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Would it change how you buy Apple products knowing a 6-month life cycle?

silverblack said:
Now suppose Tim Cook admits that from now on the product cycles will be 6 months for everything. I know, it won't happen, but just humor me, say he does. Do you think you'll look at Apple products the same way as you do now, especially when it comes to the time to sell and upgrade?
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Heck, if they tell us they'll upgrade every 3 weeks I'd be fine with it because having a concrete schedule is less stressful than playing Apples guessing game. IMO, the era of secrecy is over and it would be nice for Apple to just pre-announce rather than let all these leaks confuse users as to what is happening next.
 
I'd probably just buy every third or fourth update rather than every other update. Roughly every 15 - 24 months will most likely work for me.

I'm not convinced Apple is moving to a set 6 month cycle. I think part of the move was because they wanted to get the iPad intro before the holidays rather than after. More importantly I think they want to brake away from a set cycle altogether (regardless of it being 6 month or 12 month) and introduce new products when they think the time is right.
 
reputationZed said:
I'm not convinced Apple is moving to a set 6 month cycle. I think part of the move was because they wanted to get the iPad intro before the holidays rather than after. More importantly I think they want to brake away from a set cycle altogether (regardless of it being 6 month or 12 month) and introduce new products when they think the time is right.
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Im all for Apple ignoring a schedule and offering the latest and greatest as early as possible, but is the iPad 4 really a product that screams "This is awesome and we couldnt wait any longer!"?

IF the iPad 4 was new hardware or a new design then I think people wouldnt be as upset, but as it is then its such an incremental update that most of the outrage is knowing that their 80% resale value just plummeted for no good reason.
 
urkel said:
Im all for Apple ignoring a schedule and offering the latest and greatest as early as possible, but is the iPad 4 really a product that screams "This is awesome and we couldnt wait any longer!"?

IF the iPad 4 was new hardware or a new design then I think people wouldnt be as upset, but as it is then its such an incremental update that most of the outrage is knowing that their 80% resale value just plummeted for no good reason.
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I disagree. I think if it was a new design way more people would have been upset and lining up to resell the iPad 3 and buy the redesigned iPad 4.
 
So its twice as fast?

My current iPad 3 doesn't feel twice as slow.

The biggest plus is getting enhanced LTE out to other countries that support it.
 
noteple said:
So its twice as fast?

My current iPad 3 doesn't feel twice as slow.

The biggest plus is getting enhanced LTE out to other countries that support it.
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Have you used the iPhone 5? After I got the iPhone 5, I immediately felt my iPad to be slow.
 
The main reason I got the now old new iPad was because I got tired os sharing, so I passed it on. Will probably wait until one of these two don't do the job before upgrading again.
 
I would probably be like others and just skip generations. I don't need the newest & latest every 6 months or so. I used appreciate Apple taking their time in the past and trying to perfect before releasing but times are changing so its a sink or swim sort of perspective. It just means for me personally holding off longer, no biggie.
 
Will buy every other release. I don't think this will help Apple's sales esp most people will catch onto this new release cycle even if they're not avid apple fans. I liked the idea of Apple gaining massive hype to a new product release.

I also wonder if this will hurt the quality of the product if apple has to rush out a new upgrade every 6 months. I do not want to have to exchange my apple device a million times.
 
I am guessing this is a one time thing and the ipad cycle will be around the holidays instead of quarter 2.
 
I finally have enough to get my first iPad after chasing that dragon since Oct. 2010. I'm glad news of iPad 3,6 leaked just days before my birthday so I knew not to jump into something that wouldn't have been what I had waited so long to get: the top-most tiered set.

That being said, if Apple should release an iPad 5 in March, can't say I'd be too upset because it's what I need (want...) now. I work in furniture retail, and we're about to hit our slow season. This will be great for catching up on reading books and comics as well as writing a few projects (scripts and a book) in the vast amount of downtime I will have, which helps to keep me distracted from how much money I'm not making. I used my buddy's 1G iPad in April to bang out a few scripts at work and it's still incredibly useful, if a little dated. It still works just fine for what it's needed for. It didn't completely shut down when it was left behind.

The point of all this is that if you're getting 2.5 years out of a device in today's market and it still works in the same condition as the day you bought it, what are you complaining about? Everything changes too quickly nowadays. As a filmmaker, there have been at least a dozen different accepted digital movie file types in the last 7 years. Accept someone is going to change it up, adapt, and move along. Otherwise, you might as well switch gears to an industry like furniture where the last big feature was the detachable back to a reclining sofa.


If apple releases the iPad 5 in March, well, I got what I needed out of it, and it's likely to give me another few years (two to be exact with Applecare+) of usefulness.
 
Apple can update their iPads every month for all I care; I personally won't be upgrading until iOS gets a major overhaul. because at this point, the A5X/A6X runs iOS smoothly and perfectly, and the lack of attention to bugs and worthy improvements on the software end is starting to piss me off.
 
The recent spat of product upgrades along with OS upgrades and the resulting issues on older devices has convinced me I will go on a multi-year upgrade cycle on my devices; which will probably include OS/iOS upgrades. If what I have now meets me needs and the new OS/iOS does not enhance or takes away from my abilities to use the device in anyway I will not upgrage.

For now, my iPad 3 and 2010 MBP and heck even my 2010 MacBook my son uses for school all meet our needs perfect. A new iPad or MBP will not create or send email faster, stream a video with any better quality, will not let my son write a book report faster or make him less lazy to do so and does not improve the speed of the internet for us.

Sure, for some users under some circumstances an upgrade will pay big benefits, but for most users, who use the iPad as an email/internet device an upgrade will often have zero impact on their day to day use. IMHO

A frequent product release cycle can make it less compelling to upgrade honestly. So for me I am leaning towards 3 to 4 year upgrades on computers and 2 years on iDevices. Heck our iPad 1 is still alive and kicking being used every day by our 6 year old daughter.
 
Wouldn't make a difference to me. I buy what I need when I need it, not on someone else's schedule. I'd still take years between purchases.
 
JrJ 15 said:
Do they have the same capabilities that you purchased it with? Was anything taken AWAY with software updates?
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Nothing was taken away, but functionality is selectively added based on their whims.

Why doesn't the iPad 2 have Siri as a functionality when the iPad Mini will? When iOS 6 was released, Siri was added to the "new" iPad (3rd Gen) but not the iPad 2. Speculation was the hardware couldn't handle it. We know now that's a bunch of BS, since the iPad Mini will have Siri with the same chip as the iPad 2.

So in a way, when they update iOS, things are taken away since they don't include features on the "old" device that are included on the newer ones.....features that could be included if they wanted to include them. Instead they force people to upgrade if they want those features.

And what happens when the "old" hardware is no longer supported - meanging the iOS update doesn't apply to it? You can't update the iOS, the App store stops working so you lose that and now you're forced to either deal or update.
 
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