Posted on 03/21/2017 1:58:01 PM PDT by Swordmaker
Apple just dropped a new iPad with all the excitement of an IRS audit,” Daniel Howley writes for Yahoo Finance. “That is to say, there was none. It feels like the company just woke up Tuesday morning and decided, ‘Hey, let’s announce a new iPad.’ Instead of a flashy event like Apple usually holds when it debuts a new product, we simply got a press release. I’ve had dentist appointments that were more thrilling than Apple’s latest announcement.”
“So why did Apple, the company that basically owns the tablet market, debut a new iPad without making a big show of it?” Howley writes. “Well, because the iPad isn’t that exciting anymore. It simply doesn’t warrant a lot of fanfare.”
“The tablet market isn’t hot anymore and Apple knows it,” Howley reports. “To sweeten the pot for prospective consumers, Apple has moved the iPad into the budget market. Whereas the iPad Pro 9.7 starts at a pricy $599, the new iPad starts at $329. That’s pretty reasonable for a new iPad.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Dan is going to feel mighty silly when Apple unveils their new iPad Pro lineup at a special event within weeks. Today’s iPad was merely part of a press release dump of all of the things that wouldn’t fit, or merit inclusion, into the event’s schedule.
BTW, we told ya so:
iPads are too expensive relative to the perceived competition and Apple has obviously done a piss-poor job of marketing the iPad family (read: clearly explaining to the hoi polloi why they want an iPad over an Amazon or other Android tablet).
Sticker price is the biggest reason why iPad sales struggle to return to growth (the next biggest reason is that iPads’ useful lives last so damn long, they’re not rapidly replaced).
We would have purchased iPads for family members this year if they had been updated as they should have been for the holiday season and if the prices were a bit more palatable. Yes, we know what an iPad offers. Yes, we know they’re worth the money Apple’s asking for today; even being last year’s models. But, Apple should really do the math and consider making certain hardware more affordable in exchange for the backend revenue and increased mindshare and market share that will deliver.
For the same reason – mindshare – Apple should make their own Apple displays, even to the point of taking a loss of each and every one, so that other companies’ logos on frankly ugly products that do not match Apple design sensibilities are not in users’ faces all day long. That’s not a difficult concept to grasp; even an inveterate beancounter might be able to get it. — MacDailyNews, January 6, 2017
SEE ALSO:
Apple’s new $329 iPad is thicker and slightly heavier than iPad Air 2 – March 21, 2017
Apple unveils new 9.7-inch iPad starting at new low price of just $329 – March 21, 2017 – March 21, 2017
What do you do with it, that you’ve worn it out?
My iPad mini has started failing on me. It will work for 10-15 minutes, and then apps start opening on their own, screen resizes itself, etc. It's like it is possessed. I took it into an Apple Genius store to see if it could be repaired. All they could offer was to sell me a replacement (that was their advice to almost everybody there. I don't think they repair very many things at all). I only use it for browsing and reading Kindle books, and my old original iPad 1 still works. I told them that rather than pay a lot for a replacement that I'd just get a Kindle Fire. The Apple dude said "that's what I'd probably do".
Wow ... in your business/personal life YOU might not find you have a need for an iPad, but for others of us here they can be very useful and productive. Different people have different needs.
I have a 12.9 inch iPad Pro which I use all the time. My wife has been finding that it is very useful for her also and is always borrowing it and wants one of her own. I’m waiting for the new 12.9 inch models to come out in the next month or so and then I’ll get her one. Then I can have mine back.
Anyone doing that to me....while ill, would be hit with such a tirade, they’d be the one who is ILL!
I love my Kindle Fire, even though it’s the smallest 7” size one. They have larger 8” ones for about $90-100. Now with ‘Alexa’................
Some "fad," Adorno.
Apple has sold over 320,000,000 of this "fad" product sold since introducing it six years ago, with probably 250 million of them still in use.
The phablets phones grew into the tablet market after its introduction and absorbed some of its purpose. That doesn't mean it doesn't have a purpose.
You ad hominem attack on all Apple users not withstanding it is obvious you have not used an iPad. Ergo, you do not have a clue what uses they have over and above a keyboarded computer. There are many and for those purposes they are quite useful.
As for Apple having only 21% of the "tablet" market, those who count tablets are including everything in that market including the all of cheap no-name toy tablets coming out of China and Indonesia that sell for under $30 and have less than 4GB of memory, many of which cannot download additional apps at all or connect to the Internet, that make up the bulk of the 79% of the rest of the tablet market.
To count these "White box" tablets, since their makers don't release numbers sold, or even how many makers exist, the counters simply guess how many they ship each year, and then apply that questionable guess against Apple accurately reported sales number! Even Samsung and Amazon refuse to report how many they ship and these reporting companies guesstimate their numbers shipped, not sold. Only Apple accurately reports numbers actually sold to consumers.
Apple owns the substantial profits of the tablet market, just as it owns the profits of the phone market, even if it has only 21% of the tablet market, were that questionable percentage true. The fact is that the iPad, the Samsung, Microsoft, and other high-end tablet computers should NOT be lumped in with all those low-end no-name junk toy tablets. . .
