I think what we're seeing here is not so complicated: it's that customers have strong size preferences, and that they're often orthogonal to their price sensitivities.
As a 9.7 Pro owner, the differences between the 9.7 Pro and the regular iPad are quite important. I just wish they made the comparison easier, though.
I think that's pretty good comparison.
Reminds me of iPhone SE - make a product from older tech, where all manufacturing is cheap and smooth as ever and sell it as cheapest option (I imagine with still veeery big markup).
the 12.9 inch is the most expensive, but doesnt seem to have the best specs?
Do i need an A9x or will an A9 suffice?
Why does the 9.7 inch pro come in rose gold but not the 12 inch?
the two 9.7 inch tablets are different sizes, how will i know which case to buy or if this ipad will fit into my current case?
do i need a fully laminated display and antireflective coating? because the 9.7 inch ipad does not have these things but all other models do.
Which one will work with my existing data plan? I see that the 9.7 inch pro comes with an embedded sim, does that mean i cant replace it with my own sim? They also all seem to support different LTE bands, am i expected to know which LTE bands my provider uses before i purchase an ipad?
Just my thoughts after looking at this page for two minutes.
All the tech that goes into making the display stylus-compatible is quite complicated, so it makes some sense that there’s a price difference / that they leave those out for the budget model.
The 13" model is basically the same as the 10" “pro” model, except it came out a few months earlier, before some of the new features (a display with more colorful primaries, and better cameras). At the point that new “pro” models come out (later this year sometime), the next version of the 13" iPad will pick up those features.
The lower tier, same-sized items are basically "you couldn't afford an X" models that allow them to monetize a different market.
But the idea is to keep the mystique of the higher tier items as a status symbol. And exposing the specs and highlighting precise differences only leads to people deciding that maybe that feature isn't important to them...
In fact, the only product apple sells that seems to follow that line of reasoning is the Apple Watch.
- iPad/iPhone Mini
- iPad/iPhone
- iPad/iPhone Plus
Drop everything else and keep it simple.
ipad mini still exists
- iPad Pro 12.9"
- iPad Pro 9.7"
- iPad 9.7"
- iPad Mini 4 8" (edit: thanks pdpi/trymas)
It really should just be iPad (9.7) or iPad Pro (12.9) should it not? Now the customer has to decide between two 9.7 models with not so obvious differences between the two? And now there are two (edit: three) different iPad pages on the sales website you have to go through.
This changes the immediate conversation visiting the site for the first time between why I should get the iPad... to what's the difference and available options AND why should I get an iPad?
The Macbook vs Macbook Pro distinction was more obvious because it was basically casual/school vs work. But I don't really see tablets having that work vs casual dichotomy. It's more high-end vs affordable. Which from a mental categorization perspective doesn't fit neatly into the current product line.