Why Apple announced its new, low-priced iPad with such little fanfare

Business use is going up? You must be referring to the business environment of 4-5 years ago, when all the talk was about iPads in businesses.

Nowadays, hardly anyone talks about iPads in business, and in fact, more businesses are removing them from use than are adopting them. Why invest money on a device which is losing ground to just about every other type of device out there, and could probably suffer from support, not only from Apple itself deciding to drop it, but from lack of support from developers, who have been dropping development since the huge sales drops are indicating that the device may not be worth developing for.

I keep up with technology, and what I see and hear and read, says something completely different from what you assert.

I keep up with technology, and what I see and hear and read, says something completely different from what you assert.

You don't keep up very well, or you read what you see with a very biased mindset.

Apple's iPad is more popular with businesses than consumers
by Tom Warren@tomwarren Aug 8, 2016, 9:28am EDT — The Verge
While Apple's iPad sales continue to decline overall, the tablet is surging in demand from an unlikely source. The New York Times reports that nearly half of all iPad sales are to corporations and governments, with high-end iPad sales to business customers particularly strong. "Apple is stronger in the enterprise market with its devices than it is with consumers," says Forrester analyst Frank Gillet, in a statement to the Times.
The boost from businesses and governments would have seemed highly unlikely six years ago when the iPad was originally launched, but Apple has been keen to woo businesses over to its mobile tablet in recent years. Apple teamed up with IBM to launch a range of business-focused iOS apps back in December 2014, and the company has also been working with Cisco and SAP to ensure iPads work well in enterprises.
Apple even teamed up with Microsoft to make the iPad Pro a success. During the tablet's launch, Microsoft's Office chief, Kirk Koenigsbauer, jumped on stage to demonstrate Office for iPad Pro. Microsoft has consistently tweaked its Office software for the iPad Pro ever since to make it more powerful, and the productivity suite even features in Apple's latest iPad Pro commercial. Apple wants everyone to believe that the iPad Pro is a real computer capable of real work, and it's clear that businesses are adopting it that way for their mobile computing needs.
Apple's fresh success in the enterprise is unusual for the company. Microsoft has typically dominated desktop computing inside businesses, and Steve Jobs always focused Apple on building products that consumers would love. Jobs even called IBM's best customers an "orifice," and famously gave IBM the finger in a classic photo during the ‘80s era when Apple competed aggressively with IBM. Apple even aired a commercial depicting IBM as Big Brother from the George Orwell novel.
Apple has an advantage over both Android and Windows for tablets in the enterprise. Google's Android security is often seen as inferior to iOS, and Windows has lacked touch-based apps to take advantage of a true mobile tablet mode. Under Tim Cook, Apple will now attempt to balance how it sells the iPad as the future of computing to both consumers and businesses. It's a delicate balance that will shape exactly what form factor the iPad evolves into in the future. Apple built the iPad Pro to replace Windows, and now it has to prove it truly can.

"Nearly half of iPad sales. . . " That would make approximately 30,000,000 of last year's iPad sales to enterprise level businesses. IBM itself is more than half way to switching its entire staff to Apple products and is pushing other major corporations to do the same, stating they too will save millions per year just in IT costs. The only article I can find on developers abandoning iOS and iPad comes from four years ago and that turned out to be completely wrong. The first article on a Google search for "Abounding iPad App development" is on page two and it refers to Android developers abandoning Android development for tablets in favor of developing for iPads because they can make money there.

So much for your distortions and lies.

So much for YOUR distortions and lies...

Here's what an "independent" tester found...

As he summarized (from testing the A10 Fusion and the Snapdragon 821):

"Millions of Qualcomm and Apple processors are being used right now in handsets all across the globe. When taken as a whole package including the CPU, GPU, ISP, DSP, and modem there are pros and cons on both sides. Clearly both processors are advanced pieces of tech. The Snapdragon 821 is the more rounded processor since it contains an integrated LTE modem, the same type of modem that is used by the iPhone 7, plus support for quick charging and more graphic APIs (OpenGL ES 3.2 + Vulkan). And this fits with Qualcomm’s business model, the Snapdragon series are mobile processors that are sold to OEMs to build phones, tablets, set-top boxes, media players, whatever. The A10 is designed specifically for one thing, the iPhone (and maybe later the iPad).

As for performance, it seems clear that the A10 Fusion has the upper-hand, however not by much, but that does depend on the workload. In some of AnTuTu sub-tests the Snapdragon 821 matched the performance of the A10 and for my home brew tests written in C then the Snapdragon 821 actually beat the A10!

