Apple today announced iPad with Retina display replaces iPad 2 as the most affordable 9.7-inch iPad at $399 for the 16GB Wi-Fi model and $529 for the Wi-Fi + Cellular model. The fourth generation iPad features the amazing 9.7-inch Retina display, the Apple-designed A6X chip, ultrafast Wi-Fi, a 5MP iSight camera which also captures 1080p HD video, a FaceTime HD camera, and support for LTE carriers worldwide,¹ all while delivering up to 10 hours of battery life.² iPad with Retina display comes with iOS 7, featuring hundreds of great new features, including Control Center, Notification Center, improved Multitasking, AirDrop, enhanced Photos, Safari, Siri and iTunes Radio.³
“Now for $399 customers can get iPad with a stunning 9.7-inch Retina display, fast A6X chip, and 5MP iSight camera, offering a dramatic upgrade in power, performance and value compared to the iPad 2 it replaces,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing, in the press release. “The iPad line sets the gold-standard in mobile computing and all iPads have access to the largest and best ecosystem of more than 500,000 iPad optimized apps from the App Store.”
iPad customers have access to the revolutionary App Store, which offers more than one million apps to iPhone, iPad and iPod touch users in 155 countries around the world, and more than 500,000 apps are designed specifically for iPad. More than 65 billion apps have been downloaded from the App Store, which offers customers an incredible range of apps in 24 categories, including newspapers and magazines in Newsstand, games and entertainment, kids, education, business, news, sports, health and fitness and travel. The iLife® suite of creative apps, including iPhoto, iMovie and GarageBand, and the iWork suite of productivity apps, including Pages, Numbers® and Keynote® are essential to the Apple experience and are now free, so more iPad users have access to these great apps that are optimized to support 64-bit technology and include hundreds of new features.
Pricing & Availability
iPad with Retina display models in black or white are available for a suggested retail price of $399 (US) for the 16GB Wi-Fi model and $529 (US) for the 16GB Wi-Fi + Cellular model for either AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile or Verizon. Smart Cover and Smart Case for iPad with Retina display are available in dark gray for $39 (US) and $49 (US) respectively through the Apple Online Store, Apple’s retail stores and select Authorized Apple Resellers. iPad Air with Wi-Fi models are available in silver or space gray for a suggested retail price of $499 (US) for the 16GB model, $599 (US) for the 32GB model, $699 (US) for the 64GB model and $799 (US) for the 128GB model. iPad Air with Wi-Fi + Cellular are available for a suggested retail price of $629 (US) for the 16GB model, $729 (US) for the 32GB model, $829 (US) for the 64GB model and $929 (US) for the 128GB model.
iPad mini with Retina display Wi-Fi models are available in silver or space gray for a suggested retail price of $399 (US) for the 16GB model, $499 (US) for the 32GB model, $599 (US) for the 64GB model and $699 (US) for the 128GB model. iPad mini with Retina display Wi-Fi + Cellular models will be available for a suggested retail price of $529 (US) for the 16GB model, $629 (US) for the 32GB model, $729 (US) for the 64GB model and $829 (US) for the 128GB model. Additionally, the original iPad mini is offered at $299 (US) for the 16GB Wi-Fi model and $429 (US) for the 16GB Wi-Fi + Cellular model for either AT&T, Sprint, T-mobile or Verizon.
¹LTE is available through select carriers. Network speeds are dependent on carrier networks. Check with your carrier for details.
²Battery life depends on device settings, usage and other factors. Actual results vary.
³iTunes Radio is available with iOS 7 in the US and Australia.
Source: Apple Inc.
MacDailyNews Take: Apple’s ludicrous press release headline, which Steve Jobs never would have allowed and over which likely would have immediately pink-slipped the moron who suggested it:
Apple Updates Most Affordable 9.7-inch iPad with Retina display, Improved Cameras & Enhanced Performance — Now Available Starting at $399
At Tim Cook’s Apple, everything old is new again. Tim and Phil, you fooled nobody and diminished Apple in the process. We’re surprised you didn’t slap it into a plastic case, spend millions on new TV ads, and trot out Jony to talk up how unapologetic he is.
Pray to God that Cook et al. don’t consider this a “new category.”
FIRE Tim Cook!
