Apple Announces The iPad Pro

cyclone3d said:
So...

32GB model = $799

128GB model = $949

128GB LTE model = $1049

Stylus add-on = $99

Keyboard case = $169

That is some serious profit margin they have going on there.
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It is certainly niche pricing and targeted at a specific narrow market ... just as some people like to make fun of $3000 laptops on the PC side, there is a market for those ... I just bought an MSI one for my kids ... but at those prices this will be a hard sell for many folks ... they would be better off going for the more full featured laptops or the MS Surface (as others have noted)
 
Didn't Jobs make some comment before about "if you see a stylus, they blew it."?

How times have changed.
 
CreepyUncleGoogle said:
Yeah, I saw that. They went totally stupid with pricing for the Pro model and accessories. Not that anyone is surprised, but they pole vaulted over Microsoft's positively stupid pricing for their useless Surface tablets. Still, it'd be really funny-cakes if the iPad Pro outsold the Surface Pro (and it probably will too).
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The Surface line is so useless that Apple decided to copy the concept down to the keyboard cover and pen, excuse me pencil, with no holder on the device. Steve Jobs just turned over in grave, thinking about all of money Apple is going to make from lost pencils. The iPad Pro might very well outsell the Surface Pro but I doubt it would be much and unlikely not every pen enabled large Windows tablet and hybrid on the market combined.
 
Limahl said:
Didn't Jobs make some comment before about "if you see a stylus, they blew it."?

How times have changed.
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He did indeed and was pretty critical of pen enabled devices. One of the first things that he did when got back to Apple was kill the Newton, but that was a failed product anyway. All things that can be digital will have a digital form. Ink is no different. It's just taken a while for all of the technology to come together and that's now happened.
 
Limahl said:
Didn't Jobs make some comment before about "if you see a stylus, they blew it."?

How times have changed.
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I agree this isn't necessarily the right move but what would you have them do ... every Apple thread for the last couple of months has lamented the demise of Apple and suggested they must find something new to do ... other than going head to head with Microsoft (which probably wouldn't be the best idea) what would you suggest :confused: ... you have to give them points for one thing, unlike Jobs they are much more willing to experiment with new ideas (even ones that Jobs eschewed)
 
kbrickley said:
I agree this isn't necessarily the right move but what would you have them do ... every Apple thread for the last couple of months has lamented the demise of Apple and suggested they must find something new to do ... other than going head to head with Microsoft (which probably wouldn't be the best idea) what would you suggest :confused: ... you have to give them points for one thing, unlike Jobs they are much more willing to experiment with new ideas (even ones that Jobs eschewed)
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Oh I wasn't being critical, just saying how things have changed since Jobs direct influence left Apple. Same thing for the larger screen phones that he didn't want, yet they eventually did that as well.

The times change and so must Apple (or any company) if they want to remain relevant (and profitable).

Plus, with a tablet that big, a stylus just makes sense to me.
 
kbrickley said:
I agree this isn't necessarily the right move but what would you have them do ... every Apple thread for the last couple of months has lamented the demise of Apple and suggested they must find something new to do ... other than going head to head with Microsoft (which probably wouldn't be the best idea) what would you suggest :confused: ... you have to give them points for one thing, unlike Jobs they are much more willing to experiment with new ideas (even ones that Jobs eschewed)
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When I started a thread about the iPad Pro in the Apple section back in March based on the rumors at the time, which were as right on the money as could be, I said this made perfect sense. Clearly the consumer tablet market is fading fast, $500 tablets in that market are going no where, not even iPads, and that you have to have a digital pen on these larger and more expensive tablets because that adds a dimension that's important to the market that will buy these kinds of devices at these prices.

We've just kind of done full circle with this. Apple nailed the iPad in 2010 for entertainment and consumption purposes. For productivity pen, keyboard and some kind of multitasking are what this market demands. And Apple isn't to proud to copy the ideas and make something their own. What's lacking from the iPad Pro though is any unique vision. Indeed when the first vendor demo of the iPad Pro was Microsoft Office using a pen which has had the very same capabilities on Windows devices for literally a decade it just felt like Apple was copying everything.
 
I want to know more about the variable refresh rate panel, and I'm sure the A9X is going to be a beast, Maybe as fast as Skylake Core i3-i5ish in the new Surface Pro 4? I'm not interested in the device, but I have great respect for Apple engineers.
 
I don't understand why Apple chose not to use the full on OSX on this. The price of this and the given usage would point to something that's equal to what we use the Surface Pro for (a laptop with tablet form factor,) so why use the A9X chip?
 
