The inexpensive iPad is underway, according to a new report by the well-known and specialist of what’s cooking at Apple, Ming-Chi Kuo. The new tablet would arrive in the second half of 2020 (a cheap iPad), anticipating the renewal of the current iPad mini that would arrive in the first months of 2021.
Apple updated a couple of months ago the iPad Pro 2020 line, improving the series at all levels except for the support for 5G that we assume will arrive in 2021. Apple focuses on them as “replacement of PCs” and they are the most advanced on the market. The problem is the price, demanding a minimum outlay of 879 euros and another 300 and more if you want the Magic Keyboard. The top of the range, with the keyboard, exceeds 2,000 euros. And they are a lot of euros for a device that is still a tablet no matter how much the marketing says otherwise.
Apple has dominated the tablet market since it launched the first iPad ten years ago, but sales have plummeted since the best years. On the one hand, high-end tablets have great competition in hybrid computers (detachables, convertibles, 2-in-1s …), and there comes a part of the drop in sales by offering electronic tablet functions and also those of a computer. portable staff.
Another great competition comes from the low end of the market. A tablet like the new Amazon Fire HD 8 for $ 89 presents a better features/price ratio than any iPad and to them we must add the large amount of super-cheap white label that arrives from China. And the own reduction in the sale of tablets that comes from smartphones, increasingly larger and much more versatile.
Budget iPad (cheap iPad)
This is how the arrival of this inexpensive iPad is understood. Once the Pro models completely dominate the high range of tablets, everything indicates that Apple wants to reinforce the entry range and for this it will follow the strategy used in the launch of the iPhone SE 2020. «The two new iPad models will follow the strategy of the iPhone SE, with affordable price and fast chips », explains Kuo.
The budget iPad would have a screen size of 10.8 inches . It would maintain basic design and display of the current model, but would improve performance with new hardware. There is no more information, or price, which in any case should be less than $ 399 . It would be commercialized in the second semester of 2020.
For the beginning of 2021, Apple would renew the current iPad mini, with a new model with a screen size between 8.5 and 9 inches and the same strategy: “cheap” prices. Completing the information, comment that we recently echoed an alleged iPad Air with Touch ID integrated into the screen and a game controller. Your target market would be different.
The analyst also anticipates in his report the arrival of the Apple Glasses. The augmented reality glasses that we have been talking about for five years. They would be available in 2022. And, no, these would not be an inexpensive product like the new iPads.
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