Oh no, you’re back. Kindly go and fuck yourself dickhead.
iPhone 5c 8GB and an iPad 4 brought out of mothballs.
I hope Tim Cook isn’t prancing around today crowing about “two new categories” or Apple is fscking dead.
Hardly a game changer is it, simply shows previously poor decision making or confusion which the critics will jump up, after all they don’t actually need anything concrete to use so this will be a serious bonus to them.
The problem is that the way Apple has framed this seems like there’s an intent to deceive. Not being forthright and truthful will hurt Apple. This press release is awful and not how Steve Jobs’ Apple would have gone about it.
Well, let’s not blame the critics. The critics didn’t do this. Apple did. And MDN’s take is spot on. It’s the truth so quit making excuses.
Apple should have sold the iPad 4 with a Lightning connector in the first place but the visionless Cook wanted to milk Apple customers for every penny they had because in truth innovating is hard – too hard for the visionless Cook it seems. Sad but true.
Um, they did. iPad 4 launched with nothing but a “new connector” and faster CPU over iPad 3.
Not sure what you meant to say ?
Apple’s press release headline is rather telling.
And what it’s telling me is to perhaps consider taking some of my Steve Jobs-generated AAPL profits now before Cook and Co. really start to shovel the bullshit.
Please do. Then you’ll have no reason to post again.
Apple re-issues iPad 4 because its still better than the competition.
However, I’m still using the iPad 1st Gen which continues to do all that I need it for and still has great battery life on the original battery. ( the trouble when you produce really great products is that they last and last – which means you need to introduce a killer feature to force the upgrade)
Apple re-issues the iPad 4, but pretends that they’re “updating” something.
That is the problem. Not that the iPad 4 is available, but how Apple tried to whitewash it. That is not how the Apple I invested in did business. Just state the facts, Apple.
The iPad 1st gen is ridiculously low on performance and, most importantly, RAM (only 256MB). You must not do much with your iPad because the iPad 1st gen couldn’t even keep something in the clipboard without crashing due to lack of memory while loading a webpage. It was f-ing ridiculous. The difference between iPad 1st gen and even the iPad 2 was enormous due to the RAM increase alone (512MB). iPad 3, iPad 4 and iPad Air all offer 1GB RAM.
I didn’r say a 1st Gen iPad was ‘current tech’, I just said it does OK for what I want, a tablet that I can use anywhere with a screen big enough to use the internet services for banking, amazon, web surfing, e-baying etc, even with my crappy eyesight.
I wold like it to do more with photos – but even the latest gen is being intentionally crippled by Apple when it comes to import/export, USB sticks etc. etc.
Quit living in denial and admit that Apple screwed up. This is what they should have done last September. That’s clear to anyone who thinks for himself. Everyone can see that. At least any honest person.
Don’t travel too far, Scott Forstall. The Apple BoD might be looking for a new CEO soon.
Can’t innovate anymore, my ass.
My ass can’t innovate anymore.
The iPad 2 had large institutions and business testing them. IT had to make sure they were secure to approve them before deployment. This is a large, profitable, and loyal market that is under the radar of most people. Now that Apple is in the door it should be easier for upgrades to be approved. Tim is getting Apple in markets that Steve only dreamed of
So what? They could’ve kept selling the iPad 2 at $299 while still dropping the price of the iPad 4 to $399. Then they just could’ve canceled the iPad 2 today. Nobody disputes that the iPad 2 was still viable, it’s that Apple completely bungled a rather simple transition.
But keeping the iPad2 is a whole other production line filled with “old” components that they may be tired of making or trying to get. It might be more expensive to keep making old panels, instead of just upping to a retina panel.
I’d guess that they’ve sold a bunch of iPad2s to schools, police/fire departments, businesses, etc., and they probably can’t do that kind of thing without the basic model they want to sell to those customers at least being available to the general public (can you imagine the screams just on this website?). The price is wrong if you are Joe-consumer, but just right — with a discount — for institutions. I was wondering if that might not be the deal with the 8GB 5C too. A company could buy a boatload of those — again, with some kind of volume discount — for less than any other iPhones. Gets their foot in the door.
MDN is bipolar when it comes to Tim Cook:
First they say things like (paraphrasing here) “those who underestimate Tim Cook, do so at their own peril”, and then they *Steve Jack* turn about-face and write stuff like they did here.
