just update that last year? or are they moving air's up to yearly lifecycles? pretty sure they were on 2 year cycles.
 
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I was thinking the same but at least the 17 pro chip so AI could be used on the iPad.
Purchasing an iPad 11 solely for Apple Intelligence is not an option for me, given its significant shortcomings compared to ChatGPT and Perplexity.

I recently needed to replace an iPad 8 and iPad 9 and considered waiting for the iPad 11. However, after using Apple Intelligence on my iPhone 15 Pro Max for several months, I realized waiting was unnecessary. Instead, I opted for two 256GB iPad 10s at $429 each.

With ChatGPT and Perplexity installed, I have no regrets. I saved money and avoided the disappointment of expecting Apple Intelligence or Siri to match their competitors.
 
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The problem is I think Apple maintains a general stock in the USA for all of North America. In that case Apple would have to pay whatever tariffs are in place in the USA for goods manufactured in China to import new iPads into their warehouse. It would affect all of us in both countries equally unless Apple supplies Canada directly.
One can hope that with the US tariffs on Chinese made products, Apple would stock items for the Canadian market within Canada.

I can say that historically with my orders in Canada I have received Apple products from three different countries:

1. Shipped directly from China.
2. Shipped from a warehouse in Canada.
3. Shipped from a warehouse in the US.
 
Last year my iPad Air (3rd Generation) stopped charging because the charging port failed. I contacted repair shops and they mostly all told me that I ought to buy a replacement iPad since it wasn't worth the cost to fix it. They quoted $200-300.

So I bought a new iPad Pro 11" (4th Generation) with the M2 chip. Gosh, I loved that device. It was light, fast and powerful with the great cameras and 1 TB storage, etc.

Then I realized that it had a problem: the ever present bright white home bar line at the bottom of the screen. It really annoyed me at night, that bright line shining just below my field of vision. I searched but Apple provides no way to turn it off.

My iPad Air 3rd generation has a home button so there is no bright white home bar displayed on the screen.

Exasperated, I returned the iPad Pro, stating that I didn't like it.

I found a great repair shop that replaced the charging port on my 3rd gen iPad Air for $99 and it works like new!

It's a real shame because I wanted the new iPad. Recently Best Buy had the M2 iPad Pros (2 TB) on sale for $1,099. I wanted to buy one, but alas I know that I would be unhappy with it.

If Apple ever removes the home bar I would be thrilled to buy an M4 iPad Pro with the OLED screen.

I have attempted to persuade Apple to either remove the home bar or at least give us a setting to hide it, all to no avail.

Sigh...
 
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Apple is expected to announce new MacBook Air models with the M4 chip as soon as this week, and new iPads should follow shortly after.

m2-ipad-air-fathers-day.jpg

iPad Air and iPad 10 inventory is running low at Apple Stores, and Bloomberg's Mark Gurman believes this is a sign that new iPads will be introduced soon.

However, unlike the new MacBook Air, he said the new iPad models "probably won't come in the next few days."

So, the timeframe for the new iPads is not narrowed down yet, but it seems like the devices will not be unveiled at the same time as the MacBook Air with the M4 chip.

Our best guess is that these iPads will launch at some point in March or April.

No major design changes have been rumored for the next iPad Air or iPad 11, with the devices expected to receive under-the-hood improvements only. The next iPad Air is expected to be powered by the M3 chip or M4 chip, while the iPad 11 is rumored to be equipped with an A16 Bionic chip or A17 Pro chip.

As for the iPad Pro, do not expect a new model until Apple announces the M5 chip. And the iPad mini was just updated months ago.

Article Link: New iPads Expected Shortly After This Week's Likely M4 MacBook Air Announcement
I don’t expect much from Apple anymore in the way of exciting. It’s all iterative improvements with software that isn’t ready for another 3/4 of a year to a year and is often broken at that. Not the same company I’ve grown to love and find our household is less and less enthusiastic behind things the release. Tim Cook isn’t the product guy the company needs and has cheapened the brand in our opinion.
 
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