Apple making unlikely enterprise bedfellows to bolster sagging iPad sales

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Comments

  • Reply 21 of 68
    paxmanpaxman Posts: 4,729member
    I'd like the lines between the iPad and a laptop blurred. I don't buy that the iPad 'has' to be just so. When I come to my desk I'd like the iPad to connect to a keyboard and accept a mouse input. Ie become much more like a 'normal' laptop. So often the iPad is impossibly awkward to use effectively because the way I am able to interact with it is too limiting. I also would like an iCloud Drive ap (yes, a file system) that reflects what exists on OS X.

    None of the above would impact the way most people interact with an iPad but it would allow 'power users' the versatility the iPad currently lacks.
  • Reply 22 of 68
    cnocbuicnocbui Posts: 3,613member

    The iPad is too expensive and is poor value.  I just bought my daughter a Toshiba 15" laptop with an i5 2.2 Ghz, 4 Gb RAM and a 500 Gb HD for €504.  An iPad Air 2 with 64 Gb would have cost €609.  F*** that!  Appropriate words would be along the lines of risible and insane.

  • Reply 23 of 68
    rogifanrogifan Posts: 10,669member
    Jobs wasn't the only visionary. But most of the old A Team is gone. Forstall is gone. Fadell is gone. Serlet is gone. The remaining ones represent operations and marketing, and hardware design. Is it any surprise those are the three areas they're doing well in?

    Craig is showing he's not capable of leading the software division. Under him, iOS reached the buggiest state ever, and OS X has a lot of problems and bugs that should have been fixed years ago (El Cap is a start, not a complete fix).

    The thing with the iPad is that iOS 6, 7, and 8 were iPhone focused. Heck, they couldn't even be bothered to port the keyboard from the 6+ to the iPad last year! When Steve heard the "consumption device only" he had iLife and iWork ported to it.

    Apple hasn't done anything like that since. And the 'big' iPad improvements for iOS 9 are just features that were intended for iOS 8 that are now being done properly, the delays of which meant that Apple sold a tablet for a year that perhaps two apps could actually harness the power of.

    I mean, was making Notes into TextEdit Touch that hard of an idea? Why wasn't that done in, say, iOS 6? It's not like it's a new idea; it's just a watered down version of the Notes application from Newton OS.

    What does Tony Fadell have to do with software? He was a hardware guy at Apple. And iOS was stagnating under Forstall IMO. If he had a grand vision I'd love to know what it was. What did we get with iOS 6 besides a maps app that wasn't ready for prime time?
  • Reply 24 of 68
    rogifanrogifan Posts: 10,669member
    I believe the iPad has still a lot of potential. It is still Apple fastest selling product ever - even if it is going to be surpassed by the iPhone soon (source: http://qz.com/393502/the-iphone-is-about-to-surpass-the-ipad-as-apples-fastest-selling-product/). I feel that may times the current sale numbers are used to create the idea that there much less many iPads around as iPhones. That is not the case. My personal experience as well as threat from my friends is that everyone who has an iPad is quite happy with it, like with the iPhone. The difference is as sog wrote somewhere yesterday that the iPhone has this "must have the latest" status. So people like to upgrade their phone more than their iPad. Just because they do not feel the need.

    I do see some lack of clarity regarding the iPad lineup - it is not clean. As well, I always had the feeling that they do not make the best use of the larger canvas, without being able to point the finger at exactly what is missing. Maybe iOS9 will change this.

    Regarding ports I still am happy they do not offer anything in hardware. I don't want to have a port that clogs up, looks ugly and I need to find a thumb drive or sd card or whatever to transfer files. I'm using cloud based solutions and with the iCloud Drive app things will even become easier.

    And I am really curious as well about the "pro" version with the stylus. I hope it gets revealed in September. However I fear it may not due to lack of leaks.

    iPad lineup isn't clean because that's what happens when you let marketing and finance dictate. Marketing needs specific price points and finance needs specific margins. To me the mini is a weird product now because Apple seems to have decided it will be a generation behind the Air. If they didn't release the mini 3 you would have had no product at $399 price point only to bring that price point back a year later. But most people looked at the mini 3 and said it was ridiculous to pay $100 more just for Touch ID. I would love it if Apple dropped the mini 3 to $249 and the mini 4 was $349 (or get rid of the $249 price point and have it be $299 and $399). I think it's silly for Apple to be selling two different iPads with the same SOC. Apple didn't increase the price of iPhones when they added Touch ID so why should one pay more for Touch ID on the iPad?
  • Reply 25 of 68
    rogifanrogifan Posts: 10,669member
    It will be interesting to see what Apple will announce soon. How about the iPad Pro being released at $500 and the iPad Air dropping down a couple hundred bucks?

    This will give some breathing space between low end MacBooks and the top iPad. That should goose up adoption of iPads like nobody's business. PLUS is should let the air out of the tires on the MS Surface.

