Ondrej Holzman Twenty-five seconds. History probably does not remember Apple creating such a small space for any new product at the keynote. In less than half a minute, Phil Schiller managed to mention only one new feature (not even the iPad mini 3 has more) and reveal prices, nothing more. However, the apparent disregard for the smaller tablet may foreshadow possible future developments. Where is Apple going and where are iPads going?
After just one year, Apple has torn apart everything it tried to create with last year's iPads. If we are a year ago they cheered over the fact that the Californian company decided to unify the seven-inch and nine-inch iPads as much as possible, and the user already chooses practically only according to the size of the display, today everything is different. Fragmentation is returning to the iPad lineup, and Apple's portfolio is now more diversified than ever.
Apple's famous maximally simple offer is there. Previously, the Californian company was based on the fact that it offered only a few products. To date, the user can choose from an incredible 56 iPad variants in the Apple Online Store, from the first iPad mini to the latest iPad Air 2. Apple is apparently trying to appeal to a wide part of society, when the cheapest iPad can now be purchased for less than seven thousand crowns, but some models seem out of place in the menu.
The current fragmentation may also be a harbinger of significant changes and the future direction of Apple. First there was the little phone. Then it was supplemented by a large tablet. Then a smaller sized tablet fit between the small phone and the large tablet. This year, however, everything is different, Apple is changing the established order and is clearly focusing on products with larger displays. It was as if he showed the "new" iPad mini at Thursday's keynote just out of obligation, just so it wouldn't be said, but even Phil Schiller could see that he wasn't interested in this tablet at all.
[do action=”citation”]iPad mini 2 is the most affordable smaller tablet from Apple.[/do]
The new iPad Air was supposed to get the main attention, and it did. It seemed a bit inappropriate when Apple showed at the end of the presentation that in fact it does not only offer its thinnest tablet ever, but also dozens of other variants. His message was clear: the iPad Air 2 is the one you should buy. The future is in it.
The new iPad Air is the kind of update that we would imagine after a year - a faster processor, an improved display, a thinner body, a better camera and Touch ID. The best and most powerful iPad Apple has ever made, and it will be the only one. Whatever the motivation behind this decision, in Cupertino they no longer want more iPads with the same parameters, distinguished only by a different diagonal. For the iPad mini 3, users will now pay at least 2 kroner for Touch ID and gold color only, which no reasonable user can pay when they can get the exact same device for three to four thousand less, only without a fingerprint reader.
There is another one in the current iPad range, the iPad mini of the first generation, that seems similarly pointless. A two-year-old piece of hardware that already came with a year-old A5 processor. In addition, it does not have Retina, and it is really difficult to judge why Apple continues to keep the first iPad mini on sale. For just 1 crowns more, you can get an iPad mini 300, which is clearly the most affordable and best smaller tablet from Apple in terms of price/performance ratio at the moment.
One reason why Apple decided to do all this is convenience. In the coming months, the apple company could switch to a completely different range of mobile devices, starting with the iPhone 6 and ending with the long-speculated iPad Pro, i.e. a tablet with a screen size larger than twelve inches. Until now, Apple's policy has been clear: a small phone and a large tablet. But these two devices are starting to overlap more and more, and Apple is reacting. It is not immediately and overnight, but instead of the offer from 3,5 inches to 9,7 inches from 2010, we can expect more from 2015 inches to 4,7 inches in 12,9, thus an obvious shift towards larger displays in general.
A larger iPad, officially called the iPad Pro, was already talked about a year ago, and as time goes by, an Apple tablet with an almost thirteen-inch diagonal makes more and more sense. From September, new iPhones began to enter the space previously dominated by the iPad mini, and especially with the 6 Plus, many users not only replaced the previous iPhone, but also the iPad, usually the iPad mini. It really adds value to the large 5,5-inch display of the iPhone 6 Plus to the iPad Air, and at the moment the iPad mini seems doomed. At least judging by how Apple treated him on Thursday.
[do action=”citation”]iPad mini ends. You have already fulfilled yours.[/do]
However, Apple will certainly not give up tablets as such, they continue to represent a very interesting business for it, which has only started to stagnate in recent months, so it is necessary to figure out how to kick it up again. The iPad mini is coming to an end, it already fulfilled its purpose at a time when Apple did not have large iPhones and needed to respond to the growing market of smaller Android tablets. And if not smaller, it seems logical to go the way of an even bigger display.
With a nearly 13-inch Retina display, the iPad Pro could finally offer something more than the familiar grid of icons and could take iOS (perhaps in collaboration with OS X) to the next level. Apple admits it still hasn't made as much of a splash in the corporate world as it would have liked, and the partnership with IBM gives it a huge opportunity to make a splash. Business users will certainly be much more attracted to the iPad Pro, with custom-made advanced software and a whole host of accessories, than the iPad mini, which, although compact, will only offer basic office tasks.
