iFixit calls the 10.9-inch iPad an iPad Air, but worse
The iFixit teardown of the 10.9-inch iPad shows that the tablet is mostly a recycled iPad Air 4 with odd shortcomings.
Apple's 10.9-inch iPad
Apple announced the 10.9-inch iPad via a press release in October, and the product has drawn a lot of criticism since. It has improvements like a USB-C port and landscape selfie camera, but lacks Apple Pencil 2 support and Magic Keyboard compatibility.
iFixit did a routine teardown of the 10.9-inch iPad to see what differed about the product and exactly why the second-generation Apple Pencil wouldn't work. Rather than find a redesigned 9th-generation 10.2-inch iPad, they found what was essentially an iPad Air 4.
The speakers, Touch ID, and battery are the same between the 10.9-inch iPad and the iPad Air 4. The landscape selfie camera is obviously in the way of where the Apple Pencil magnetic attachment would be located, and space appears limited.
iFixit calls the 10.9-inch iPad baffling, interesting, and disappointing all in one. They recommend customers just buy an older iPad Air 4 and avoid the oddities.
Read on AppleInsider
Apple's 10.9-inch iPad
Apple announced the 10.9-inch iPad via a press release in October, and the product has drawn a lot of criticism since. It has improvements like a USB-C port and landscape selfie camera, but lacks Apple Pencil 2 support and Magic Keyboard compatibility.
iFixit did a routine teardown of the 10.9-inch iPad to see what differed about the product and exactly why the second-generation Apple Pencil wouldn't work. Rather than find a redesigned 9th-generation 10.2-inch iPad, they found what was essentially an iPad Air 4.
The speakers, Touch ID, and battery are the same between the 10.9-inch iPad and the iPad Air 4. The landscape selfie camera is obviously in the way of where the Apple Pencil magnetic attachment would be located, and space appears limited.
iFixit calls the 10.9-inch iPad baffling, interesting, and disappointing all in one. They recommend customers just buy an older iPad Air 4 and avoid the oddities.
Read on AppleInsider
Comments
Well, the video guy reading the script at least comes off as more snark than actual product review. Ie, they aren't making a serious recommendation.
The 10 has 4 GB RAM while the 9 has 3 GB. That makes a huge difference for the longevity of the device. Then the 10.9" versus the 10.2" is also a big difference for the usability of the device.
When the next Apple product launch happens (any product), the iPad 9 will disappear and >$400 will be the new low for an iPad.
Does anyone really believe that Apple introduced a new iteration of iPad without its voluminous customer data indicating that there was a market for the new model? Are we thinking Apple just took a flyer on this and thought, "Who knows who this is for, but let's put it out there and see!" Yes, that sounds ridiculous because it is.
So who is the customer Apple is targeting? That seems pretty easy to see. Prior to the iPad 10, the iPad lineup leapt from the Gen 9 base price of $329 to the Air base price of $599, a difference of $270, which is huge. I think Apple data showed that while they never going to upsell Gen 9 buyers to an Air, they could upsell a subset of those buyers to something in-between, if it existed. And now it does--the iPad 10, which is essentially a repackaged Air 4. I thought the lack of Pencil 2 support was intentional, so it wouldn't be TOO much like the current Air, but the iFixit video changed my mind about that--it seemed clear Apple had to choose between the landscape camera and Pencil 2 support, and felt the former was more important to the target buyer of the 10, and they're probably right about that.
So there you have it: for the iPad buyer who wants something more than the Gen 9 but won't pay the price of an Air, there's now an in-between model. At this point in the iPad's lifespan, it's harder to drive revenue increases, but being able to upsell at least some significant portion of budget buyers is one way to do that.