They’re not bipolar. They hope for the best but must call the plays as they see them on the field.
MDN hopes against hope that Tim Cook is the real deal despite all evidence to the contrary.
Just like Obama supporters used to do. 🙂
Maybe it’s Tim Cook who’s bipolar.
So far, Cook has made repeated promises of “innovation,” but delivered nothing but warmed over products amid a slew of missteps: screwed up iMac for Xmas 2012, iPhone 5c, Maps, Browett, etc., etc., etc.
I hope MDN’s faith in Tim Cook isn’t misplaced. Steve Jobs did make wrong personnel choices, you know. Sculley, for example. Jobs even pushed for Eric Schmidt to sit on Apple BoD!!!
I agree about Browett being a mistake, but the others you’ve listed are examples of the Apple-hating press making mountains out of Schmidt hills.
Excuses, excuses, excuses. Quit making excuses for Apple. It’s just a big company. It’s not as though you have to make excuses for your best friend who screws up. It’s just a big impersonal company. Latch onto something else in life to defend. Irrational behavior is juvenile at best. Grow up. Learn to live with the truth. Grow a pair.
The new Mac Pro wasn’t innovative?
Working TouchID wasn’t innovative?
A 64-bit mobile operating system (and corresponding processor) isn’t innovative?
iBeacon isn’t a legitimate game-changer?
Come on, man. Just because Apple hasn’t released a new product category (something most companies never do in their entire existence yet Apple has done multiple times over the last 40 years) doesn’t mean they are incapable of innovating. Innovation takes time, and sometimes innovation is quiet and under-the-hood instead of loud and obvious.
Nothing innovative about resurrecting old tech. That seems to be the limit of Apple’s innovative abilities these days, rolling out multiple versions of the same product dressed in plastic, different colors, lousy iOS 7, bringing back tech (iPad 4) that should have been sold to the customer in the first place.
Apple has never been known to be duplicitous which is what is it – selling under-specced 8GB iPhone5C to make a bit of extra buck at the expense of customer experience – that’s the new Apple.
Commenter A says Apple doesn’t innovate.
Commenter B lists examples of Apple innovating.
Commenter C ignores those examples and goes off on a tangent.
Thanks for playing, Joe. Turn in your jersey and the key to your locker. You won’t be needing those anymore.
With idiots like you treating sports injuries, it’s a wonder that more athletes don’t die of broken necks. Turn in your bogus doctor’s licence and go practice mumbo jumbo in the farthest reaches of Africa.
Your comments have nothing at all to do with the subject at hand. Quit acting like an Apple fanboy. It only makes you look foolish.
I’m sorry, but someone saying “Apple’s Tim Cook doesn’t innovate” doesn’t invite a response pointing out that the statement is factually wrong?
Tim Cook has faults. Apple has faults. But saying that the company hasn’t innovated under Cook is a lie, and basing a belief that Apple won’t innovate in the future based on that lie is idiotic.
Criticize Apple based on FACTS, not based on misconceptions that are easily refuted.
You forgot to mention he put Ive in charge of the UI, a disaster IMO.
@Arnold: Agree 110%. I really don’t understand these reactions from both MDN and some of the posters here. For $395 you can now get a much better iPad – why is this a bad thing? And this move mirrors previous ones by Apple on iPhones and iPads. Did everyone on the East Coast get up on the wrong side of the bed?
The point is they could have sold the iPad 4 with a Lightning connector from day one, instead of waiting six months down the road. In the meantime those customers who bought the iPad 2 in good faith thinking that they were at least buying into the latest iPad ecosystem must feel like they got suckered into buying old tech.
It is not a good feeling to have, and to deceive your customers in this way and to try to fob off your customers by pretending that the iPad 4 is new tech according to the publicity blurb when in fact what Apple is doing is resurrecting old tech that could have been sold at no extra cost to Apple is not a good move to make. If Apple had sold the iPad 4 from day one to customers they won’t feel as cheated as those who bought the iPad 2 for $399.
And in six months’ time the iPad 4 will be obsolete because the iPad Air will be the second tier iPad, so you’re again marooning another set of customers. At least if you’re trying to sell old tech dressed up as new, make the customer an offer that is commensurate with Apple’s credo of caring for the customer, not ripping them off at every opportunity.
