For that to happen, I think there has to be room at the bottom for a product that will not cut much into the sales of higher priced iPads.
For laptops, it seems they had/found that room, but I doubt that room is there for iPads. The low-priced product will have to suffice for browsing, reading, and watching YouTube, and I think that covers the use cases for a large fraction of customers.
Of course, they could go for lower prices, hoping for that to increase iCloud subscription revenues, but long-term, there is a risk of (EU) regulations requiring better competition for that.
For all of the Apple hate recently (with glass + MacOS bugs) - it's still great to be able to invest in high quality hardware. I made the switch to Mac, oh about 12 yrs ago, and sometimes forget how spoilt we are with really tight hardware + software integration.
I think the industry has already agreed to give this product category to Apple. Everyone needs a phone, but only specific types of users need a tablet. Apple's tablet is Good Enough for everyone, and they last forever. The o.g. iPad Air we bought in Nov 2020 is still chugging along and we use it... basically only to watch movies on airplane rides etc. And I am primarily a linux/android user, but this is the one Apple device I "use".
If/when it finally dies (we're on year 6) we'll just buy another one, I guess. The biggest risk for our single household tablet is Apple drops support for it. We have no plans to upgrade it ever, so long as netflix and youtube keep working on it.
I still use my iPad mini 2 I bought in 2014 to read books. The only problem with it is that reading books is one of the very few things I can do with it these days as Safari is no longer capable of rendering most websites, most apps are not supported, and generally iOS 12 ate most of the memory device has. So yeah, it's my bookreader still, but nothing more.
I never understood googles strategy in mobile. At the beginning I assumed that they would make a reference platform showing what's possible - a high-end pixel with all of the latest hardware and software features to promote their OS and software. Driving advancement in hardware by others using android. But instead it seems like they're competing at all levels with their hardware and are trying to win at consumer-level hardware against china instead of with their software and search and now ai - areas with high margins and where they make money.
Since their hardware group is t working at promoting their software group they should probably just spin off and do their own thing.
I think the the author is greatly overstating how big the tablet market is for the product strategy he's hoping for. "Tablet-optimized apps" are a historical artifact of the 2010-2015 period when tablets were a new and exciting category of internet-connected gadget with a plethora of use cases in entertainment and productivity, held back only by 'blown up' versions of mobile apps. Within a few years however, most apps people use (Netflix, Office, Google Docs) were redesigned to scale to the size of the screen, in the same way websites do.
A decade on, the market has spoken. Tablets are overwhelmingly used for Netflix, YouTube and casual mobile games, use cases where specs don't matter and every tablet is more or less "good enough". Maybe a million or so users have an iPad for digital art or as a laptop replacement. Even the cheapest model iPad has pen, mouse and keyboard support. So what would an iPad Neo add?
The main use I see from people is watching netflix or youtube. There are lots of ipads that are basically just expensive youtube machines. So in that sense a cheap ipad might be seen by some as an upgraded larger screen vs watching TV on their phone screen... but there are already a lot of existing cheap tablets that can do that. Someone gifted my son an Amazon one that I think was around $50 and works fine for that purpose.
You can read ebooks, but e-ink is a lot more pleasant to read I think.
You could get a stylus and draw... but I think that's a more niche use that not as many people are into, and I think professional artists are more likely to buy an art focused product over the generalized tablet / ipad.
For serious work, you're probably better off with a small laptop and keyboard. I know you can get a keyboard for a tablet, but at that point why not just have a laptop?
This guy didn't even look at what Apple sells before writing this. The normal ipad comes in fun colors, and while it doesn't cost $200 (that seems like an unattainable price point), it starts at $350.
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[ 3.3 ms ] story [ 35.1 ms ] threadFor laptops, it seems they had/found that room, but I doubt that room is there for iPads. The low-priced product will have to suffice for browsing, reading, and watching YouTube, and I think that covers the use cases for a large fraction of customers.
Of course, they could go for lower prices, hoping for that to increase iCloud subscription revenues, but long-term, there is a risk of (EU) regulations requiring better competition for that.
If/when it finally dies (we're on year 6) we'll just buy another one, I guess. The biggest risk for our single household tablet is Apple drops support for it. We have no plans to upgrade it ever, so long as netflix and youtube keep working on it.
Since their hardware group is t working at promoting their software group they should probably just spin off and do their own thing.
That is just £219 and the article wants £200
A decade on, the market has spoken. Tablets are overwhelmingly used for Netflix, YouTube and casual mobile games, use cases where specs don't matter and every tablet is more or less "good enough". Maybe a million or so users have an iPad for digital art or as a laptop replacement. Even the cheapest model iPad has pen, mouse and keyboard support. So what would an iPad Neo add?
The main use I see from people is watching netflix or youtube. There are lots of ipads that are basically just expensive youtube machines. So in that sense a cheap ipad might be seen by some as an upgraded larger screen vs watching TV on their phone screen... but there are already a lot of existing cheap tablets that can do that. Someone gifted my son an Amazon one that I think was around $50 and works fine for that purpose.
You can read ebooks, but e-ink is a lot more pleasant to read I think.
You could get a stylus and draw... but I think that's a more niche use that not as many people are into, and I think professional artists are more likely to buy an art focused product over the generalized tablet / ipad.
For serious work, you're probably better off with a small laptop and keyboard. I know you can get a keyboard for a tablet, but at that point why not just have a laptop?
I'm not sure I see the vision.