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New iPad Air and iPad Mini

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Re: New iPad Air and iPad Mini

#191

Post by everyone »

baobrain wrote: post #143
tolmasky wrote: post #30

It is so weird that the iPad Air and iPad mini only support the old Apple Pencil. The iPad mini was my favorite incarnation of the iPad line when it came out, and I was considering getting one again, but I have no interest in needing two different kinds of iPad pencil. Apple keeps creating and extending these arbitrary transition periods. The old Apple Pencil should be in the past. Instead we have an entire other gen…

Keeping the lightning port is what really jumped out at me. Now some iPads are going to have USB C and others are going to have lightning, all under the same umbrella product of the iPad. What is even worse (!) is that the iPhones and iPads still ship with a USB A to lightning cable, meaning even users inside the Apple ecosystem need a USB C/thunderbolt dongle with usb A ports to connect their iPhones/iPads to their…

I'd love to see some data on how much of Apples profits come directly from selling dongles. Their hardware nowadays is probably designed to facilitate a certain amount of dongle sales. They will mark-up the sale price of an intel cpu by 3 or 4 100%, but the markup on the dongles is even greater, 800 or 1000% it seems to be comparing the prices to similar cables.

Re: New iPad Air and iPad Mini

#192

Post by askafriend »

tolmasky wrote: post #183
askafriend wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a supply chain optimization and also the reason they can keep the costs low for these products. Cost is important here and the whole reason this product line exists. It’s a mirror of their iPhone strategy where they sell last years model for cheaper. They’re using old components and designs where they think it makes sense, but are being uncompromising about the compute power (e.g. A12 Bionic, AR capabilities)…

Edit: inlining the comment here instead since this turned into a conversation These products just feel like “component pipeline optimization” instead of working backwards from customer needs. There should be 3 iPads, all with the same form factor, same connectors (can’t believe I even have to specify this): small medium large, and they should be called iPad mini, iPad, and iPad Pro. The iPad should serve the vast maj…

I welcome your take! And thanks for adding it here so people can contrast them.

One thing I think it’s important to remember is that Apple today isn’t the same small, quirky company it was in 2007 when the iPhone came out.

It’s now one of the largest companies on the planet with a global customer base of over a billion people in hundreds of countries. They need to run a different strategy and they need to have more product choice at different price points. I think they’re navigating it the best they can - and obviously no business is without mistakes. They will make mistakes (iPhone 5C) and that’s OK.

However, trying to pattern match Apple’s decisions from the 90s and comparing them to decisions today is just poor thinking imo. That’s what people in this thread (not you @tolmasky, I’m just on a tangent now) seem to be trying to do. The Ballmer comparisons are poor as well, imo.

Re: New iPad Air and iPad Mini

#193

Post by jdlyga »

jackfrodo wrote: post #3

I'm 24 years old, work in software. Neither I nor any of my friends uses a tablet for work or pleasure. I guess I know a couple of people who have Surface Pro's, but that's about it. I'm wondering if the appeal of these begins when you get older? Seems like a lot of the market for these is people who are 50+, but I'd like to know if any people under 25 are interested in them.

I have an iPad for reading. It works better with PDFs than Kindles since it's larger, and the pencil is great for highlighting and taking notes.

Re: New iPad Air and iPad Mini

#195

Post by qalmakka »

scarface74 wrote: post #133
hopler wrote: post #2

Steve Jobs must be rolling in his grave. 4 separate iPad lines, plus extra screen size variation? How is an "Air" variant useful? Why does the iPad Pro have a screen size choice, but the mini is a separate line? It should be iPad and iPad Pro, with screen size choices in each line.

Yes because “when Steve Jobs was alive”, they didn’t have the iPod shuffle, Nano, regular iPod and the iPod Touch....

You have to admit they were vastly different products, both in appearance and functionality. A random person could understand quite easily their differences without going deep in technical details: the classic was bulky, with lots of storage and the original interface; the touch had a touch screen, the nano was small and compact, while the shuffle had no display and no way to select music.

