Apple Releases New Cheaper iPad

Apple quietly announced a new iPad today replacing the current iPad Air 2. And this time around, it's even cheaper, starting at $329 for 32 GB of storage (iPad Air 2 16 GB version in comparison cost $499). The refresh comes alongside other updates, most notably a red-coloured version of iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus, a new iPhone SE with double the storage capacity of the previous model (32 GB and 128 GB), and a long-in-the-works Prisma-like video editing app called Clips that it plans to release sometime in April. The cheaper price for the new iPad comes down to the fact that the display no longer sports the laminated anti-reflective coating present in iPad Air 2. It also has the same thickness as the first-gen iPad Air.

While all this makes it more "affordable", it still doesn't mask the bitter truth that overall tablet sales have been on a terminal decline for the better part of last two years. Reasons? Users don't upgrade a tablet as frequently as they upgrade a smartphone, smartphones have gotten bigger and better, and tablets are not as indispensable as a desktop/laptop or a phone. Simply put, they are still some sort of a compromise "consumption" device, neither achieving the full scale productivity features of a laptop nor that easy to carry around everywhere like a smartphone. Thus today's price drop on part of Apple might very well be a marketing ploy to push users into buying one. And honestly, the update isn't that bad.