I like the idea of the new iPad but I just don’t see me buying one for awhile. So much for planned obsolescence! I bought a refurb iPad 4? directly from Apple four years ago. I hate using my desktop or laptop now. I’ve done my best to try and abuse it but it just shrugs it off. Works great and I bought a Bluetooth keyboard in case I need to do a lot of typing. My wife finally got one last fall and now won’t give it up! Bought each of my daughters 32gb iPad Mini 2s (for $199 at Costco) for Christmas 2016 and they love them. They (like my 4.5 year old iPhone 5) just always work and the updates are painless!
5 or 6” screens? Phffffttttt! I’m on break reading this with my iPad Air, which with an app I make/receive phone calls on as well. Jealous much? (Heehee...)
I spent a lot more than $329 for my non-retina 2014 iPad Air 2. As long as the new pad has Touch ID too (and it does) I’m definitely interested in this.
Business-wise the problem with tablets is people buy them and use them until they break. They feel no need to get the latest-and-greatest. So its not really a good business to be in. Eventually everything involving computers will be like this. The gravy train won’t last forever.
You could not tear me away from my ipad. It is by leaps and bounds the most frequently used device I have ever owned. It is the most useful tool, tioy, game, library, reference tool, sports reference, picure library, communication device, yellow pages, consumer product reviews, all-in-one handy do-it-all device I have ever owned.
I am constantly usingbit and NEVER, ever without it. And I am 62 years old, not some millenial social media thing. I am not on facebook or twitter or any such junk and I dont text.
My ipod would be one of the last physical things on this earth that I would part with.
My ipad is simply the best tool I have ever owned since The car. I use it far more than my TV
Just thought the line was funny...
I gave my original iPad, purchased on the first day they were available, to my younger daughter, which is now being used by her niece, my now 5 year old granddaughter, when I bought a new one for her for a Christmas present. My second one, third model with Retina screen, is being used by my girlfriend which I gave to her when I upgraded to my 13" iPad Pro. She uses her iPad in preference to her gold Apple 12" MacBook to surf the Internet because it is lighter and easier to handle.
My older daughter bought a 4th model after seeing the first model my granddaughter was playing with. . . because she wanted one to use and didn't want to have to fight a four year old to use it. She prefers it to her work supplied Windows PC. . . or her personal Apple iMac. . . for surfing the Internet or reading or responding to email.
iPads, or any good tablet for that matter, are great for reading in an easy chair, out on the patio, in a park, or in bed.
All of ours are WIFI with Cellular connected iPads.
You are very much right on. I have an iPad mini and a couple of Kindles and honestly, I don’t use them nearly as much as I originally intended. The Kindles are really for the kids though.
I may find use for the iPad mini in a few months though as my wife may find it very useful for her activities but mostly, we just stick with our smartphones.
I see some chat https://www.engadget.com/2017/03/21/apple-ipad-9-7/ about the new iPad lacking a laminated screen. Our family iPads are pre Air, so I don’t think I have ever seen a laminated screen. Is it really that big a deal?
"...which I use all the time..."
The iPad isn't (Product)Red. That's the new iPhone 7 & 7plus. The new iPad is different, faster, thicker (!), and heavier (!), than the one it's replacing. Right now, Apple is making the announcement to get it out of the way before a bigger announcement on the iPad Pro line in a couple of weeks. It may be more expensive than the competition, but there is a reason. They last longer, and they ARE superior. Every unbiased comparison review comes to that conclusion. Your opinion is not unbiased.
You might want to see what IBM is finding in their deployment of Apple products including both Apple Macs and iPads among their employees. Their costs are going way down. They are saving millions in tech support alone.
My spouse was given one for a present and doesn't use it.
I refuse to read books on a machine...I read BOOKS!
I have a laptop.
My iPhone is usually locked/shut off.
I watch T.V. and discs on a T.V.!
There is absolutely NOTHING that I need an iPad for.
I'm not saying that others may find a use for it, though I can't imagine what, should they have a computer, laptop, and iPhone.
Why would you say that? I have large hands. . . and have had no problem with a touch screen on a standard size iPad. Apple's touch exclusion sensitivity is excellent, so why would being large or small have anything to do with it? That was one of the major breakthroughs that Apple had to achieve to make the iPhone possible: the ability to use a human finger as a touch surface stylus, instead of requiring a separate pointed stylus that all other devices up until then required for accuracy. It was Apple's major patent for the iPhone, the single one that made the iPhone, and multitouch screens on such small devices, possible.
And for the wife. When I upgraded to an iPad 2, I gave my iPad 1 to my wife. Until she was griping about wanting newer features (the iPad 1 didn't have a camera and wouldn't upgrade to newer stuff, it's almost seven years old). So I bought her an iPad Mini, and she loves it. More portable and fits in her purse better. Cost us $200 on sale at Target. As for me, I'll be upgrading from my iPad 2 to a new iPad Pro.
We've always found them useful, on plane trips, on the go, and around the house. I have lots of PDFs, videos and pics on mine as reference material, excellent in using around the workshop out back and in the garage. Much easier than lugging a laptop around. Wife likes playing games, besides browsing the Internet and mail. Our little grandkids love playing with the iPad mini also.
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