It is possible we might not understand the target market for this at all ... we do know that medical tablets have been one of the more popular areas and this bigger tablet is definitely priced right (including the stylus) to compete in that market (and anything medical is a growth market as more people age and need greater amounts of medical care) ... the use of this by creative persons is also hard to estimate since I have no idea of the size of that market (artists, marketers, designers, etc) ... this is definitely not a consumer device though

Also, I don't know that this is the product that brings us to the tipping point but we really need to begin the transition to a paperless society (to reduce waste and cost) ... books seem to be well on their way and newspapers are on death's doorway ... bigger tablets actually do work for the final two areas (magazines and comics) ... if the bigger tablets (whether from MS, Android, or Apple) can finally put a nail in that coffin we might be able to finally transition to digital for all media consumption (TV, movies, music, games, books, magazines, comics, ads, etc) ... maybe this is the first volley in that war
 
Reimu said:
I don't understand why Apple chose not to use the full on OSX on this. The price of this and the given usage would point to something that's equal to what we use the Surface Pro for (a laptop with tablet form factor,) so why use the A9X chip?
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I think Windows 8 proved just how hard it is to do a hybrid OS. And while Windows 10 I think fixed most of the major issues even Apple wouldn't be able to pull it of right now with the polish that makes Apple so popular. I think in time it will happen with Apple especially if 2 in 1s continue to grow at a healthy rate.
 
mi7chy said:
Fuck that pricing for an ARM tablet and it probably only has 2GB DRAM. I'd rather get a Surface Pro 4 or a cheaper better ARM tablet with SAMOLED display.
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With Burn-In and oversaturated colors? Sure why not.... :p
 
heatlesssun said:
The Surface line is so useless that Apple decided to copy the concept down to the keyboard cover and pen, excuse me pencil, with no holder on the device. Steve Jobs just turned over in grave, thinking about all of money Apple is going to make from lost pencils. The iPad Pro might very well outsell the Surface Pro but I doubt it would be much and unlikely not every pen enabled large Windows tablet and hybrid on the market combined.
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Wait, you mean the Surface...the me too tablet Microsoft released after the iPad came out? That unoriginal one? Is that the tablet we're talking about? The one that used some other company's pen and snap on keyboard that was copied from Palm Pilots? That tablet?
 
There's a keyboard too.

It's amazing how apple is coming out with more and more ordinary shit that's been out already.

Yet the sheep still eat this up, and samsung still can't move as many of its high end models.
 
Runs mobile OS. Stylus, $99, sold separately and requires charging. No kickstand. $169 keyboard.

the-joker.jpg
 
Reimu said:
I don't understand why Apple chose not to use the full on OSX on this. The price of this and the given usage would point to something that's equal to what we use the Surface Pro for (a laptop with tablet form factor,) so why use the A9X chip?
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I do agree with you that seeing an x86 version running OSX would be been neat, I can think of a few different reasons off the top of my head

1. I don't think iOS apps run on OSX so they couldn't really call it an iPad anymore at that point without confusing customers (similar to MS's Windows RT failure). It'd be more akin to a Macbook tablet than an iPad. It would sort of screw up their ecosystem.

2. with Apple now designing their own custom ARM CPU's, it makes sense that they'd want to use them in as many devices as they can. While a Surface pro's i5 CPU is more powerful than the A9X at raw computing power, when paired with an optimized OS (ios), most users would be hard pressed to tell the difference, performance wise, between an iPad and a Surface tablet... even when using content creation tools.
 
kbrickley said:
It is possible we might not understand the target market for this at all ... we do know that medical tablets have been one of the more popular areas and this bigger tablet is definitely priced right (including the stylus) to compete in that market (and anything medical is a growth market as more people age and need greater amounts of medical care) ... the use of this by creative persons is also hard to estimate since I have no idea of the size of that market (artists, marketers, designers, etc) ... this is definitely not a consumer device though
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The market for this device is clear. It's the same as the Surface line overall but with probably a big more of a slant to designers and artists that aren't looking so much for true 2 in 1 capabilities and want the pen and no doubt what looks like a top notch screen.

kbrickley said:
Also, I don't know that this is the product that brings us to the tipping point but we really need to begin the transition to a paperless society (to reduce waste and cost) ... books seem to be well on their way and newspapers are on death's doorway ... bigger tablets actually do work for the final two areas (magazines and comics) ... if the bigger tablets (whether from MS, Android, or Apple) can finally put a nail in that coffin we might be able to finally transition to digital for all media consumption (TV, movies, music, games, books, magazines, comics, ads, etc) ... maybe this is the first volley in that war
Click to expand...

Paperless is pretty achievable with current tech without the iPad Pro.
 
Limahl said:
Didn't Jobs make some comment before about "if you see a stylus, they blew it."?

How times have changed.
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It's not required for operation and has features a stylus requires, at least for precision. It's way overpriced, but it supports force/position/tilt with pixel level accuracy (not bad precision for a 13" 2732×2048 display). It might actually be useful for some artists.