In terms of power efficiency it is hard to say, power is used by some many components in a smartphone including the CPU, GPU, memory, various Wi-Fi and cellular radios, etc. But from what I see there isn’t much between the two SoCs.

As a final word, I know this article will stir up various “fanboy” sentiments, all I can ask is that you remember that there are lots of problems in the world and lots of reasons why people get angry with each other, however which smartphone you use shouldn’t be one of them."

Meanwhile the biggest issue which I presented in my prior posts, is that of price, and why would anyone in his/her right mind want to pay 3 times as much for an iPhone7 when the specs and performances aren't worth that much in the difference? You can't argue that any iPhone is that much better than the specs for the Snapdragon 821 phone that I mentioned earlier.

And, in fact, the overall specs of the phone I mentioned earlier are superior to those of the iPhone 7 or 7S.

How much more would an iPhone 7/7S cost if the storage were to be 64GB and/or the main memory were to be upped to 4GB, or the screen were to be higher than 1080P, or came with 2 high-resolution cameras, and cloud storage of 1TB FOR FREE, and/or 2 year warranty, and fingerprint recognition, and that could do everything (and oftentimes more) that come by way of apps, expandable storage by way of a memory slot, dual window, plus a bunch of other stuff?

Though Apple might have won in certain aspects when compared to the Snapdragon 821, one has to keep in mind that, the processor alone does not make the smartphone, so, when it comes to the whole smartphone with specs and features, the iPhone 7 comes up real short.

No doubt that, for the extras that come with the Snapdragon phone which I got my wife, that Apple would likely double the price of their current offerings in the iPhone 7 line. And yet, I only paid about 1/3 of the price of the current iPhone 7S, for something that is actually superior to that iPhone 7S.

And, btw, it's kind of a role reversal for the iPhone loyal fanatics, who are not claiming that, higher resolution doesn't really matter, while a few years ago, higher resolution was the biggest selling point for Apple and the biggest reason that the iFanatics went for those iPhones a few years ago. Can you spell: HYPOCRITES!!!

I exaggerate a little of course, but as a daily commuter to NYC who spends three hours a day on trains, the iPad is a godsend. I can get all my work stuff done on the way home so that I can leave the office at a reasonable hour. Then I can surf the web, keep up with my email, read some books, listen to a podcast or even see a movie. Sometimes I'm so absorbed I almost miss my station. Makes what would be a commute from hell into a pleasurable experience.

Taking a bulky laptop on the train every day is not practical and trying to do all that stuff with a cellphone would give me a splitting headache.

It also bailed me out when I had to sit in a hospital for a full day while my wife had a major operation. Everybody else in the waiting room were bored out of their minds, staring at the walls or leafing through a two-year old People magazine. The hours flew by and suddenly a nurse was tapping me on the shoulder to let me know that everything went well.

I hear you. I use it when I’m lost on the road, when I need a restaurant review, and then it will map my way to the restaurant.

I take it shopping and when I have conflicting products that I am unsure as to their quality I will look up the ratings and reviews right in the store. I mean, I have the power of the complete internet reviews in real time while I am deciding between several items to buy. It can be anything from a refrigerator purchase to what spaghetti sauce to try.

I can be at a historic monument and look up everything about the event in real time, then take a picture of it and send an email to family to show them.

I don’t have an iphone so maybe people with one think it can do anything an ipad can, and it may well be true. For my 62 year old eyes, I really appreciate the 10” screen of my ipad over the 4” screen of an iphone. If a 4” screen works for some people, more power to them. I want that big screen.

I am rarely without my ipad. It is truly a one-stop, do-it-all device.

No, I would not want to lug a laptop around for the same purpose, and finding a convenient place to put when standing up to use the laptop keyboard is not always possible let alone convenient. Never mind that my laptop isn’t cellular capable so if I can’t find a WiFi spot, I am screwed.

How much more would an iPhone 7/7S cost if the storage were to be 64GB and/or the main memory were to be upped to 4GB, or the screen were to be higher than 1080P, or came with 2 high-resolution cameras, and cloud storage of 1TB FOR FREE, and/or 2 year warranty, and fingerprint recognition, and that could do everything (and oftentimes more) that come by way of apps, expandable storage by way of a memory slot, dual window, plus a bunch of other stuff?

