1. say iPhone7 is coming out in Sept - wow what a shocker. 2. say the iPad air 3 won't have force touch. No duh. The much more expensive iPad Pro does not have force touch, why would the cheaper Air have it.
I agree with most that Pencil support, size of display and speed are the three main differentiators between the iPad and iPad pro. However, I think we will eventually see some kind of pencil support across the iOS platform. It's no coincidence that almost all iOS devices correlate to ISO physical paper sizes. I can see why now that the pencil (and sylii in general) are going to become more popular. Think of the iPhone 6S+ as the same screen size writing area a Field Notes notebook (or ISO B7). The iPad Mini, iPad, and iPad Pro correlate to ISO C6, A5, A4 (respectively). Obviously, these are approximate size correlations and I know Apple has many other factors as to why they choose the sizes they did, but i'd say these are more than just coincidences. as the Pencil gets more and more support from other iOS devices, I think you'll see a lot more practical applications for pencil support, where drawing and annotating in real-scale to screen will be more crucial. I know that's a "captain obvious" kind of thing but i can totally see this happening.
I agree. Having used both (the pencil only briefly), I think it's pretty clear that pencil support is far more important to future iPads than force-touch or 3D touch or whatever they are calling it lately. I purchased a 6S explicitly because of force-touch and I like it a lot, but it doesn't exactly change the game the way the pencil does. It's handy for shortcuts but that's about it. I would have bought the iPad Pro just to goof around with the pencil, but it's $1,400 where I live and that's just too steep for a beta-like device that will be useless in a year or so.
The thing I find confusing, (and I've yet to see a tech blog tackle the issue), is that both force-touch and pencil support would seem to require new and specific screen technologies with sensors behind the screen. This raises some obvious questions. Are they compatible with each other? Will Apple be able to make a screen that does both or will they have to choose? If they have to choose between adding force-touch support to iPads, or pencil support to iPads, which will they pick?
These are both emerging technologies with the iPhone 6s and the iPad Pro being basically "technology demos" of each one. It's really not clear at all on a hardware level what the possibilities are and which tech is designated for what future devices because no one has (as of yet) actually dived into the hardware behind each and investigated the possibilities. It's all just mouth flapping at this point.
I'd guess probably not. That's what helps differentiate the Pro. Using that extra real estate to be the proper canvas. Just like the OIS remains in the Plus phone only.
If Apple wanted to keep the Pencil tied to the iPad Pro, they could have done the same thing with the charging system, such as by adding a second Smart Connector to the iPad Pro or making the single Smart Connector stackable to support both keyboard and Pencil. After all, everyone keeps saying wireless is the future. Since the Pencil plugs in with a Lightning connector, there will be people who can't help but expect it to work with all iPads or iPhones at some point.
size and speed are certainly major points of the iPP. certainly more important to a pro-level device than speakers. its the size of the display that opens it up to new and better apps. and the blazing faster storage speed.
Your description, (being literally torn from the pages of Apple's own description of the product), is suspect to me.
Sure, Apple is pushing the larger size and the storage, but I don't see any facts to support the idea that they really differentiate the product. The faster lightning port will make a difference to photographers, but again, that will be present on the next iPad Air and iPad mini (unless Apple is crazy). the bigger size might be easier to draw on at first, but the apps will all look exactly the same as they do on the other two sizes of iPad. Even the iPad mini has split-screen multi-tasking etc.
literally torn from apple's description? not. just common sense -- its big. big changes what you can do. a bath tub and swimming poor are the same exact thing -- except one's bigger. thus, obviously, the use cases are different.
and its memory is much faster. you know that, right?
again -- both of these are much more important to more serious apps than....speakers.
Nah. The iPad mini is far from "dead man walking." If you look into the numbers even a little bit, it's one of the most popular iOS devices they sell and has a very ardent (and sometimes rabid) following. Sales of the original mini outstripped those of the original iPad.
iPad mini users are also far more likely to be serious "Post PC" users who use the iPad more for actual work, than just for watching porn in the toilet or whatever. The meme of iPad mini being "eclipsed" or made redundant by a larger iPhone is definitely popular, but mostly among males, mostly among tech-heads and mostly among people who don't use an iPad as a serious computer. It also has no actual facts to back it up.
i wasnt aware that apple broke down sales by model/size. can you link us to that?
I'd guess probably not. That's what helps differentiate the Pro. Using that extra real estate to be the proper canvas. Just like the OIS remains in the Plus phone only.
If Apple wanted to keep the Pencil tied to the iPad Pro, they could have done the same thing with the charging system, such as by adding a second Smart Connector to the iPad Pro or making the single Smart Connector stackable to support both keyboard and Pencil. After all, everyone keeps saying wireless is the future. Since the Pencil plugs in with a Lightning connector, there will be people who can't help but expect it to work with all iPads or iPhones at some point.
That would be pretty sweet actually. A magnetic, inductive Pencil charger/holder using the Smart Connector.
Failure to include the 3D/pressure sensitive feature would be just about the biggest blunder they could make. The product is already under pressure and shorting replacement buyers on this important new feature could move the product towards obsolesce.
