Quote:
Originally Posted by Cobbydaler
It's Apple's strategy.
Release an item with a base spec, release an update after a year (with technology they could have released at day 1) at a premium. Don't discount the original by that much.
Repeat. 
They rely on Apple fans slavishly following the cycle... |
I don't think that applies to the iPad at all.
The first didn't have a "base spec", as there was nothing to compare it to.
The second didn't have a "base spec", unless you also consider the 2011 competition (Tab 10.1, Xoom, Sony Tablet S, etc.) to have "base specs" too.
And the third doesn't have a "base spec" either.
As for adding technology that should have been added earlier, other than cameras (which I still consider pointless on a tablet) I don't see what else could have been added earlier.
"Retina display"? Too expensive. Apple looked at it last year, with Sharp, LG, and Samsung. Sharp could produce the required yields, but was too expensive. LG and Samsung were cheaper, but couldn't manage the yields. Now, finally, it's got cheap enough and of sufficient quality to introduce this year.
Quad-core? Probably would have cost too much at the time. Also, if Apple should have done that last year, then surely Samsung and all the other competitors should have gone with the Tegra 3 last year not the Tegra 2?
What else?
At a premium? How? The iPad isn't overpriced, unlike certain other Apple products. As mentioned earlier in the thread, the equivalent competition all cost exactly the same (except for those that failed miserably and had to have massive price cuts to try and stimulate sales). Each iPad version has also cost the same as the one before (with the 32GB & 64GB 2nd & 3rd gen actually coming in cheaper than the 1st gen).
Oh, and if Apple was relying on fans "slavishly following the cycle", how come sales of the iPad are so huge, and continue to go up and up and up and up every single quarter? That can't just be from "Apple fanboys" buying the 1st gen, then selling the 1st gen to buy the 2nd, then selling the 2nd to buy the 3rd. The iPad continues to sell more than all the competition combined, plus in Apple's most recent quarter it even sold more iPads than any single computer manufacturer sold PCs... including the big three HP, Dell, and Lenovo. Over 15 million units in one quarter. That's not just Apple fans.
Yearly cycle? So what? They all do that, with some even more frequent. Samsung has released a new Galaxy tablet each year for the last three years (sometimes more than one - last year has the Tab 10.1 plus two smaller ones)), and also a new Galaxy phone each year. Motorola has released a new Xoom. And so on. Phones, tablets, they all get annual refreshes, it's not just Apple.