Wedbush Analysts Say 'Spring Loaded' Event Will Debut New iPads With 'Modest Price Increase,' Along With 'a Few Surprises'

[HarryWild]

I would recommend getting the Air now. It's a very good value for your use case and price bracket.

Mini Pro, if it comes out, would be a first gen product. This means pricing will be on the higher end, and it will have issues and compromises for being a first gen product.

The current Air is a refined and very mature product, all the issues have been rectified over the course of the iPad Pros. It's priced reasonably. The cost of R&D has been recovered by the Pros before it, so it's a good value.

Never would go down to an iPad Air! I am currently using an iPad Pro!

 

[0924487]

Never would go down to an iPad Air! I am currently using an iPad Pro!

I am too. Then, why on earth would you want a mini? The mini is positioned/marketed to be the the same as the Air but smaller. Both are better than the entry-level iPad, but less than the Pros.

 

[hifimacianer]

I guess we will also see new M1 hardware today.

Capture One Pro (image processing software) yesterday announced in an ad, that they will be part of the event today.

"Since July 2020, we've been proud to collaborate with Apple to create a world-class image cration process - with native support for Apple M1 computers coming soon to Capture One. For a closer look at the future of high-end software and hardware, don't miss Apple's live event "Spring Loaded" - tomorrow."

 

[1258186]

I have unlimited cellular data on my iPad Pro and it's awesome. But iPadOS has just been so lacking and I've been contemplating getting a macOS product again.

As for MacBooks, they do mostly everything right but there is no excuse for an M1 MacBook to not have cellular data since they solved the battery life problem. I don't know why Apple won't just add cellular already.

There is no Apple product that checks all the boxes as of yet. Hopefully this changes this year.

Rather than getting 3 data plans I use my iPhone Personal Hotspot to connect both my iPad and MacBook to the internet because I have unlimited data on my iPhone. It works very well and has saved me the cost of a separate data plan on my iPad.

 

[1258186]

If the base model iPad gen 8 is upgraded this soon, I’ll be pissed.

I bought the iPad 3 back in the day, and six months later it was replaced by the iPad 4. I was pissed.

Most fairly educated iPad owners expect at least a one-year cycle. I wouldn’t have bought the Gen 8 if I knew the Gen 9 was just months away.

Dick move on Apple’s part.

Apple should go back to updating all the iPads at the same time every April so we can buy with confidence and compare the various models.

 

[Darth Tulhu]

Hopefully the current pros will drop in price... I might snatch one or two depending on what we get today.

Unless Apple surprises the heck out of me and puts out a bigger than 12.9" iPad, which would trigger an immediate disbursement of funds from my account.

 

[Razorpit]

I agree completely. I bought into the hype of "laptop replacement" and purchased last years iPad Pro 12.9 cellular 256gig. I bought the Magic Keyboard and Apple Pen 2 and sold my old 9.7" iPad Pro. After the sale my cost came to something like $1700.
I thought the final piece of the puzzle to productivity for me was when they added trackpad and mouse support and the ability to use external drives. I do a fair amount of Lightroom/Photoshop work and thought the higher resolution color accurate display would be great. Biggest problem there is that I copied my entire library (imported by PC) onto a hard drive that was NTFS format and the iPad doesn't read NTFS or any format except Exfat formatted by a MAC. Once I got that resolved I plugged a drive in, tried the import feature in lightroom and the IOS version only reads the parent directory. I have over 30,000 photos in over 1000 subdirectories. Further, the mouse support is really awkward to me and trackpads are awkward period. I'm sure there are some artists that find it to be great but I sure don't.
Other apps are also still very limited as well, even many of them direct ports from the iPhone that don't support landscape mode necessary for a keyboard. I guess that is why they are called "Apps" instead of applications. Apples solution is that I should contact the developers.
Yet they continue to sell their keyboards for up to $350 each. And once the Magic Keyboard is added the weight is 3 lbs. and is very top heavy, I can only uses it on my lap if I am very, careful because if I lean forward it tries to fall off and is so rigid I am sure even a short fall will damage it. Don't even think about getting this rig without Applecare.
As a consumption device it is great, I love the sound that is on a par with a very decent stereo system. And the front camera is superior to any PC for web meeting although even there the functionality of Zoom, google meetings, MS teams etc. is short. And it is great for movies and TV. So I'm keeping it as a second device for entertainment. Mostly I use it for reading, watching video when I'm using my Lenovo Yoga for work.
So I ended up biting the bullet and buying A Lenovo Yoga C940 with a 4k HDR touchscreen, soundbar with Dolby Atmos, 16 gig memory, 1 TB SSD and built in pen ($1495, $149 WW onsite warranty upgrade). It does everything the IPad Pro does (except the pen is better but I don't use it) and weighs less at 2.98 lbs. I almost sold the iPad Pro at a big loss but decided it was good for playing Monopoly.