The iPhone 7 is 128 GB at $749.
It doesn't NEED 4GBs like your Android needs.
As I have time and time again pointed out more than a 1080P screen on a phone is TOTALLY RIDICULOUS when your eye cannot EVER SEE beyond 278 DPI and the iPhone is already far beyond that at 401 DPI. Why add more which just slows down the manipulation of graphics and uses up battery time JUST FOR HYPE?!?!
The iPhone has industry leading "fingerprint" recognition that is solid, instead of the flaky fingerprint recognition used on Android phones which is easily compromised,
More Application Programing Interfaces for graphics is a meaningless metric as that is for programers. As it is a choice of what graphic a programer will use to render graphics in his app, and having more is not very useful as all graphics are interchangeable. If you don't have an API for a specific graphic, convert it to one you have. Apple's Metal graphic API is the fastest and most versatile graphic API available today.
Expandable storage has always been a security risk and many Enterprise level businesses will not permit devices that accommodate it on their premises.
Apple iPhones have built in full device 256 bit AES encryption as a default, Android leaves that to third party apps and only to storage. Samsung's vaunted Knox stored its encryption passcode in an unlocked, unencrypted, easily found text file in a public Library. So much for security in Android.

Though Apple might have won in certain aspects when compared to the Snapdragon 821, one has to keep in mind that, the processor alone does not make the smartphone, so, when it comes to the whole smartphone with specs and features, the iPhone 7 comes up real short.

Real short? How? You have not enumerated anything that reaches that level. You listed a higher, but useless screen resolution, that slows the graphic handling down immensely in every case. The processor only beats the Apple's in one instance, but that is because the test is optimized for JAVA code for testing for C compiling. Other benchmarks that test the same mathematics the A10fusion came out ahead. Unsecure expandable, but far slower memory cards. A high pixel count camera with lesser quality CCD, that doesn't qualify in quality to the ratings the iPhone camera gets from professional photographers. . . who use the iPhone camera for professional work, including making full length feature films, photo layouts in mainstream magazines including National Geographic, several covers of Time, Photography, Vogue, etc. What magazines has your 18Mpixel camera been used for? None, right?

Again, where are you going to be able to use your 2year warranty to get that phone repaired?

You make assumptions about what an Apple iPhone would cost with the features your no-name Chinese Android phone has, claiming it would be double what it is now., but in my view, it already bests the features your phone has. . and is better quality all around. . . and is backed by an American company. The reviews that place the Apple iPhone at the top are unequivocal. It is the best and fastest. Your phone is not even in the running. You won't even name what the maker is.

The final proof you have no factual argument worthy of the name is you always resort to ad hominem insults such as iFanatics and iZombies. That alone is enough to show you up for an Anti-Apple Hate Brigade Thread Troll.

You iFANATICs and iZombies and iAPPLEWORSHIPPERS always keep coming up with lame excuses as to why an iPhone is worth spending more money on, and still, you keep coming up short in your arguments. So, how can anybody, including YOU iZOMBIEs and iFANATICs and iKOOLAIDDRINKERS, keep convincing yourselves that any iPhone is worth paying 3 times as much as for a phone like I described? Let's see: $285 vs $900. Which one is less? And, for basically the same stupid things with the same stupid specs and with the same basic apps.

BTW, the 821-based phone I got my wife doesn't need the 4GB memory, but it's a bragging point and one that Apple will be adopting in the near future, just like Apple claimed a few years ago that bigger screens was overkill and not necessary, but hypocritically adopted a few years after the Android market and the Windows Phone market had made phones with the bigger screens.

Battery life (since you brought it up) on my wife's phone is about 2 days, even with all of the FACEBOOKing and media consumption she does. I got jealous about that battery life as compared to my LG V10, which lasts just over a day. I'm going to be trading in my V10 for something with better battery life soon. BTW, both the 821-based phone and the V10 have battery life that is better than that of the iPhone 7S which my son-in-law has.

When it comes to expandable storage, that's something that other smartphone makers are putting into their phones, since it's something that users all over have been clamoring for, including millions of iPhone users/buyers. So, just because you're excusing Apple's decision to not include expandable storage does not mean that it's not a popular feature. And, that stupid idea about security issues with expandable storage, is just that, STUPID. People want it, and the vast majority of usage is not on the business side, so, it's something that regular users want and it's something that the makers are providing, and Apple may follow along in the future. What will you say then? That's it's a stupid idea, even from Apple, or that it's a good idea because Apple deemed it necessary?

BTW, I could have had the 128GB storage for a mere #20 more, but I figured that my wife did not need that much storage. So, how much more does Apple charge to add 64GB to its storage? Likely something like $200 more, which is almost the total price which I paid for the 821-phone.

When it comes to "enumerating" features that make my wife's phone SUPERIOR to what the latest iPhone provides, HOW ABOUT THE MUCH LOWER PRICE for a smartphone that is about equal in specs and maybe even better, with that price being $285 vs $900 for the iPhone 7? There is no way that you or Apple can beat that. Absolutely NOT!

Okay, iZOMBIE, carry on with your iFANATICISM!

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