    When has Apple radically reduced the price on something? If Apple did that they'd basically be saying the iPad has really been over priced the last 4 years and the only thing we can do to drive sales is drop the price. It would be a sure sign that Apple has no faith in iPad as a product line.
  • Reply 26 of 68
    tmaytmay Posts: 6,293member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by cnocbui View Post

     

    The iPad is too expensive and is poor value.  I just bought my daughter a Toshiba 15" laptop with an i5 2.2 Ghz, 4 Gb RAM and a 500 Gb HD for €504.  An iPad Air 2 with 64 Gb would have cost €609.  F*** that!  Appropriate words would be along the lines of risible and insane.


    So you bought your daughter a laptop instead of a shitty Android tablet, in lieu of buying her an iPad. You were never in the market for an iPad in the first place, and for the record, nobody cares that she ended up with a Toshiba.

     

    Except your daughter, I suppose, who really wanted a Mac Book.

  • Reply 27 of 68
    cnocbuicnocbui Posts: 3,613member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by tmay View Post

     

    So you bought your daughter a laptop instead of a shitty Android tablet, in lieu of buying her an iPad. You were never in the market for an iPad in the first place, and for the record, nobody cares that she ended up with a Toshiba.

     

    Except your daughter, I suppose, who really wanted a Mac Book.




    Actually, she was using my old Macbook and now currently uses Windows 7 on my son's old iMac, and prefers a PC, hence the Toshiba.  Whether you or anyone else cares is something I don't care about.  My comment was an anecdotal observation that I think is germane to the topic of flagging iPad sales.   I did consider the iPad since her iPhone is currently her main computing device, but decided it was severely overpriced and lacking in capabilities.  I didn't really look at Android tablets but did consider a Surface and the ilk.

  • Reply 28 of 68
    jax44jax44 Posts: 79member
    paxman wrote: »
    I'd like the lines between the iPad and a laptop blurred. I don't buy that the iPad 'has' to be just so. When I come to my desk I'd like the iPad to connect to a keyboard and accept a mouse input. Ie become much more like a 'normal' laptop. So often the iPad is impossibly awkward to use effectively because the way I am able to interact with it is too limiting. I also would like an iCloud Drive ap (yes, a file system) that reflects what exists on OS X.

    None of the above would impact the way most people interact with an iPad but it would allow 'power users' the versatility the iPad currently lacks.

    iOS 9 has iCloud Drive , pretty nice!.
  • Reply 29 of 68
    danvmdanvm Posts: 1,396member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by revenant View Post

     



    one person's opinion

     

    here is another one: i have a macair, Mac Pro and iPad. more than once i have left a laptop home for the week running solely on the iPad without frustratingly not getting any real work done. it is not the heavy workhorse that a Pro is, but it is more than capable of getting real work done.

     

    do yourself a disfavour and get a surface.


     

    And here is another person opinion,

     

    My case is completely different as yours.  I have tried my iPad as my main device and the experience has been awful.  So now I have to take my MBA+iPad everywhere. 

     

    And based in the reviews I have read on the Surface Pro 3, I'm planning in "disfavour" myself and wait the Surface Pro 4.  Thanks for your suggestion. 

  • Reply 30 of 68
    pembrokepembroke Posts: 230member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by TheWhiteFalcon View Post



    The real problem is Apple doesn't have a visionary anymore, or if they do they're not listening to them. They honestly don't know what to do with the iPad.

     

    That visionary being Steve Jobs?

     

    - Steve envisioned that the keyboard cursor keys would not be wanted by customers.

    - Steve envisioned that Ping would be popular. 

    - Steve envisioned Eric Schmidt as a useful addition to Apple's board

  • Reply 31 of 68
    nolamacguy wrote: »
    ...and there's the "Apple software is buggy" meme, right on schedule. despite the hand waiving, I've never run into any bugs on iOS or OS X that I can think of. iMac, MacBook Pro, iPhone, iPad. what am I doing wrong? meanwhile my windows VMs have a never ending stream of updates.

    I won't even get into the "there's no one alive at Apple to think about product now!" meme.

    By your logic, I haven't personally seen anyone with Ebola, therefore it does not exist. :rolleyes:
  • Reply 32 of 68
    pembroke wrote: »
    That visionary being Steve Jobs?

    - Steve envisioned that the keyboard cursor keys would not be wanted by customers.

    - Steve envisioned that Ping would be popular. 

    - Steve envisioned Eric Schmidt as a useful addition to Apple's board

    Where did I mention Steve Jobs? Tell me, I'll wait.
  • Reply 33 of 68

    Yeah, no idea what happened to <a data-huddler-embed="href" href="/u/203736/TheWhiteFalcon" style="display:inline-block;">@TheWhiteFalcon</a>
    . His posts started off ok but now they are lamenting the state of Apple too often. Guess that's just one more name in my block list now.