I agree completely. I didn’t go “as in” as you did but I expected my 2017 12.9” iPad to be more useful for a lot of tasks than it currently is.

I’m a heavy ZoomNotes, Numbers, and Pages user. My role at work has changed and I’m doing more development work in Excel. None of which can be done on an iPad. Portrait only apps in 2021 are an embarrassment. Apple should force some of these “bigger” business to offer a landscape version. I shouldn‘t need to take my iPad out of its keyboard to send/receive money.

Finally Apple needs to step it up with iPad OS. It is easily the weakest “professional“ OS on the market now. While the multi-window mode is better than nothing, it is infantile for a professional device that retails for $1,000, give or take a few $100.

 

[iGüey]

And 200€ in Russia 🤬

$1000 pesos more in Mexico....

 

[sracer]

Okay but $1000 for the base 12.9 is already MUCH too high... Good luck selling selling these, Apple. Other than the tech nerds on forums like these nobody else is going to buy an iPad over $1k.

How many people who buy the base 12.9 Pro buy ONLY the iPad? How many spend another nearly $500 for the keyboard and pencil? These customers are already accustomed to spending over $1000 for their base 12.9 iPad Pro setups.

Besides, Apple already sells iPad configurations that MSRP over $1000. (the highest configs approach $2000) Obviously Apple sells enough of them to be confident in continuing to sell them at those (and higher prices).

And why shouldn't they? Apple fans have been beating the drum that the iPad is the only tablet worth buying. (I don't agree with that sentiment) Apple's customers are a captive audience and Apple would be foolish to not maximize their revenue.

As usual, people will grumble about the price, and not only pay the price, but give Apple extra for the extended warranty and "overpriced" peripherals.... and then admit that it is an amazing device and worth the price.

 

[jk1221]

$1099 for the 12.9 LOLOL. BIG pass. Laptop pricing now without any keyboard but hindered by iPad OS. You can get a well-equipped modern ultrabook with touch for that plus a keyboard cost.

Becoming a niche item at that price.

The Air is basically the best being for the buck if you just want an iPad with a good size screen and dont care about using a camera on an iPad "live an animal" (Rene Richie reference) or gimmicky LIDAR. M1 is overkill and mini LED is great, but for basically double the cost? Nope.

 

[pdoherty]

The fact they know the larger iPad Pro is pricey and they just more than doubled the RAM to 16GB, added storage to 2TB, plus the fact it’s running an M1 CPU, I’m betting the Pro becomes dockable sooner rather than later and acts like a desktop OS when docked, a tablet when not.

 

[MacBH928]

$1000 is not too much for PRO. I have learned this while seeing prices for heavy duty business tools. There is software that costs more than this.

 

[MacBH928]

The fact they know the larger iPad Pro is pricey and they just more than doubled the RAM to 16GB, added storage to 2TB, plus the fact it’s running an M1 CPU, I’m betting the Pro becomes dockable sooner rather than later and acts like a desktop OS when docked, a tablet when not.

This can be the perfect combo especially when the files are launched in Office App while in tablet mode and Office for MacOS in docked mode. I never thought of this, 2 OS -> 1 hardware.

If true, I really can see how this can be the next major revolution in PC history. Android phones tried this and while it works, unlike the iPad, it does not offer a full fledges desktop OS in dock mode. I mean the 12.9 iPad is just as large as my MBP screen.

I thought Tim was not smart. He sure out smarted me, and everyone else.