The worst thing about it is that Apple fans will crow about Apple making a "new" tablet feature, when my old HP convertible tablet from the Vista era came with a Wacom digitizer and stylus which could do the same thing (or more if you count the stylus buttons). :p
 
dr.stevil said:
2. with Apple now designing their own custom ARM CPU's, it makes sense that they'd want to use them in as many devices as they can. While a Surface pro's i5 CPU is more powerful than the A9X at raw computing power, when paired with an optimized OS (ios), most users would be hard pressed to tell the difference, performance wise, between an iPad and a Surface tablet... even when using content creation tools.
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Top line performance isn't critical for these kinds of devices and in most operations the performance difference wouldn't be noticeable. The difference in much day to day stuff isn't night and day between a Surface Pro 3 i7 and Surface 3 Atom Cherry Trail. Much of the difference there is in disk I/O.
 
pxc said:
The worst thing about it is that Apple fans will crow about Apple making a "new" tablet feature, when my old HP convertible tablet from the Vista era came with a Wacom digitizer and stylus which could do the same thing (or more if you count the stylus buttons). :p
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You'd kind of have to be living under a rock to think that there's anything much new with the iPad Pro. Only the most rabid of folks who know little about tablets would claim otherwise I think.
 
heatlesssun said:
I think Windows 8 proved just how hard it is to do a hybrid OS. And while Windows 10 I think fixed most of the major issues even Apple wouldn't be able to pull it of right now with the polish that makes Apple so popular. I think in time it will happen with Apple especially if 2 in 1s continue to grow at a healthy rate.
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dr.stevil said:
I do agree with you that seeing an x86 version running OSX would be been neat, I can think of a few different reasons off the top of my head

1. I don't think iOS apps run on OSX so they couldn't really call it an iPad anymore at that point without confusing customers (similar to MS's Windows RT failure). It'd be more akin to a Macbook tablet than an iPad. It would sort of screw up their ecosystem.

2. with Apple now designing their own custom ARM CPU's, it makes sense that they'd want to use them in as many devices as they can. While a Surface pro's i5 CPU is more powerful than the A9X at raw computing power, when paired with an optimized OS (ios), most users would be hard pressed to tell the difference, performance wise, between an iPad and a Surface tablet... even when using content creation tools.
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Windows 8 pleased nobody, but I thought that Apple would have simply come through and challenge Microsoft directly with an optimized OSX build that's meant to out-do Windows 10.

Both of you are correct when it comes to typical word processing or spreadsheet suite, but the moment you move to the powerhouse content creation software such as Photoshop, that A9X will not compete against the Surface Pro, which shines the moment we are actually doing serious productivity work on it.

The price of this is now at parity with Macbook Air at that. I agree that stuffing Intel processors would erode the line between it and the iPad, but it still leaves the device a bit awkward in its placement. This really large iPad feels like a really large Galaxy Note 5 as it is right no!
 
heatlesssun said:
Paperless is pretty achievable with current tech without the iPad Pro.
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It is achievable with tablets, but I agree that the iPad Pro isn't needed alone ... however, we do need to see the shifting of all laptops into hybrid space or get phones that are capable of replacing laptops ... if you always have a computer with you 24 hours a day we will finally go paperless ... if it isn't convenient to be carrying a computer around with you then we will delay that transition ... I would like to see the laptop go into the same niche as the desktop with the two primary form factors being servers and tablets (then we might finally start bridging into the future where EVERYTHING is computerized at the home, office, road) ... I just don't think we are quite there yet ... and I don't have a preference whether that computerization occurs under iOS, Android, or Microsoft (as long as it eventually occurs) :cool:
 
Megalith said:
Runs mobile OS. Stylus, $99, sold separately and requires charging. No kickstand. $169 keyboard.

the-joker.jpg
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WTF? The stylus needs to be charged? For what?

I'm a huge fan of their phones...but what the shit...this is stupid.
 
nutzo said:
Great, so now the cost of my medical insurance will be going up even more to pay for these giant tablets.

Except, all the medical offices I've been in over the past year (so many I've lost count) were using PC's. Even the disk they provided with the CT scans came with a Windows application to view the images.

Guess it's mainly the medical schools that have bought into this over priced apple junk.
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My doctor uses an iPad. Few taps while in the exam room and a prescription order has been placed.
 
Reimu said:
Windows 8 pleased nobody, but I thought that Apple would have simply come through and challenge Microsoft directly with an optimized OSX build that's meant to out-do Windows 10.
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For all of the issues with Windows 10, it's a technological kitchen sink, pretty much meant to run on anything. I don't think Apple has really consider the hybrid OS idea very seriously, at least not until more recently. In 2012 they called Windows 8 a "toaster-refrigerator" no doubt picking up on the bad vibes that Windows 8 was generating. They'd never say anything like that today. Indeed they even listed Edge and Windows 10 as official platforms for viewing the live stream today.
 