The pencil will not be supported and it makes sense. The Pro is marketed and aimed at a different segment. If they included the pencil with iPad Air 3, they will be devaluing the Pro and blurring the lines between these segments of their tablet line up.
The Pro is way more than I need or can use and the Mini isn't enough. I have been waiting for Air 3 and will be seriously pissed enough to look elsewhere if the 3D/pressure feature is not included.
Failure to include the 3D/pressure sensitive feature would be just about the biggest blunder they could make. The product is already under pressure and shorting replacement buyers on this important new feature could move the product towards obsolesce.
The pencil will not be supported and it makes sense. The Pro is marketed and aimed at a different segment. If they included the pencil with iPad Air 3, they will be devaluing the Pro and blurring the lines between these segments of their tablet line up.
The Pro is way more than I need or can use and the Mini isn't enough. I have been waiting for Air 3 and will be seriously pissed enough to look elsewhere if the 3D/pressure feature is not included.
So, they should include a tech even though it doesn't work well for a larger screen? Isn't that Samsung's gig?
I'd say Pencil support is likely as they'll want to offer upgrade features to woo newer iPad holdouts.
I would love this feature on the smaller iPad, but wondering if this might kill higher margin (?) iPad Pro sales.
An iPad Air 3 would likely get a speed bump as well. So does size alone give an iPad a 'pro' moniker?
Except for size the iPad "Pro" is actually pretty identical to the other iPads except for:
- better speakers - pencil support
People will argue all kinds of other BS and Apple's description page mentions a lot of stuff that makes it sound all whiz-bang fancy, but the bottom line is simply better sound and pencil support. Period.
So if Apple "does the right thing" and brings pencil support to the other iPads, it kind of gets dicey to keep calling the iPad Pro a "pro" device. This is the main thing driving arguments that Apple will actually do the "wrong thing" (the capitalist thing), and not bring pencil support to the other iPads.
Personally, I think they simply have to bring pencil support to the other iPads and possibly even the iPhones as well. To actively fuck-over the majority of their customers and force them to pay thousands of dollars for an oversized tablet just to have pencil support just won't work for very long. They could keep it going for a year or two before people get upset being as they always get the benefit of the doubt, but what justification could they possibly have for keeping the pencil exclusive for longer than that?
Yeah, Apple has mastered the fine art of incremental updates and spin. Given the slower sales over the past few quarters gives me hope, that Apple will bring pencil support to smaller iPads. Also with alternatives such as the Surface Pro3/4, Apple may add pen support in order to encourage developers to write for the iOS platform.
By smaller iPads, I'm assuming you mean the 9.7" iPad. Given that small-screen tablets are being cannibalized by big-screen smartphones, the iPad mini is dead man walking.
Nah. The iPad mini is far from "dead man walking." If you look into the numbers even a little bit, it's one of the most popular iOS devices they sell and has a very ardent (and sometimes rabid) following. Sales of the original mini outstripped those of the original iPad.
iPad mini users are also far more likely to be serious "Post PC" users who use the iPad more for actual work, than just for watching porn in the toilet or whatever. The meme of iPad mini being "eclipsed" or made redundant by a larger iPhone is definitely popular, but mostly among males, mostly among tech-heads and mostly among people who don't use an iPad as a serious computer. It also has no actual facts to back it up.
Exactly. If they don't have 3D touch, it seems likely they won't have pencil support either
Not really. 3D Touch and Apple Pencil are different things. The iPad Pro does not have 3D Touch, it does have Pencil support, while the iPhone 6S/+ do have 3D Touch, but do not have Pencil support.
Since the iPad Air sits in between the iPad Pro and the iPhone, it could get either, both or neither, but I don't think rumours of it not getting 3D Touch matter a jot in predicting whether it'll get support for the Pencil.
Comments
The thing I find confusing, (and I've yet to see a tech blog tackle the issue), is that both force-touch and pencil support would seem to require new and specific screen technologies with sensors behind the screen. This raises some obvious questions. Are they compatible with each other? Will Apple be able to make a screen that does both or will they have to choose? If they have to choose between adding force-touch support to iPads, or pencil support to iPads, which will they pick?
These are both emerging technologies with the iPhone 6s and the iPad Pro being basically "technology demos" of each one. It's really not clear at all on a hardware level what the possibilities are and which tech is designated for what future devices because no one has (as of yet) actually dived into the hardware behind each and investigated the possibilities. It's all just mouth flapping at this point.
and its memory is much faster. you know that, right?
again -- both of these are much more important to more serious apps than....speakers.
i wasnt aware that apple broke down sales by model/size. can you link us to that?
That would be pretty sweet actually. A magnetic, inductive Pencil charger/holder using the Smart Connector.
http://www.aboveavalon.com/notes/2015/11/24/peak-ipad-mini
Since the iPad Air sits in between the iPad Pro and the iPhone, it could get either, both or neither, but I don't think rumours of it not getting 3D Touch matter a jot in predicting whether it'll get support for the Pencil.