Speaker 1: Apple finally unveiled new iPad Pros, new iPad airs, a new pencil and a new magic keyboard. So many shiny gadgets and yet I’m left disappointed. Does Apple care anymore about what its customers really want? Because after watching what was shown off, I am doubting that Apple has a clue. Now I realize that’s quite a statement to make. I have been a tech reporter since before iPads existed. The new 2024 iPad Pro by all means is a high quality machine, but a few things felt off [00:00:30] in this presentation. Apple did not let loose as it teased for this spring event. Instead, it got tangled up on the wrong details, making something more for Wall Street than Main Street, pumping up prices while taking away features, setting the wrong tone and messaging for the times we live in. Over hyping AI chips in a tablet and making accessories a costly compatibility mess. Speaker 1: Not to mention the lineup is still confusing. The iPad air is heavier than the iPad [00:01:00] Pro, so what’s the point of even calling it an air as we go over the highlights and awkward quirks of these new iPad products, I don’t want to be all negative. There’s one more thing I want to suggest for next time. It’s how Apple can refocus and get back to a clear narrative for its product lineup. I’m Bridget Carey, and this is one more thing. Let’s start with the iPad Pro. A very impressive machine that doesn’t quite know what it wants to be because it can cost you more than a MacBook, but it is still [00:01:30] not a MacBook. It is the first iPad with an ole screen. It’s loaded with the brand new M four chip and Apple says it’s so that it can be an AI powerhouse to handle heavy professional apps. Speaker 1: In a new twist, apple gave its best silicon first to an iPad instead of a Mac. It’s also the thinnest Apple product ever created. Now, this pro also has the option to be upgraded to use a new type of display with nano textured glass. It helps reduce glare, [00:02:00] but it is only an option for the larger storage tiers, so you only get the privilege to pay $100 more for nano textured glass if you get at least one terabyte of storage. There’s also a brand new magic keyboard accessory just for the pro that comes with function keys. It starts at $300. If you want to use an Apple pencil with it, you better toss out that old Gen two model you have laying around because it’s not going to work. So you may want to shell out another $130 for the [00:02:30] pencil pro that can be squeezed and rotated to do a barrel roll. Speaker 1: Do a barrel roll. Are you seeing the pattern here? There was no iPad for all of 2023. So what do we get for the weight? A machine that’s more expensive than before with expensive add-ons. If you want to enjoy the new tech, you’re going to easily be forking over two grand. The iPad Pro is out here trying to out laptop the MacBook, but the pricing of this machine is absolutely wild. Oh, and even though the [00:03:00] iPad Pro now starts at the same price as an iPhone Pro, some features have been lost. There’s no more ultra wide camera on the back of the iPad Pro. Now, I could appreciate that this pro might be for only a certain type of artist power users. I feel like we’re getting ever so closer to the world where an iPad can really be a laptop replacement, which is why we are getting to those laptop prices. Speaker 1: But for professionals, it still cannot fully do the job of a MacBook because even Apple’s team in its end [00:03:30] credits of the presentation said the video was edited on a Mac and an iPad, not just an iPad. The splurge is a hard sell, but maybe things will change next month when we hear more about the next iPad operating system. At WW DC, the iPad Air got a refresh, but it’s more in need of a rebrand. Instead of being the lighter iPad, it’s now just the iPad that’s kind of pro, but not as expensive as pro. Starting at $600, [00:04:00] apple boosted the specs to be like the previous pro models with an M two chip. You can use a new pencil pro with it, but you can’t use the new magic keyboard on it. Apple, what are you doing? I feel like if Apple was a designer clothing store, they said, I can only buy the new scarf if I also buy the whole outfit on the mannequin. Speaker 1: There is an iPad still for normal people out there. The family users is the 10th gen model, and that got a price cut. But here’s another example of where Apple lost sight [00:04:30] of customer needs. The company got rid of the ninth generation iPad, and yes, it’s old. It was the simple model with a touch id home button and a headphone jack. There are no more iPads with a headphone jack. I want you to think about an airplane. I want you to think about kids on an airplane, and I want you to think about how many parents use iPads to entertain their little kids on airplanes. And now I guess the executives at Apple are all okay with future parents just buying a whole new batch of headphones that are compatible [00:05:00] or carry a pocket of dongles to convert the 3.5 millimeter jack to USBC. This is not innovation. Speaker 1: This is not paying attention to the needs of your customer base, but what do you expect from a company that is selling four different types of apple pencils Right now? It’s a whole research project just to figure out which iPad and which accessory work together, but I will give Apple some credit for listening to a change that people did want. Both the pro and the air models now have a front facing camera positioned to [00:05:30] be centered when it’s sitting in landscape mode, but that’s not upgraded tech. That’s not a leap forward. That’s fixing your past mistakes. Maybe Apple means well, but it’s just out of touch with its consumer base. If you saw the presentation, then you may have cringed at this kind of violent imagery where a giant machine crushes musical instruments and machines that express human creativity, arcade machines and pianos and sculptures and camera lenses. Speaker 1: Instead [00:06:00] of the message of, Hey, everything fits into an iPad, you’re left thinking Apple is crushing creativity. It’s kind of painful to watch all that destruction to entice people to buy an extremely expensive tablet. Personally, I rather use that old tech. It inspires me more than an iPad. Give me the record player, give me the arcade machine and the paint and the piano, but that visual just wasn’t tasteful for the times that we are in right now. People have let their opinions be known by commenting on Tim Cook’s Twitter post this week, but hey, maybe [00:06:30] Apple does understand us because who doesn’t feel like this guy? This was an opportunity for Apple to simplify the iPad lineup and give each model a real purpose. Instead, now we have several configurations of an iPad Pro. Maybe we need to bring back the Steve Jobs product playbook. Back in 1997 when jobs came back to Apple, he returned to a company that was making around 15 different products, and each product had its own variations, and he has said he realized [00:07:00] it was too hard to explain which product to even recommend to a friend. So he went back to basics. Speaker 2: They want two kinds of products. They want consumer products. The consumers want them in general, and education wants for the most part, consumer products. And we need pro products because our design and publishing market wants pro products and some consumers do and some education do as well. And in each of those two categories, we need desktop and portable models. So Speaker 1: You have four products, iMac and Power Macintosh G three, [00:07:30] the iBook and PowerBook G three. The story was clear and the teams really focused on what mattered most and got the computers updated at a faster rate. The iPad has this Goldilocks energy going on now of various sizes and shapes and needs. Let’s go back to what iPad for professionals and an iPad for casual users, families, educators, and you know what? You can still keep that iPad Mini. For those who only want a slightly larger screen for entertainment, a basic pencil and a pro pencil that works between them all, a basic and a pro [00:08:00] keyboard that works for what you need, pick the one that fits your knees and people will feel empowered to buy what works for them. Then again, this may take a few years to change. I get that, and depending on the software we get for WWDC, we may have a better understanding about the future of the iPad and a better reason to buy one other than having it just be faster and thinner. Speaker 1: Now, I went on for a while, so tell me in the comments if you think I am totally off on this one, or is there something [00:08:30] that you are looking for in an iPad that you hope Apple considers for its next batch of upgrades? I’m going to keep an open mind for when the reviews start coming out, and if Apple can really make an iPad that is a laptop replacement, I am ready to accept that challenge. But for now, my 2019 iPad Mini fifth Gen is just perfect for me and my family. Thanks for watching. I’ll catch you next Friday where we’re going to talk about one more thing in the world of Apple.
