Maybe cut it altogether then? I see it being used as a tool for taking orders at a restaurant, in kiosks and as an entry level device for kids. None of that requires it to be a midrange device.
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All iPads Which iPad product line would you eliminate from the iPad family as a whole, if given the choice?
- Thread starter Yebubbleman
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So far, I haven't read any strong arguments against iPad Air.
- "It's a middle of the road product."
But it's also priced in the middle.
- "It's not much better than $449 iPad"
Are you kidding? The laminated display is much better for touch sensitivity and reducing reflections. M1/8GB is far better than regular iPad A14/4GB in performance and ability to keep tabs open.
- "Apple should give $449 iPad the same features as iPad Air."
Are you dreaming? You're the VP. Why wouldn't Apple raise the price to $599?
- "It doesn't have virtual memory swap on 64GB."
It's a mid-range iPad. If you need swap because you're using Adobe Premier, you ought to buy 256GB.
- "The name sucks."
iPad Air is literally the thinnest and lightest iPad in its class.
- "It's a middle of the road product."
But it's also priced in the middle.
- "It's not much better than $449 iPad"
Are you kidding? The laminated display is much better for touch sensitivity and reducing reflections. M1/8GB is far better than regular iPad A14/4GB in performance and ability to keep tabs open.
- "Apple should give $449 iPad the same features as iPad Air."
Are you dreaming? You're the VP. Why wouldn't Apple raise the price to $599?
- "It doesn't have virtual memory swap on 64GB."
It's a mid-range iPad. If you need swap because you're using Adobe Premier, you ought to buy 256GB.
- "The name sucks."
iPad Air is literally the thinnest and lightest iPad in its class.
I suspect that the swap feature will become important should Apple give M-series iPads more desktop-class (not to be mistaken with macOS-on-iPad type things) features in iPadOS.
It would be silly to advance iPadOS to take advantage of the M1 and M2, but require an M3 or M4 for those advances to actually happen.
Mind you, multi-tasking on iPadOS sucks. That’s probably the one area where Apple can most obviously advance the OS. Swap would appear to be necessary for that.
Still, in any case, the fact that one capacity of Air joins that party and one does not is…dumb fragmentation.
You’re definitely not wrong.
Though 64GB for $600 and 256GB for $750 is too much, considering just another $150 gets you a 256GB 11-inch iPad Pro. As others have said, it’s too costly to make sense and priced too close to the iPad that actually has the bells and whistles that you’d want alongside that M1.
The 5th Generation iPad Air is DEFINITELY better than the 10th Generation iPad. I think the main question is how much better is it for the kind of person that wouldn’t even consider the 11-inch iPad Pro as an option?
I agree with you, to a point. They cut palpable corners with the 10th Generation iPad; but are they enough to really make or break the experience of using an iPad that ISN’T geared for serious tasks? This goes back to the question of exactly who the iPad Air is marketed to. Which kind of customer buys the iPad Air, having rejected the 10th Generation iPad, but also having found the 11-inch iPad Pro to be overkill? But yeah, $449 seems low for something that otherwise has the features that the current iPad Air has. The original iPad started at $499. The iPad Air is basically the modern successor to that original iPad. The first Air that had a laminated display (the iPad Air 2, if memory serves) also started at $499. They could easily produce an iPad with a laminated display with an A15 (let alone an M2, since that is effectively what an A15X would’ve been) and easily sell it for a starting price of $499.
My main complaint here is more the fragmentation. That one higher capacity has a feature, but the lower one doesn’t. I get the technological reasons for this. But, at that point, why are you kneecapping the iPad at 64GB when 128GB wouldn’t be hard (or costly) to do instead?
Supposedly, that’s poised to change. If the iPad Pro becomes thinner, as someone else pointed out, that will sort of nullify the name from a marketing standpoint.
I would eliminate some from the entry or intermediate range.
The basic one would make it like an Air and simply call it iPad. 10.9" iPad and 12.9" iPad. LCD screen with 120Hz, FaceID, a single camera and a processor from the M range of a previous generation. The price would range from 499 for the 10.9" iPad to 629" of the 12.9".
The mini would be a basic iPad with the smallest screen, and without an M chip, but rather the A series. $429 for the basic one.
The Pro would increase in size, approximately 11.4" and 13.4". Ultra-thin frames, OLED screens, more cameras, more RAM and the latest chip in the M. 899 range for the 11.4" and 1099 for the 13.4" one.
The basic one would make it like an Air and simply call it iPad. 10.9" iPad and 12.9" iPad. LCD screen with 120Hz, FaceID, a single camera and a processor from the M range of a previous generation. The price would range from 499 for the 10.9" iPad to 629" of the 12.9".
The mini would be a basic iPad with the smallest screen, and without an M chip, but rather the A series. $429 for the basic one.
