As someone who has owned an iPad since the first model, I’m always intrigued to read or watch anything that presages their death.
Luke Miani makes excellent videos, even if they typically have clickbait titles such as this, because of course, the iPad isn’t dying - they’re great. The hardware and software are rock solid. The iPad market is slow and steady and customers love them and the sales are only bad compared to other Apple products - most tech companies would kill for those numbers. Plus, average people use them for years because the hardware never dies - the upgrade cycle is very slow, possibly the slowest of Apple’s major product lines. My son is still using a 3rd gen from 2012 and I’m still using my first-generation 12.9-inch Pro from 2015, and the only thing I want to do is get the battery replaced, but it’s now so old that Apple no longer stock them! 🙄
The current iPad line is a little confused and disappointing with the older style 9th generation iPad with the home button hanging around at £369 ($329) because the 10th generation clearly can’t hit a sufficiently low price point whilst maintaining Apple’s margins for a base model iPad, as its starting price is £499 ($440). There is a big jump up to £669 ($599)for an iPad Air with a frankly rubbish 64GB of storage. And of course, if you want to store more than that you have to pay an extra £180 for 256GB at £849 ($749)! The next rung on the ladder is the base model iPad Pro with a more useful 128GB of storage for a ‘mere’ £50 ($50) more - the old Apple upsell is in effect, and there isn’t really a model I’d be tempted to pick up at those prices, especially with the poor USD to GBP conversions going on right now. If the base model iPad Air came with 128GB I’d be tempted, but not in reality, no thanks!
However, Luke’s mainly talking about the Pro market. The iPad software is absolutely unexciting, which is great for the average user, but the messaging around ‘Pro’ software features is nascent and garbled, and Apple’s attempt to market for Pros is simply not good enough, and Luke is right, with the M1 MacBook Air often at a comparable price to an iPad Pro which comes with a keyboard and trackpad. While most iPad models are fine for the average punter, I just don’t think it’s going to truly capture the Pro market from the Mac. A current iPad Pro is a beautiful piece of technology, but the software simply doesn’t back up such an awesome tablet. As much as I might want one, whenever my iPad dies, I can’t justify an iPad Pro at those prices, when the experience is almost exactly the same.
I’m not in the Pro iPad market anymore and I’m being priced out of the iPad Air market too. In my use case, no iPad is as functional as a Mac, and spending extra money is just for nicer hardware. For now, I’ll always want an iPad, but we’ll have to see whether Apple can tempt me back to the higher-end ones.
