Look , I do n’t have a go at it if thatrecent reportabout the new OLED iPad Pro be between $ 1,500 and $ 2,000 is exact . It ’s always tricky to foretell production prices since they ’re decide deep inside Apple Park , not off on the supply chain from which most fresh - mathematical product rumors emanate .
But I do have a go at it this : lend OLED to the iPad Pro is only die to make it more expensive . Thecurrent iPad Pro modelsstart at $ 799 and $ 1,099 and go up from there . ( A 2 TB 12.9 - inch M2 iPad Pro with cellular , an Apple Pencil , and a Magic Keyboard will run you near $ 2,900 ! ) I would be surprised , frankly , if any OLED iPad Pro starts at anything less than $ 999 , and even a cost that low seems improbable .
We ’re talk price get pretty comparable to those of Mac laptop , and that ’s without factor in in the accessories . While consecrated iPad Pro users might not wince at prices like that – or , more probable , will cringe and then wander their eyes and then pull out their pocketbook anyway – it ’s asking a lot of other potential iPad buyers .
An OLED iPad Pro with a higher price tag helps separate it from the iPad Air.
Is Apple put on the line the future of the iPad Pro by making it too expensive ? Not inevitably . In fact , this might be one in a series of moves that will set up the iPad for succeeding achiever at both the high - end and midrange of Apple ’s product line .
Air for all
Throughout the years , so many of Apple ’s product strategies have used the “ Good , right , Best ” epitome . This is classic merchandising stuff . You break your intersection line into three different segments , with a low - priced merchandise design for people on tight budget … but also to draw in interest from other likely buyers . “ Oh , the iPad starts at $ 329 ! ” Many likely emptor who hire will discover they do n’t really want the low - priced product but would prefer something a little piece nicer . This is where a large issue of cut-rate sale survive : in the lukewarm earthly concern of “ Better . ”
And then there ’s the gamy ending . This is for the very best , the most cutting boundary , the fine product with no limits – including on terms . These are generally the Cartesian product Apple frequently labels as “ Pro . ” Apple spare no expense , and neither do the buyers . It ’s a nice , profitable plaza to be – the margin are enceinte , even if sales volumes are not .
For a few age , the iPad has been crawling toward an endgame that plays directly into the Good , undecomposed , Best strategy . This is why the iPad Air return to the batting order in 2019 and , over the last few years , has improve to the decimal point where it ’s essentially an iPad Pro in all but a few key way . It ’s so nigh to the iPad Pro , in fact , that many observers have wondered if Apple ’s not adding more disarray to the iPad line of products by extend two models that are so similar .
An OLED iPad Pro with a higher price tag helps separate it from the iPad Air.
A sight of that disarray goes aside if Apple injects the iPad Pro with novel features and hoists the price into the stratosphere . That move might frustrate a quite a little of multitude … but if the iPad Air is updated to bring home the bacon the feature that most iPad user want , and at a reasonable cost , it wo n’t weigh too much . understandably , the iPad Air is poised to become the nonpayment iPad for most hoi polloi , the centre in the Good - well - Best sandwich .
An OLED iPad Pro with a high price tag helps separate it from the iPad Air .
Foundry
Imagine.
If the rumors are lawful , Apple will update the iPad Air – a bargain at $ 599!–to come in two sizes , one that equate the current 10.9/11 - in size and anew 12.9 - inch modelthat ’s a match for the current 12.9 - inch iPad Pro in size . Adding that larger model provide the blue - cost iPad Air to fill the indigence of users who might require a gravid iPad – but do n’t want to pay the high prices of the iPad Pro . It ’s a good move , and it also has the advantage of think that the iPad Air will be able to use the same Smart Keyboard accessory Apple introduced in 2020 .
More Magic
But if the iPad Air , by all accounts an splendid iPad at an first-class note value , is usable for less than an iPad Pro and in both familiar sizes , why wouldanyonespend a heap more for an iPad Pro ?
This is the question of the moment . Apple is run to need to give its high - end , rich - pocketed users a rationality to spend so much money on an iPad . As someone who has heavily used the iPad Pro since the very first model was introduced , I do not see the addition of an OLED screen and an M3 central processor as doing the illusion . There needs to be more .
If hearsay are true , both models are going to get a piddling big – which will break compatibility with the 2020 Magic Keyboard . That ’s okay because it sound likea new Magic Keyboard exemplar is coming – and this is bang-up news . The existing model is expensive–$349 for the 12.9 - inch one!–and still lack a function wrangle . There ’s elbow room for improvement , is what I ’m say .
And I ’m excited by the hypnotism that Apple may have redesign the entire thing to be more laptop computer - like , both in its stuff and in the way of life it attach to the iPad . Until the Magic Keyboard debuted , I used iPad keyboards that were clad in aluminum and attached to the iPad at the bound with a hinge , like a laptop . It was arrant ergonomically – and the Magic Keyboard , as clever as it is , is n’t as good . A proper Apple take on a laptop computer - like iPad experience would be awesome and will make people who make their support by typing on a keyboard take bill .
Since the iPad ’s all about its accoutrement , have ’s also throw in a Modern Apple Pencil with more “ pro ” feature film that are n’t available on less models , and artists and other people who love drive their iPad with a pencil in hand will also have a reason to pungle up the simoleons for an iPad Pro .
But even with OLED , and an M3 , and a new keyboard , and a young pencil … will that be enough ? Do I , in person , need to spend more than $ 2,000 on a new iPad Pro setup when ( truth be told ) my two - generation - back M1 modeling still handle everything I can fuddle at it ?
I ’m not totally convinced . This is why I ’m go to propose that the raw iPad Pro could add one other feature that would completely convert me , that would make me buy an iPad Pro the moment it went on sale , even at a much gamey toll . ( make on . )
Jason Snell
Now that today ’s iMacs and iPads are fundamentally the same in term of their home ironware , maybe it ’s metre for Apple to do the unthinkable and allow the iPad Pro ( andonlythe iPad Pro ) to run macOS in a virtual auto . How much more utilitarian and worthful would an iPad Pro be if it could not only go in touchscreen mode , driven by fingers or Apple Pencil , but if it could be attached to a keyboard and trackpad and used like a Mac laptop computer ?
The ironware is adequate to . The virtualization would allow macOS to act like an iPad app . It would n’t need to underpin the touchscreen since a keyboard and trackpad would be required . And security - wise , Apple could lock the “ Mac app ” down as much as it need to … but also , would n’t the extra complicatedness be deserving it for a product that ’s only of interestingness to pro - level users ? There are some things I just ca n’t do on my iPad Pro because of limit in iPad software package . Adding optional support for the Mac would figure out that problem in one swift stroke .
I ’m not saying it will happen . I ’m not say even that itmighthappen . I ’m just saying that among all the thing that are even technically feasible , it ’s the single feature that I can recall of that would make the iPad Pro immediately deserving whatever its much high price tag might be .
We ’ll see what Apple thinks , in all probability soon . I ’m cross my iPad - have it off fingers .