OEM said:
WTF? The stylus needs to be charged? For what?

I'm a huge fan of their phones...but what the shit...this is stupid.
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Because the stylus is not a passive stylus. It is pressure sensitive for drawing/writing.

Most drawing tablets have it the other way around.. but I am guessing it is a whole lot cheaper to make a stylus with pressure sensitivity then it is to make a huge screen with drawing tablet like pressure sensitivity.

So you have your screen which senses where the stylus is.. and then the stylus is transmitting pressure data to the iPad in order to figure out how think of lines, etc. to make.
 
OEM said:
WTF? The stylus needs to be charged? For what?

I'm a huge fan of their phones...but what the shit...this is stupid.
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It's an electrostatic pen that has to be powered like pretty much all non-traditional Wacom digital pens do these days. Traditional Wacom pens used electrometric resonance, i.e. Samsung's SPens and the first two Surface Pros. Those require an extra layer to emit the signal from the screen but the pen doesn't need power and has to be made of non-conductive materials. Electrostatic pens emit signals from the pen thus requiring power but reducing the cost of the device and adding all of the cost into the pen. That's why even Wacom now is using electrostatics in it's newest pen tech.
 
heatlesssun said:
For all of the issues with Windows 10, it's a technological kitchen sink, pretty much meant to run on anything. I don't think Apple has really consider the hybrid OS idea very seriously, at least not until more recently. In 2012 they called Windows 8 a "toaster-refrigerator" no doubt picking up on the bad vibes that Windows 8 was generating. They'd never say anything like that today. Indeed they even listed Edge and Windows 10 as official platforms for viewing the live stream today.
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Apple is hedging its future on its media and platform. That we know without any doubt. What I wonder right now is whether or not Apple will concede the old world of the x86 totally behind and only operate in the ARM universe.
 
kbrickley said:
It is achievable with tablets, but I agree that the iPad Pro isn't needed alone ... however, we do need to see the shifting of all laptops into hybrid space or get phones that are capable of replacing laptops ... if you always have a computer with you 24 hours a day we will finally go paperless ... if it isn't convenient to be carrying a computer around with you then we will delay that transition ... I would like to see the laptop go into the same niche as the desktop with the two primary form factors being servers and tablets (then we might finally start bridging into the future where EVERYTHING is computerized at the home, office, road) ... I just don't think we are quite there yet ... and I don't have a preference whether that computerization occurs under iOS, Android, or Microsoft (as long as it eventually occurs) :cool:
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I think part of the issue with paperless is that many people really don't get all of what digital ink can do. Sure, Samsung sells a lot of Note Phones but how many people really use the pen? And even with a device like a Surface Pro 3 with OneNote, there are many they don't know all that it can do.

That is beginning to change. Microsoft has been pushing ink with the Surface and even cross platform ink now with OneNote and they were pushing it today with the iPad Pro Office apps. Apple does have a way of getting everyone's attention and with Apple now in the digital ink age, I think that will help to push paperless a great deal.
 
heatlesssun said:
I think part of the issue with paperless is that many people really don't get all of what digital ink can do. Sure, Samsung sells a lot of Note Phones but how many people really use the pen? And even with a device like a Surface Pro 3 with OneNote, there are many they don't know all that it can do.

That is beginning to change. Microsoft has been pushing ink with the Surface and even cross platform ink now with OneNote and they were pushing it today with the iPad Pro Office apps. Apple does have a way of getting everyone's attention and with Apple now in the digital ink age, I think that will help to push paperless a great deal.
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It's easier to show and tell with this kind of things. When I was signing *.pdf with the Surface stylus, drawing sketches on the go and switching language input to Japanese IME and Chinese, it made people look at the Surface Pro. It's mind boggling just how far we really are from being paperless at times.
 
Reimu said:
Apple is hedging its future on its media and platform. That we know without any doubt. What I wonder right now is whether or not Apple will concede the old world of the x86 totally behind and only operate in the ARM universe.
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This has been a subject of much conversation for some years. I don't think it's happening anytime soon. x86 Macs are still highly profitable and generate more money than iPads these days. And if Windows 10 is successful especially if 2 in 1s continue long term growth, I think that puts more pressure on Apple to do a hybrid x86 OS.
 
Reimu said:
It's easier to show and tell with this kind of things. When I was signing *.pdf with the Surface stylus, drawing sketches on the go and switching language input to Japanese IME and Chinese, it made people look at the Surface Pro. It's mind boggling just how far we really are from being paperless at times.
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Agreed. It takes awareness and a mindset to simply do things differently. How many people have smartphones and could easily type out, scribble or say a note with a device they always have with them but will grab a piece of paper to jot something down.
 
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