The Pro would increase in size, approximately 11.4" and 13.4". Ultra-thin frames, OLED screens, more cameras, more RAM and the latest chip in the M. 899 range for the 11.4" and 1099 for the 13.4" one.
Without sale figures, revenues, and cost analysis, the poll is meaningless and only a way to again discuss the meaningless topic of the best iPad.
iPad Air is essentially like iPhone 12. It's a popular, mainstream iPad for the customer who cares about performance, form factor, but not such much about camera. The $449 iPad will always be stuck with an A-series SoC and will always be n-1 in terms of display tech compared to iPad Air.
What does iPad Pro offer? Better display, processor, speakers, camera, more storage, etc. For consumers looking for a premium, lightweight media consumption tablet, the iPad Air 64GB/256GB fits the bill. They don't need ProMotion, M2, or LiDAR.
iPad Air is a popular device, especially since the 256GB model often gets discounted to $649.
The 10.2 is soon a goner anyway. The 11tg gen will replace the 10th and should go down in price once the 9th (10.2) is gone. The entry level iPad is Apple’s bread-and-butter for tablets and is Apple’s best selling iPad.
The current Air is what the Pro used to be—giving you more power and capability over a standard iPad. Fine.
Time to do what Apple did with the MacBooks. Make the iPad Pros prosumer products. People who buy those really need that capability in a tablet.
I know there is a fan base for it but the Mini makes zero sense at its price point. Either make it entry level given its size or ditch it. Presently it’s way too much money for what it is.
The current Air is what the Pro used to be—giving you more power and capability over a standard iPad. Fine.
Time to do what Apple did with the MacBooks. Make the iPad Pros prosumer products. People who buy those really need that capability in a tablet.
I know there is a fan base for it but the Mini makes zero sense at its price point. Either make it entry level given its size or ditch it. Presently it’s way too much money for what it is.
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IMO - the Air. But I understand why it exists - it is to push the Pro’s to even higher price points over time. Soon the pro’s will be OLED, $200 more, M3. Then the Air will exist as the in-between.
All of them should be cut and the line-up revert back to one great, good value, meets-most-needs iPad.
iPad mini, iPad 9th Gen., iPad 10th Gen., and iPad Air are low-value, over-priced decoys created only to justify Apple's price gauging for iPads Pro while reaping exorbitant profit margins for outdated components.
Same goes for iPhones. All other than the Pros are just overpriced money printing machines -You either over pay to get an iPhone Pro or get punished with outdated everything by settling for the low or mid-tier options.
iPad mini, iPad 9th Gen., iPad 10th Gen., and iPad Air are low-value, over-priced decoys created only to justify Apple's price gauging for iPads Pro while reaping exorbitant profit margins for outdated components.
Same goes for iPhones. All other than the Pros are just overpriced money printing machines -You either over pay to get an iPhone Pro or get punished with outdated everything by settling for the low or mid-tier options.
If it were up to me, there would be a standard iPad offered in 8” and 11” sizes, and then the Pro offered in 11” and 13” sizes. The standard iPad would be closer to the Air than the current base model iPad.
Everything else would go.
Everything else would go.
Agreed. If the iPad product line is too confusing for you then ask Apple, do more research, ask a friend or whatever.
I thought it actually a hard question.
As it stands the iPad has the most straightforward product line Apple sell. Good/Better/Best, take your pick. The 10th gen base model is fantastic value for money.
The Mini is still too expensive though and the 11" iPad Pro killed the 11" Macbook Air and I'd love an M3 version of that despite using an 11" iPad Pro daily!
I picked the 13" version because honestly I think its too big, but thats me.
As it stands the iPad has the most straightforward product line Apple sell. Good/Better/Best, take your pick. The 10th gen base model is fantastic value for money.
The Mini is still too expensive though and the 11" iPad Pro killed the 11" Macbook Air and I'd love an M3 version of that despite using an 11" iPad Pro daily!
I picked the 13" version because honestly I think its too big, but thats me.
I would eliminate the Mini. Size is not a model, there should just be an 8 inch version of all the other models.
Apple doesn’t provide firmware updates forever. I’m guessing they’d drop M1 support in 2029/30 or thereabouts.
Improvements to iPadOS have been slow so I wouldn’t be surprised if they stop supporting M1/M2 before swap gets used more broadly.
I would get rid of the Air (and I have one). I would have Mini, 10" and 13", and I would make a regular iPad and a Pro for each size. Pro's would get the pens, cellular, better screens and speed bumps over the regular versions. I would also make a 13" iPad Pro with MacOS on it.
But that would reduce the number of things keyboard warriors could complain about.
I'd mirror the MacBook naming... iPad Air, iPad Pro
I'll keep the iPad mini and hope that iPhone mini will make a comeback...
I'll keep the iPad mini and hope that iPhone mini will make a comeback...
