Since Tim Cook has been at the helm of Apple, he always ends his presentations by saying: “This is the best line-up of X products ever.” These are phones, tablets, computers, operating systems. Whatever, the latest version is always the best.
There is always a grain of truth, obviously, but beyond the commercial rhetoric (necessary and also pleasant, as he knows how to present it, compared to many sellers of other companies) this time it must be said that Cook’s commercial formula is truly spot on .
This time it is truly the best product line-up in the iPad segment. Not only because there are very powerful processors but also because there is finally order without major overlaps.
Yesterday’s little ones
Let’s start from the bottom: there is a iPad whose entry price has also dropped significantly, going from 589 to 439 euros in the basic version. And next to it (but it has a different positioning and has not been updated) there is an iPad mini (which has not been updated) which starts at 609 euros. They are not “old” tablets and cover a part of the market very well: those looking for an economical tablet for basic use and those looking for a small tablet but with “strong” performance and features.
Meanwhile, the ninth generation iPad has gone, which disturbed the symmetry of this part of Apple’s product curve, because it introduced a low price factor but with a highly obsolete product if taken as a new purchase in 2024.
I middle range
If you want to use an iPad capable of doing a lot and doing it in very different areas, you can go to iPad Air with 11 and 13 inch screens. This diversification of screens is fundamental because it creates symmetry and makes it clear that you can buy square centimeters of screen as well as performance. It’s the same thing that happens in the world of MacBooks with the current lineup of 13- and 15-inch MacBook Airs.
The iPad Air M2 with an 11-inch screen has a price starting from 719 euros while the iPad Air with a 13-inch screen has a price of 969. For the first time the memory allocation (128 GB) is more than sufficient for normal use and we can confidently say that this is the iPad that almost all of us might want to buy to have excellent performance without the need to exaggerate and excellent hardware equipment without having to limit ourselves. In short, the iPad for the rest of us with a well-fed but not monstrous budget.
I high end
And we come to the two iPad Pro which, with the new M4 processor, the new screen and the new form factor and then the other thousand thousand improvements introduced at the Apple event, are two true champions in their sector. Two real computers in all respects, suitable for those who think of using the iPad in a big way, for professional purposes, and really need computing power. The excuse of buying the Pro to have “a lot of screen” no longer exists because the Air also has a “large” version, so all that remains is the need for a professional device.
And professional it really is. The iPad Pro M4 model with an 11-inch screen can be purchased starting from 1,219 euros (here with 256 GB of memory) and the version with a 13-inch screen costs 1,569. If the storage memory is enough (the single element that raises the cost the most together with the need or otherwise of the 5G connection) then it is the perfect deal for a professional. Sure, they are two high prices, but the purpose is to have a work tool with which to do things. And these seventh generation M4 iPad Pros are truly super tools.
In conclusion
Apple has managed to bring order to a product portfolio that until now was too scattered, full of overlap and old tools no longer worthy of a space in the company’s stores as if they were new. The new order will most likely help customers choose the most suitable product by accepting the different price ranges (which have remained very stable, among other things) rather than bouncing confusingly between one product and another.
The only thing missing now is a very powerful and flexible operating systemequipped with both the AI part that Apple is certainly preparing and which we will see at WWDC24 in a month, and of the part of functionality that we hope will make the iPad an even more emancipated tool from its legacy of “big iPhones”. A legacy that is part of the past, as has been demonstrated for some time, but which is still present to a small extent and keeps the iPad from becoming a completely autonomous tool. A small tear on the software side and we’re there too.