Finally an honest comment. Although I’m sure the fanboys will jump all over you for being objective.
Hmm… On one hand you criticize Apple for its failure (in your opinion) to innovate. On the other, you’re indignant over them stranding owners of their older tech. I don’t really think you can have it both ways. Carp about them moving slowly, or whine about them moving fast, but please pick your position.
MDN thinks for itself. It’s honest. And objective. Doesn’t drink the Kool-Aid. At least not all the time. Fanboys should simply write their own stories and then read them back to themselves. You are embarrassing.
Oink.
I’m really weary of the Kool-Aid metaphor. To what untimely death did we blindly follow Steve Jobs? To all appearances, Apple has been anything but a cult. The believers, if you want to perceive them that way, stuck with Apple through thin and difficult times, and now they are, if anything, vindicated in their zeal and perseverance, as Apple emerges and triumphs. Steve has left us, and supposedly Tim Cook doesn’t have what it takes to bend our minds with his dynamic presentations. So why do we still follow? Because the products are that good. You want a metaphor that works? Apple is fine wine. Microsoft, Google, et al are grape Kool-Aid. Maybe one of these days, you’ll become an adult and notice the difference.
The iPad 4 > the iPad 2
Now it’s the same price.
DAMN YOU APPLE!!!!!!!!!!!!
What’s wrong with this move? You people are just disappointed there are no new products.
what’s wrong is Apple framing it as an “upgrade” when everybody knows they’re just bringing back the iPad 4. Apple should simply state the truth, not basically lie in their press release.
They upgraded the 399 price point with a much better device.
Apple under Cook is more adept at resurrecting old products than bringing new products on stream. If that’s the case, I’m awaiting news that they’re bringing back Steve Jobs from the dead. A dead Jobs has more innovative abilities than a live Cook anyway.
I agree that this is not the Apple way, however this is what Apple will be doing to gain market share. Something MDN is adamant about with the screen size of the 6 so I don’t know why they are all over this announcement as bad. Make up your mind guys.
MDN has never been adamant about gaining market share for the sake of market share.
Excellent point I do disagree somewhat with the harping on the screen size of the 6. Either way this announcement disappoints me greatly.
Enlarging the screen size will attract the same premium customers. It’s not about sacrificing quality for market share. Look at the poll results that MDN continuously post. Those are Apple customers like me who want our iPhone screens to be bigger.
What is Apple trying to do here, They are acting desperate when they don’t need to.. 8gb 5c and relaunching iPad 4 is really not helping their bottom line it just is bringing down the brand value.
Well, this pretty much seals the iPad 2’s fate. If anyone was holding out hope for IOS 8 on their iPad 2….. Forgetaboutit.
I can see if someone has a problem with the way it’s marketed as an “upgrade,” but I think you’re splitting hairs a bit.
The iPad isn’t one device anymore. It’s more like the MacBook lineup that includes various models at different price points.
It depends on how you look at it, but in certain terms it is a huge upgrade at the entry level price point. This new “cheapest” version runs circles around the iPad 2 in performance and features.
It really is as if the Mac mini suddenly became last year’s iMac for $699. And if that happened, I just don’t see anyone on here complaining.
These babies will sell like wild fire to education and enterprise. Had this announcement meant there will be no new iPads this year other than these, then bitch away. But it has nothing to do with the latest model.
I love how we’re taking an undeniably good thing (iPad with Retina Display replacing the iPad 2 as the entry-level full-sized iPad) and spinning it into a bad thing.
When did WE become our own enemy?
We’ve learnt quite a bit from the fudsters, spinmeisters, dreggers, and recidivist journalists. Hanging out with a bad crowd, and all that. Now we can do it ourselves. Pass the crack pipe.
I think this is for education. Soon, schools will be looking to prep budgets for next year. The iPad4 will be supported longer than the 2. Schools can save money over buying iPad Air and buy something that will be supported longer.
It is late for this. iPad2 at $399 was an absurd rip off in 2013. This should have been done when iPad Air launched but they waited until iPad mini retina had a chance to rake it in, since an iPad 4 at 399 last fall would have certainly taken some mini sales.