Keep all the iPads, get rid of all the people who think their opinion is the only correct one.
Respectfully, I disagree. Which iPad is "the best" is entirely based on personal use cases. Incidentally, while the iPad mini is my favorite and while I'd make a highly subjective argument that it is the most utilitarian (an argument that several others have perfectly valid disagreements with), it makes perfect sense to argue that it ought to be the one culled in the hypothetical proposed here. The point is that the iPad line is imperfect. Probably the most imperfect it has ever been. There are strong cases to be made for removing ANY of the models from the line.
You're interpreting the exercise as "which iPad makes the most logical sense to cull" full stop. I'm suggesting that the exercise instead be "which iPad makes the least amount of marketing sense to you?". Obviously, no one here has sales figures, revenues, or cost analysis. We're all operating blind as iPad fans. But, anyone can look at the current iPad, analyze it, and then pinpoint the one that makes the least amount of marketing sense (to them) to keep (despite one's own personal preferences).
The idea behind this is that it's a fun game to play. No one knows any of this stuff for sure; it's all conjecture. And while we wait for the 18+ dry spell to end, why not have these sorts of conversations?
You're not wrong here either. I think where, at least from the standpoint of 10-11-inch iPads, things got wonky was
(a) The 9th Generation iPad wasn't discontinued when the 10th Generation iPad came out; so it maintained its price point. At the 9th Generation iPad's price point, the 10th Generation iPad makes a ton of sense and is priced appropriately. At the $449 price point, it doesn't do anything except make one feel like they're being price gouged.
(b) The iPad Air got the M1. Yes, you got M1 performance and you got to be invited to several parties that make more sense on the iPad Pro (e.g. Stage Manager, Virtual Memory, Support for Final Cut Pro, etc.), but these are features that most folks buying an iPad Air don't care about. So, in essence, Apple could've put out an A15 version of the iPad Air instead, charged $100 less for it, and it would make a decent amount of sense.
For most people that would go out and buy an iPad Air, the 10th Generation iPad is more than fine. Yes, you get the laminated display and second generation Apple Pencil support. Those DO differentiate it. But, for the average person buying an iPad Air over an iPad Pro, how much do those things matter? (Asking legitimately; that's data I don't have and am very curious about.)
Do you have a source for this? Am asking legitimately, because I'm curious.
While the iPad mini's jump in cost since moving to the USB-C/home-button-less/all-screen design seems unwarranted, the fact of the matter is that it has no real competition. All of the other 7-8.9-inch tablets are way lower-end in terms of specs. They're not even trying to be the same thing. The iPad mini is almost its own device with no real competition anymore. I agree that they could remove the laminated display and make it cost less. But, even then, there's nothing to compare it to. The perception that it ought to cost less for what it happens to be is rooted in the display size, and the processor. And even if you forget the display size, it's otherwise a superior tablet to the fourth generation iPad Air in pretty much every way.
The first generation 12.9-inch iPad Pro got eight years of updates. The 9.7-inch iPad Pro got seven and a half (and only because it didn't launch for another 4-6 months thereafter). The iPad Air 2 had a similar run. I'm not saying that Apple is going to support these devices forever. But with the criticism of iPadOS not being more sophisticated being prevalent in tech media (and among various forum discussions outside of MacRumors), I'd imagine that Apple wants to do something about that sooner rather than later. Without significant advancements in software, the higher end iPads make a diminishing amount of sense.
I would. A9X got support for 8 years in those iPad Pros. A12X is currently on its 6th year of support with a 7th almost assured. M1 will probably enjoy a similar lifespan of support in iPads that have it.
iPad Air thickness: 0.24 inches
iPad Pro thickness: 0.23 inches
iPad (10th) thickness: 0.28 inches
iPad Air weight: 1.02 pounds
iPad Pro weight: 1.04 pounds
iPad (10th) weight: 1.05
I don't consider any of these numbers materially different, especially between the Pro and Air where it's a draw (Pro thinner but heavier). The bottom line remains: the name doesn't signify anything. It's not notably thinner/lighter the way the original MacBook Air was. That's the kind of differentiation the name was created for, not to merely sit in the midrange.
The name "iPad Air" never, at any point in its existence nor on any of the models that shipped with that name associated to it, made any sense.
The M1 iPads were first released in 2021. It’s gotten 3 years of support already so around 5 years left (2029) is in line with Apple’s usual timeframe.
The criticisms on iOS/iPadOS have been there since 2017/18. Apple is still taking their sweet time rolling out gradual improvements.
Mind, I have several M1 iPads so it would benefit me if Apple supports expanded features on these devices. Great if it happens but I’m not holding out hope that it will.
OG iPad Air and Air 2 were significantly lighter than the iPad 4 so the change in branding made sense (unfortunately at the expense of battery life).
The 12.9” iPad Pro is actually around the same weight as the iPad 3/4.