“In what has become something of a trend, Apple once again unveiled a few iPad strategy adjustments in March,” Neil Cybart writes for Seeking Alpha. “This year’s changes include an update to the 7.9-inch iPad mini and altering the 10.5-inch iPad Pro to arrive at a lower-priced and rebranded 10.5-inch iPad Air.”
“There is no question that some customers use price to select the best iPad. Accordingly, the $329 iPad and $499 iPad Air will likely be strong sellers,” Cybart writes. “Another variable that may guide a customer’s buying decision is screen size. As with price, Apple has done a good job of covering the screen range from 7.9 inches to 12.9 inches. Apple continues to position the larger 9.7-inch iPad, instead of the new, smaller iPad mini, as the entry-level option. This is done because larger iPads have become vastly more popular than the iPad mini. Apple did not want to sacrifice that popularity just to have screen size correlate directly to price. In addition, the larger 9.7-inch iPad is marketed to educational institutions (special pricing brings the 9.7-inch iPad to $299).”
“From a hardware perspective, it’s hard to argue we aren’t looking at the strongest iPad line to date. Apple has spent the past three years expanding the iPad line in order to appeal to hundreds of millions of people,” Cybart writes. “This takes us to software – the missing link. All of the signs point to Apple getting the iPad line ready for new software features unveiled at this year’s WWDC. This week’s hardware updates cap off the first half of Apple’s two-part iPad show.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Just giving a bit more to more advanced users would go a long way at the higher end (iPad Pro). Apple could have things like floating windows, file management, icon arrangement, and other “pro” features off by default, to be enabled by those who want them.
Imagine an “iOS Pro” mode.
Turn on iOS Pro on your iPad Pro
1. Tap Settings > General, and make sure iOS Pro is turned on.
2. There is no step two.Hey, we can dream, can’t we?
Shouldn’t such a thing already exist? Where would iPad sales be if it did? — MacDailyNews, December 29, 2015
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The answer isn’t to try to make the iPad into a MacBook. The answer is to provide all the tools possible in iOS for developers to make robust apps that can take advantage of the multi-touch paradigm. — MacDailyNews, May 16, 2017
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Take off the training wheels, Apple! After over a decade, we’re familiar with the touch paradigm already! — MacDailyNews, January 8, 2019
SEE ALSO:
Apple’s iPad Pro needs a pro version of iOS – January 10, 2019
Apple’s iPad Pro is only a few key steps away from being a killer computer – December 24, 2018
Apple’s amazingly powerful iPad Pro is a computer from the future, with software from yesterday – November 9, 2018
I can’t put Apple’s new iPad Pro down, but we really need ‘padOS’ – November 8, 2018
What Apple’s iPad Pro enables matters more than what it replaces – November 7, 2018
The Verge reviews the new iPad Pro: Apple’s approach to iOS is holding back powerful hardware in serious ways – November 5, 2018
The new iPad Pro’s facial recognition is difficult to use. Typically your iPad is laying down on a desk. When you try to log in you have to rush to lift the tablet. Often the camera is at the wrong end, and even when you get it right, it rejects you because of your clumsiness and you have to try again and you realize you just should have used your code.
The 12.9 inch is notIcibly heavier than its predecessors.
Software wise this is looking real promising…
https://www.grocrm.com
The visuals in this just blow me away… I don’t care for the game but I like looking at it while playing…
The most amazing tool for iPad in business is FileMaker. As you develop your app for Mac and/or Windows, you can also deploy on iPads and iPhones.
You can also deploy hybrid FileMaker / MySQL apps. FileMaker, inc. has begun a database hosting service, but it is far cheaper to collocate a MacMini at an ISP that handles macMinis like macminicolocate. https://macminicolo.net/ .
There is a case to be made for using the iPad as your telephone with the proper headset and Skype.
Things are coming along, slowly, but coming along. You can run a business from an iPad if you start there very easily. Shifting from a conventional computer to iPad will require that you really want to. Those features that MDN has been describing foreve should long ago have been part of the iPad.
You can also complete exist without the Apple ecosystem when using iPad. Competing cloud storage, music, video streaming, and photo services are out there.
I worked with a client to test video conferencing across different parts of California using the Zoom product. We had 3 offices and a smattering of people on iPad and iPhone. It worked extremely well.
The iPad inspires a minimalistic viewpoint with regard to small and medium sized business computing. But so could a MacBook, MacBook Air, and Pro.
Apple has got to start increasing the flexibility of their platforms and not decreasing it for the sole purpose of forcing people to use their services, and they seriously need to recognize, not all of us are artists. I’m not the least bit excited by photoshop for iPad for instance.
Thelonious: appreciate your real-world breakdown per functionality.
I’ve bought a couple iPads since they were first announced but I’ve never really gotten into them. Seems like a good idea in theory, but I always find myself grabbing for a laptop instead.
That’s why I say you have to want to use it. Apple needs to WANT to make it attractive.
The ad “What’s a computer” is a scam, if Tim intends to imply that you can do serious work on iOS without the need of a computer.
I bought an iPad Pro, with pencil and keyboard, only to find out that Apple still has a lot of work (playing catchup, really) to do. iOS plainly DOES NOT DELIVER the possibility to do serious work. In particular file access is abysmal. Only a few apps allow exchanging files with other apps, and often do so by MAKING A LOCAL COPY !!!
How confusing is that for non-power users and power users alike?
Of course Apple wants this convergence to be done right, but why do we have to wait so long?
The new iPad Pros came with a USB-C style connector.
Only there is pretty much nothing you can connect. Apple just forced us to buy more adaptors, cables, dongles and cords. Thanks Apple.
Can I connect one of those new 1 terabyte microSD cards to my iPad “PRO?’ No. Apple wants me to spend hundreds and hundreds of dollars to get 1TB internal storage on my iPad. This is basically a chickenshit way of doing thing.
Profit trumps versatility. The New Apple.
This is right on the money. 100% true. What do they accomplish besides pissing off their best customers against a minuscule revenue gain in the big picture?
You mean “pros’ eyes turn to the new 2019 Mac Pro at WWDC.” Software is second in my book.
I hear that Scott Forstall will introduce a show that he produced. It will about his life and times at Apple and be called, “The Prodigal Son,” because, Cook will also announce Forstall’s return to Apple which would provide some drama to Cook’s otherwise bland and mushy keynotes. No, not really.
But I am looking forward to watching the WWDC stream as I always do.