MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Is Apple betting the farm on the new iPad (iPad3 or iPadHD or ?)?

tomsem · 03-07-2012, 11:12 PM

I would point out that while iPadNew matches the price points of its predecessor, the 16GB models will likely have inadequate storage to meet the requirements of most people.

That is because apps designed for it will be larger (bitmap resources are 4x larger), 1080p video is roughly 2x bigger than 720p, 5MP pictures are 5x bigger than 1MP pictures, etc. Not to mention that media-laden .ibook's can be 1-2GB each (maybe even more when updated to target iPadNew).

So the price is 'the same' only if you take the marketing message at face value. Yes: better performance, better display, better camera, 'same low price', but most people should regard the entry point as $599, not really $499. But offering a more realistically configured 32/64/128 spread of models starting at $599 would have dampened that message, and above all, profit margins must be met, etc., so the tradeoff was to keep memory configuration the same with the established price points.

For reference, my 32GB iPod Touch is nearly half full (4GB system, 8GB apps, 3GB content). I could probably easily chop out 3 or 4GB of that, but still that would leave me with only 4 or 5 GB free space, if all I did was to move this to a new iPad. So much as I would like to get one for $499, I'm pretty sure that would not work for me.

03-07-2012, 11:12 PM	#85
tomsem Grand Sorcerer Posts: 6,942 Karma: 27060153 Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: USA Device: iPhone 15PM, Kindle Scribe, iPad mini 6, PocketBook InkPad Color 3	I would point out that while iPadNew matches the price points of its predecessor, the 16GB models will likely have inadequate storage to meet the requirements of most people. That is because apps designed for it will be larger (bitmap resources are 4x larger), 1080p video is roughly 2x bigger than 720p, 5MP pictures are 5x bigger than 1MP pictures, etc. Not to mention that media-laden .ibook's can be 1-2GB each (maybe even more when updated to target iPadNew). So the price is 'the same' only if you take the marketing message at face value. Yes: better performance, better display, better camera, 'same low price', but most people should regard the entry point as $599, not really $499. But offering a more realistically configured 32/64/128 spread of models starting at $599 would have dampened that message, and above all, profit margins must be met, etc., so the tradeoff was to keep memory configuration the same with the established price points. For reference, my 32GB iPod Touch is nearly half full (4GB system, 8GB apps, 3GB content). I could probably easily chop out 3 or 4GB of that, but still that would leave me with only 4 or 5 GB free space, if all I did was to move this to a new iPad. So much as I would like to get one for $499, I'm pretty sure that would not work for me.