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Apple introduces iPad Air with powerful M3 chip and new Magic Keyboard

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Re: Apple introduces iPad Air with powerful M3 chip and new Magic Keyboard

#201

Post by james_marks »

mattgreenrocks wrote: post #111
ustad wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Studies have shown that when companies present an overwhelming number of choices, consumers often end up spending more. The psychology behind this is rooted in decision fatigue, where consumers are more likely to choose something familiar or assume that a more expensive product is the best choice.

Ah, psychology. Pretty sure that worked on me. I waited for the iPhone SE 4 (now called the 16E), then when I saw the feature set for the price, just went for the vanilla 16. This was while I was knowing exactly how the 16E was acting as a price anchor to move me to the next tier.

For a long time, Apple’s line up included an under powered option that’s too cheap to run well, an over-powered over-priced option with features most people don’t need, and a Goldilocks version.

Yes, the expensive version anchors the price higher, but it always felt like a gift, in that they had picked the middle version that balanced performance and price already.

Re: Apple introduces iPad Air with powerful M3 chip and new Magic Keyboard

#203

Post by FredPret »

xyst wrote: post #33
antomeie wrote: post #4

iPad is a product I want to love, but still never find a reason to use.

Same. Maybe if I had drawing talent, it would be useful. I have tried to incorporate it into my daily workflow (maybe use it to help with diagramming), but it ends up collecting dust. Or used to watch films in bed. Using it as a glorified Kindle also doesn’t work well.

Book recommendation: Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain.

Skip the neuro-"science" chapters and do the drawing exercises only. It really works!

Re: Apple introduces iPad Air with powerful M3 chip and new Magic Keyboard

#204

Post by FredPret »

alberth wrote: post #178

Apple pricing strategy is a masterclass lesson. For the iPhone, there once was a time that $600 was the cost of the highest end phone. Now Apple has created a pricing architecture (and laddering) where $600 today only gets you the entry level iPhone. Similarly with iPad. They have been able to get consumers now to buy effectively a 2-year old components inside an iPad Air and still command a premium price ... and mak…

There's been a ton of inflation. Apple makes an OK but not spectacular margin on hardware.

These are for Q4 2024:

Hardware: 98B revenue, 59.5B cost of sales, 38.5B gross profit, 40% gross margin

Services: 26B revenue, 6.5B cost of sales, 19.5B gross profit, 75% gross margin

Look on page three of this: https://www.sec.gov/ix?doc=/Archives/edgar/data/320193/00003...

Re: Apple introduces iPad Air with powerful M3 chip and new Magic Keyboard

#205

Post by joshvm »

alabastervlog wrote: post #143
eknkc wrote: post #49

I owned multiple iPads and never found a compelling use case for them. I don't know why I keep buying them but they have been great computers for my parents so it's not like I buy to shelf them. Are there any use cases (apart from drawing maybe. I can't draw a stick figure if my life depended on it so that's not for me) for developers?

They're a computer for things that your laptop sucks at. Draw directly on them, use them for reading, carry them to work sites and use them in situations where a laptop would be super-awkward, put them on sheet music stands, prop them up in the kitchen, hold them up and use their tilt sensors in games, all that kind of stuff. They're basically never better than a laptop at things laptops are good at (though often ser…

Form factor, amazing. Long ago I had a mini and the new 7th gen is really nice to carry around. However I found the pen functionality to be frustrating. The Pencil Pro, when it works, is great. But I had issues with lagging input on some apps, the well-known screen heating problem (within minutes), lack of a good journaling solution, etc. It's annoying to have to go through 3-4 third party apps to do something that Apple should have released alongside the device, especially when most of them need subscriptions for nebulous benefits like cloud sync (I already pay for iCloud backup, so why?). FreeForm is OK, but isn't great for structured note-taking. There are enough of these niggling problems that I returned mine within the 14-day cool off period to do some more research.

I'd consider getting a used model when the prices have dropped a bit, but full-price for something that feels a little half-baked is tough. Especially because the hardware otherwise feels exceptional.

I'm looking at the Surface Pro, which does basically the same thing and also has conveniences like USB ports for peripherals. Or try out the iPad Pro, but that's getting into "BIG" territory.

Re: Apple introduces iPad Air with powerful M3 chip and new Magic Keyboard

#207

Post by alberth »

FredPret wrote: post #204
alberth wrote: post #178

Apple pricing strategy is a masterclass lesson. For the iPhone, there once was a time that $600 was the cost of the highest end phone. Now Apple has created a pricing architecture (and laddering) where $600 today only gets you the entry level iPhone. Similarly with iPad. They have been able to get consumers now to buy effectively a 2-year old components inside an iPad Air and still command a premium price ... and mak…

There's been a ton of inflation. Apple makes an OK but not spectacular margin on hardware. These are for Q4 2024: Hardware: 98B revenue, 59.5B cost of sales, 38.5B gross profit, 40% gross margin Services: 26B revenue, 6.5B cost of sales, 19.5B gross profit, 75% gross margin Look on page three of this: https://www.sec.gov/ix?doc=/Archives/edgar/data/320193/00003...

None of those services would exist without Apples hardware business though.

So you can't exactly look at the margins in insolation.

Re: Apple introduces iPad Air with powerful M3 chip and new Magic Keyboard

#208

Post by lolive »

layer8 wrote: post #128
criddell wrote: post #103

The most annoying thing for me about the iPad lineup is that Apple hasn't released an iPad compatible version of their Journal app. IMHO, it's the perfect device for Journal. I want to write by hand and doodle and do all the other things you do in a paper journal. There's some reason they haven't done this and I'd love to know what it is. IMHO, it should have been iPad-first and then ported to the phone later.

My guess is that not many people are using it on the iPhone (of which Apple is selling five times as many as iPads, hence they started with that), so they extrapolated that an iPad version isn’t worth it. Or maybe it’s just general Apple dysfunction. It took them 14 years to port the Calculator app after all.

If Apple did not take over that market, then who is the biggest player of journal apps?

Re: Apple introduces iPad Air with powerful M3 chip and new Magic Keyboard

#209

Post by jauntywundrkind »

walthamstow wrote: post #97
tosh wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I also hope for a new take on an ultraportable Macbook w/ less than 1000g the 12" Macbook was special

I still think about my friend's netbook he had in secondary school in about 2006 Went down a rabbit hole recently looking at some Chinese ones by Chuwi, nearly pulled the trigger too

I bought one of their first portable systems, the Chuwi Lapbopk 12.3.

Amazing system. A really nice IPS 2736 x 1824 display was the star of the show, straight off one of the Microsoft Surface laptops of the day. Pretty whatever CPU, 6gb ram, and tiny 64GB eMMC storage (expandable with m2242 sata), but it ran Debian quite well & had very solid battery life. Very solid robust metal case.

Price felt amazing. $400 in 2017 for a top tier display.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Chuwi-LapBook-12-3-Celeron-2K-...

Re: Apple introduces iPad Air with powerful M3 chip and new Magic Keyboard

#210

Post by criddell »

lolive wrote: post #208
layer8 wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My guess is that not many people are using it on the iPhone (of which Apple is selling five times as many as iPads, hence they started with that), so they extrapolated that an iPad version isn’t worth it. Or maybe it’s just general Apple dysfunction. It took them 14 years to port the Calculator app after all.

If Apple did not take over that market, then who is the biggest player of journal apps?

Probably the Notes app.
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