It may no longer be an iOS device per se. The iPad Pro could be much closer to MacBooks than iPhones, but that's what it's all about - larger iPhones will replace tablets in many ways, and while there's still room for an iPad Air, a potential larger iPad can't just be an extension of it. Apple must try to reach new customers, and if there is any potential for further growth and a push for iPad sales, it is in the corporate sector.
Great article! I agree and at the same time I am amazed at such a wide range of iPads. 56 options is really too much and an iPad mini without Retina makes no sense to me.
I have an iPad mini without retina, I was waiting for something more revolutionary to come and make Christmas and it didn't come... I don't miss retina on my iPad and it is of course significantly more powerful since the first generation, but not so much that I would pay 400 euros for it, retina display with this device for me personally there is no added value (a macbook is already something else)
+1 Exactly, iPad mini is a great thing, no retina is needed at all. I don't want a big iPhone, I don't want a big tablet either. The small Phone 4 in my pocket and the iPad mini on my desk at home suit me perfectly and I don't want to change it.
I have it slightly shifted in size. iP5S and iPad 2, and I wouldn't change either
I also have a 5S and an iPad air and I am satisfied, although I would like to change that. The iPhone 6 is ugly at first glance, but that's what most people said at the introduction of the iPhone 5, too, that it's big...
iPad mini is simply for purses or for a person who spends 90 minutes every day on a train or bus while going to work, school...
I'm still wondering if it's better for me, as a woman, to have a "small" iPhone 6 plus an iPad mini (which the kids take from me :-D ) or an iPohne 6 plus - one device :-) I don't carry my phone in my pocket, I'm on the net a lot more than I would use the phone to make calls. I need a good camera, I take pictures of children every day and I don't want to carry a mirror :-o What would you advise me? :-) Is the iPhone 6 plus really too big for a woman? Can it be held with one hand? Now I have a 4S and I find it quite heavy...Thanks!
The six fit well in my hand, 6+ is too much, and I don't have a small hand, but it can be held with one hand. It's best to try them out, they should be on display in the Czech Republic soon. Although the 6+ is big enough, it still can't match the size and comfort of the iPad mini, at least for me. But 6+ could be a good solution for you if 5,5″ instead of 7,9″ is enough. From what I see around me, even women quite often have phones with a diagonal of over 5″.
I'm going to live hard, that's clear :-) I've already cut out mockups :-D My husband once didn't believe that if he bought me a Mac Book Air 11″, that the size would be enough for me - he thought I wouldn't be able to see it and that it was very small…I've been working on it for almost 4 years now and it's a wonderful helper besides photo work…so I trust my instinct to choose well. I'll see how much the plus weighs, if it's as heavy as the 4S, then there's probably nothing to worry about :-) I just need to make sure it's a good choice. Having one big device (I also watch a lot of videos on my phone) rather than one small and one bigger :-)
The plus is about 50 grams more... than the 4s weighs a normal iPhone 6 (that is, 10 grams less)
Correctly one model, one color otherwise it would be beyond my power to decide :)
Selling the mini 1 makes sense to me but I think that apple will update the mini and that the mini will take over the role of the iPod touch (i.e. the gateway to the apple world) because the latest mini costs 10k which compared to the 6+ which costs 21k is much more acceptable for someone who is just switching to a certain platform. So it will be such a low-end and low-cost device in the Apple sense of the word.
Now all that remains is for Apple to start giving out licenses for the production of Macs to other manufacturers again, and it is again exactly on the verge of the same mess as 20 years ago. 56 iPad models on offer! For God's sake. Do you still remember the very first thing Jobs did in 1997? He cut Apple's bloated and confusing product line down to 4 products. And that above all saved them.
This has been popular lately to rant about and then get a million likes for it. However, there is no parallel with the past and it certainly cannot be compared. The bottom line is that in 1997, Apple was perhaps two months away from bankruptcy, so a large portfolio was logically an obvious burden. Does Apple seem on the verge of bankruptcy today? Whether we like it or not, today Apple is trying to cover the market, it's in a position to do that, it's in a very different position than it was in 1997.