What really characterizes the two different iPad lines? Numbers and technical features. The Pros support USB-C, have different pens which do the same thing as the old ones, but are not compatible, plus a slew of other features that a total noob won't and does not want to understand. I don't see how this is not bad; it's arguable that Apple wouldn't have done this a decade ago, and that it's getting closer to the disastrous naming schemes used by companies such as Dell (and in some ways Apple itself in the nineties).

Re: New iPad Air and iPad Mini

#196

Post by neuronic »

wintorez wrote: post #103

I'm sad that Apple's focus has shifted away from macOS devices to iOS devices. We could have gotten MacBooks with touch-screen by now.

> We could have gotten MacBooks with touch-screen by now

I had a touchscreen laptop before and to me it was just incredibly useless. I am quite happy that Macbooks do _not_ have a touchscreen.

If I want that, I get an iPad Pro.

Re: New iPad Air and iPad Mini

#197

Post by jbigelow76 »

tolmasky wrote: post #30

It is so weird that the iPad Air and iPad mini only support the old Apple Pencil. The iPad mini was my favorite incarnation of the iPad line when it came out, and I was considering getting one again, but I have no interest in needing two different kinds of iPad pencil. Apple keeps creating and extending these arbitrary transition periods. The old Apple Pencil should be in the past. Instead we have an entire other gen…

The new pencil uses inductive charging (and magnets). Adding that to the mini and the non-Pro iPads would drive their prices up (assuming Apple would insist on maintaining the existing margins) when these are supposed to be more budget oriented models.

Re: New iPad Air and iPad Mini

#198

Post by thrav »

scott_s wrote: post #76
kalleboo wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's more pleasant to stand a laptop on my lap on the couch than to keep gripping a tablet. And almost all the tablet cases are terrible floppy messes ( especially Apple's with their weak magnets and poor angle choices) This is the main reason I don't "get" tablets. They're just more uncomfortable to use for me. You have to keep holding onto it and you get gorilla arm vs using a trackpad.

I can see that if you're constantly gripping the tablet. I sit with it similar to how I would with a book or a magazine; I'm not actively gripping it, and it allows more posture variations than a laptop for me.

Therein lies the difference. If I’m on my ass, I’m horizontal. I only lay on the couch. Never sit.

Re: New iPad Air and iPad Mini

#199

Post by mixmastamyk »

jackfrodo wrote: post #3

I'm 24 years old, work in software. Neither I nor any of my friends uses a tablet for work or pleasure. I guess I know a couple of people who have Surface Pro's, but that's about it. I'm wondering if the appeal of these begins when you get older? Seems like a lot of the market for these is people who are 50+, but I'd like to know if any people under 25 are interested in them.

Movies and TV. Cut the cable bill a decade ago. Got rid of the giant, heavy, expensive, fear-mongering TV. Now watch a small screen with a mount that is much closer.

Re: New iPad Air and iPad Mini

#200

Post by amluto »

vbezhenar wrote: post #175
baobrain wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Keeping the lightning port is what really jumped out at me. Now some iPads are going to have USB C and others are going to have lightning, all under the same umbrella product of the iPad. What is even worse (!) is that the iPhones and iPads still ship with a USB A to lightning cable, meaning even users inside the Apple ecosystem need a USB C/thunderbolt dongle with usb A ports to connect their iPhones/iPads to their…

I like lightning port, it's pretty natural compared to USB-C. Male port which could break on cable, female port which won't break on device. USB-C seems like very fragile decision, so it's only good that they don't abandon their better port. That said, they should definitely ship all necessary cables, it's really strange that they trying to save tiny money on premium product.

You have this backwards. Apple’s shoddy (but slim!) cable construction notwithstanding, the Lightning male metal bit is quite strong. The parts that wear out are the springy parts in the female connector. USB-C puts the springy parts in the male connector.

(Lightning also seems prone to arcing or overheating damage to the power pins. Source: visual inspection of my many failed Apple and third-party Lightning cables.)

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