    You're right, I should just start singing how everything is awesome and there are no issues at Apple, and everything will be better forever.

    I love how asking Apple to be better is apparently taboo.
    danvm wrote: »
    And here is another person opinion,

    My case is completely different as yours.  I have tried my iPad as my main device and the experience has been awful.  So now I have to take my MBA+iPad everywhere. 

    And based in the reviews I have read on the Surface Pro 3, I'm planning in "disfavour" myself and wait the Surface Pro 4.  Thanks for your suggestion. 

    My personal plan is to upgrade from my iPad Air (which Apple kneecapped before its second birthday, so yay?) to an iPad Mini and a Surface 3, or 4 (not the Pro) if it's out by then.
  • Reply 34 of 68
    danvmdanvm Posts: 1,396member
    Quote:



    Originally Posted by NolaMacGuy View Post





    ...and there's the "Apple software is buggy" meme, right on schedule. despite the hand waiving, I've never run into any bugs on iOS or OS X that I can think of. iMac, MacBook Pro, iPhone, iPad. what am I doing wrong? meanwhile my windows VMs have a never ending stream of updates.



    I won't even get into the "there's no one alive at Apple to think about product now!" meme.

     

    My experience with my MBA and iPhone 5s haven't been the best, with bugs in both devices.  I went to Apple Support Forums and there is a looooong list of people with lot of issues.  Do you really thing that because you haven't problems other people aren't affected?  Go to the forums and that will change your mind. 

     

    And yes, Windows updates monthly.  It's call Patch Tuesday.  . 

  • Reply 35 of 68
    pembrokepembroke Posts: 230member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by TheWhiteFalcon View Post





    Where did I mention Steve Jobs? Tell me, I'll wait.

     

    Which reminds me, do you know how to keep a turkey in suspense? 

  • Reply 36 of 68
    rogifanrogifan Posts: 10,669member
    Where did I mention Steve Jobs? Tell me, I'll wait.

    You said Apple doesn't have a visionary anymore. Of course people would assume you meant Steve Jobs. If not who then? What was Scott Forstall or Tony Fadell's vision for Apple?
  • Reply 37 of 68
    namuhnamuh Posts: 1member
    The main problem with ipad sales declining is that Apple delivered a wonderful, quality product that for most people there is no need to upgrade.

    My wife and I have 3rd gen ipads, and my son and several other people I know still use their Ipad 2s - every day. I've even dropped mine on more occasions that I care to mention, and had to replace the screen digitizer (about $20 on eBay). Apple made a great product and I will buy a new Ipad when I get a new tablet, but that will be more for wanting the latest version than for needing one.

    btw, I also bought a Dell Venue 8 with 64GB and Windows 8 pro on it as an impulse buy when I saw it at a great price. Yeah - give me the old Ipad any day.
  • Reply 38 of 68
    croprcropr Posts: 1,120member

    The main issue I have to use exclusively an iPad in a business environment is file management.  In my day to day work I have around 600 files (spreadsheets, presentations, texts) that I frequently use.  There is no good way to store and manage these 600 files locally on an iPad, so I can access them when I don't have a Wifi connection.  The one folder deep concept of iOS is just fine on a iPhone, but not good enough on a business iPad.

    The same applies to a lesser extend about the single user aspect of iOS: fine for iPhone, but a multi user iPad would be welcome.

  • Reply 39 of 68
    robin huberrobin huber Posts: 3,945member
    "Sagging" sales? iPads have reached a point of maturity like iMacs. You don't need to run out and buy a new one every refresh cycle. The "sag" is a normalization of purchase cycle.
  • Reply 40 of 68
    rogifan wrote: »
    iPad lineup isn't clean because that's what happens when you let marketing and finance dictate. Marketing needs specific price points and finance needs specific margins. To me the mini is a weird product now because Apple seems to have decided it will be a generation behind the Air. If they didn't release the mini 3 you would have had no product at $399 price point only to bring that price point back a year later. But most people looked at the mini 3 and said it was ridiculous to pay $100 more just for Touch ID. I would love it if Apple dropped the mini 3 to $249 and the mini 4 was $349 (or get rid of the $249 price point and have it be $299 and $399). I think it's silly for Apple to be selling two different iPads with the same SOC. Apple didn't increase the price of iPhones when they added Touch ID so why should one pay more for Touch ID on the iPad?

    Yes. I just got another mini as I love the form factor for reading. I chose the gen 2 because I don't see the point in the $100 basically for touchID. depending on how the 4th gen looks like I might get this and pass the 2nd gen onto the kids.
    However the way it is now it doesn't make much sense to me. Plus, I don't like if they intentionally cast rate the mini by using last years tech. Smaller = less capable?

    Similar with the big ones. Why have an air and air 2?

    I hope this soon clears up.

    What you wrote about finance and marketing made me smile. I hope it's In reality far far away from that because otherwise we'll soon be where apple was when SJ took over product lineup-wise
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