As Pixy wrote - the direction of Apple goes back to 97, the state of the company's coffers is grossly different. But the fat cash is not the result of the mess at Apple in recent years. That's because Apple has taken a good turn since Jobs' return, when it managed to convince the masses that it was making near-perfect products - great to use, at an acceptable price. In recent years, he has only been riding on the inertia of his then-built image, and that despite (definitely not because) he does the pranks he does. And the user base is changing wildly. Previously, they were professionals in prepress, etc., who helped Apple grow with their sincere praise, and whom Apple has been screwing up more and more in recent years. figure and character. Yes, I'm out of touch with development and since I don't even fit in with the friculins in terms of age (let alone in any other way), I'm slowly starting to feel ashamed that people I know associate me with the apple brand. I will not explain to them that for a quarter of a century I have been using different machines than they produce today and that I am not satisfied with today's ones. They are massaging the media about how the whole world has seen and everyone is discovering the divine Apple. But that company is not what it used to be - that's why I used to like it. Why I don't like her and what they are doing is bad for me to write, I have already written it many times (yes elsewhere) and it will not help me to repeat it. Anyway, it's going in the wrong direction, and the mentioned splitting of the product lines into three ass versions of each is just one of the bad moves they're blessedly making.
I've been using Macs for over 20 years, so you could have missed the history window and whining about the prepress pros. You don't realize that Apple took the right direction into the black numbers after the arrival of Jobs mainly thanks to the iPod player, later a massive boost thanks to the iPhone and then also thanks to the iPad, that guaranteed them the big cash. Apple was never in the lead thanks to Macs, accept it. Today, Mac sales are paradoxically driven by iPhones and iPads, because many, as you say, geeks, then buy a MacBook. I really like Macs, I like the OS X work system, but unfortunately they are not what got Apple to the top and it is clear that Apple's approach is adapting to that. This is a fact that we all have to deal with and I have a few things to complain about as well. Personally, I don't know why I should be ashamed of using Apple products, it seems rather hysterical to me. Maybe focus more on what you need and not what others say. My Mac is still fine for work and I will use it as long as it is.
PS: One more small addition. After the victory of Windows on the desktop, Apple had no choice but to focus on the world of consumer electronics (mp3s, mobile phones, tablets, watches). If he were to still go around the pros today and insist only on Macs, he would be endlessly peddling, because the professional sector and computers will never give you the kind of sales that consumer electronics suitable for the hands of every jodo. Who knows if Apple would still exist in that case. And which do you prefer, the current Apple or the non-existent Apple?
I'm just focusing on what I need, and that's what Apple has been taking away from me for the last few years. What I was used to having in the system or WH area of apple computers is gnawed away in each subsequent version. Today, I have no option at all to buy a matte display (even for an extra charge), there is no longer a battery status indicator or even a status diode on the retina. There is probably no need to worry about RAM upgrade options. In the OS, the fact that Rosetta disappeared in 10.7 and that made a lot of old software unusable, the later eliminated x-window can be installed later. FrontRow, which I used for a long time on my "living room" Mini, is also in the master - as usual with Apple - without a replacement. The main thing is that FB is everywhere and iCloud is everywhere. So that it can no longer be avoided. Does everyone have to save their private data to Apple? Where is it going? And all this suits you? And because of these things, I say that I am opposed to the fact that my surroundings have connected me to this brand - because I have not been satisfied with its development for a long time and my values and those of the apple brand are already very different. And the fact that Apple has already reached the exact same level as Samsung and other well-known brands - that it only watches gigahertz, megapixels, inches and usability goes aside - is that OK too? I'd definitely rather pay a lot of money for a new phone that won't be a hair thinner than the current one - it can easily be 3mm thicker - but if it lasts a week on a charge. And the dimensions - is that also OK? That even the smallest one on the menu is a beast - is that okay? No, I've been riding with them for a long time, but I'm done now.
Well, I kind of feel like you're imagining that everything will be like it was in the 90s forever. I agree with you, it was a beautiful time, but it will never come back. Personally, I don't build a "relationship" with brands driven by the sole rule of business - profit maximization, because it will never be reciprocated. You probably liked Apple, but all he ever liked was your money. This is simply the reality of the market environment and you won't find anything else. Regarding your comments, no one is forcing me to use services like FB and iCloud. These services like social networks and cloud storage are being integrated by everyone, it is given by the time we live in, do you think Apple can be left behind? Do you want to have Rosetta in MacOS even in 20 or 30 years to run your collection of historical applications? I think these requirements are simply out of line with reality. Of course you can quit Apple, I'm just wondering where you can find what you're looking for, because I can't see it anywhere.
I would not increase the numbers, there are only 5 models in the offer.
Although each model has variants, they are not different models.
The iPad mini definitely has a strong presence among women – I don't know anyone in my area who has an Air.
It's nice that I have a 4,7" or 5,5" iPhone, but you definitely won't be as comfortable on it as on a 7,9" one.
Furthermore, it is forgotten here that there is feedback and I think that Apple definitely has feedback from users to know what percentage is being done on which device and who is its most frequent user. And if most use a smaller model just for light consumption of content, then there is no need to do anything fundamental with it.
The corporate world is something else entirely. I wouldn't bring it here, there are other specifics than home use.
For God's sake, I'm quite allergic to this sentence: "The best and most powerful (iPad, iPhone, iMac…..) that Apple has ever produced" Is it supposed to be worse than the last generation? :D
Copy-paste with every keynote?
Agreed, I'm taking the iPhone 6 plus as an upgrade to the iPad mini, so it's not even needed, Touch ID is already standard in IOS, so he had to put it there.
I would see it differently. With calling, messaging and other functions from iPad and Mac, it is not essential to have a large screen phone. The phone is in one's pocket and possible calls and messages can be handled from a Mac or iPad. The larger diagonal (5,5″) of the iPhone is for those who don’t even want an 8″ tablet
In addition to the number of devices, the iPad mini has essentially the same HW as the iPad 2, which has not been offered for a year, and it is probably the most compact and lightest tablet in the 8-inch range, so there is no reason to take it out of the menu for many things, it also runs the latest games, so continue great for the price, but the retina in ppi 416 is really magical on the iPad mini 2, the triple will definitely have a slightly better display, they just didn't talk about it because it's not a top product like the iPad Air. Mini is mini as in macs.
I can already see how Samsung cuts an even bigger piece of pencil for a month and a half.
I consider the division to be logical. iPad mini setup for content and game consumption, A7 performance is enough for everything. iPad Air is aimed more at production. They will debug the performance and maybe something like an iPad Pro with a 12-13″ display will come.
If you don't need 64GB, it's best to buy an iPad mini with retina 32GB for 350 euros or an iPad Air 32GB for 450 euros.
Too bad there aren't new iPods.
http://vsesezeneme.cz/vyzkouseli-jsme-hovor-z-macu-bez-pouziti-iphonu-vysledek/
Have you tried calling from your Mac yet? My opinion is on the link above, what do you think? :)
I tried it and it was great, the quality was excellent and the transmission worked as it should. What I haven't been able to do yet is browse things on the iPhone from the Mac...
if you mean photos etc., then normally transferring them to the Mac and then transferring them works perfectly for me :)
Where can I buy an iPad mini 2 for CZK 1??
Read with your eyes.. "You can get an iPad mini 1 for just 300 crowns PLUS,…."
Next year, let's expect the cancellation of the Macbook pro 13", because Apple and the next year we will really have iPhones and iPads like the ones that were flying around a few years ago with an iPad the size of a skyscraper. No no no. I really don't like Apple's politics as such since the death of Jobs. I produce as much as I can, the more sh*t at the same exorbitant price. Jobs was an idiot, but at least he was a damn smart idiot and he knew what he wanted. Do not go the way of quantity, but of quality. From the scandal with the maps, it's all the worse, gold iPhones, iPhone C, 10x bigger iPhone, coloring books in the system, returning to the look of the iPhone 3 and lower generations (and the ip4, 4s, 5, 5s was one of the most beautiful phones that when made by whom). And now they reject the absolutely PERFECT ipad mini (13ka is a file "for students, for managers, etc." for constant use of MISTO pc. )
I think the next one will be a change in everything. OS X and iOS are pretty unified now. Plus we have OS X at version 10 and I think OS XI/11 is coming next year. I'm more afraid that it won't be for all platforms like Windows 10, because if it was, it would devalue the new iPad Air 2. I hope it won't happen and that I'm wrong, but I'm very afraid that it will come...
The fact that we have so many iPad models is not a problem for Apple, as it was a large portfolio in the past. Every year, Apple comes up with a minimum of new models, and the others are already thought up and they are just reselling them. If an old model is still being sold with a fairly large margin, why not continue to sell it. The only problem could be the lower sales of the mini3, since the mini2 has a better price for almost the same HW.
I still can't understand the price difference between the iPad Mini 2 LTE and the iPhone 6 Plus. So I wouldn't be too surprised if the iPad Mini 3 was the "last representative of the family", because making the new generation of the iPad Mini significantly more expensive would not be passable. Fortunately, it doesn't bother me at all - I'm so happy with both the Macbook Pro and the iPad Mini 2 LTE that I wouldn't buy new versions in the next 3 years anyway :-)
I hope the iPad mini doesn't end. There is nothing that can replace it, iPhone 6+ with 16:9 not by chance.
I don't know, but what would you do with a 13″ iPad? Even when I was vaping on the iPad 2, my hands sometimes hurt, and the weight is quite small.
Otherwise, I understand that Apple needs to increase everything. Why else would someone buy the new watch? :D
In my opinion, Apple has made it clear what it means by the minimum, by saying that it is a budget iPad. The line between portability is almost washed away – 331g vs. 437g. The surface area is completely irrelevant, as there is no difference between whether you carry a 7.9 inch or a 9.7. It's the same with the new iPhones, there's just no difference whether you're wearing the Plus or the Basic.
I wouldn't see it so skeptically. In addition, Tim's sentence that you think about things in Apple that no one in the world has even talked about before, really got me fired up :)