Thank you, dordale. Well, at least that is
last Christmas, when iPad 2 was only 1.5 years old. I wonder if many people will consider the same device a full year later for
this year's Christmas, for the unchanged price.
If I met someone considering to buy an iPad as a Christmas present
this year, I would advise them to definitely add the $100 and buy iPad Air instead.
Particularly if it was a gift for someone who is not a teenager; to me, it's not a question of advanced
technology per se, but the incomparably crisper Retina screen is something that users on all levels of expertise will appreciate. It's a boon for their eyesight. Today you also get much reduced size and weight in iPad Air -- and to throw all of that away just to save $100 would seem ill-advised. (Alternatively, the latest iPad mini costs exactly the same, $399; but the larger screen may be more appreciated especially by users whose eyesight may not be optimal.)
The irony here is that Apple poses itself as a "luxury brand", yet it is going to sell a 10-inch tablet into 2014 for an extremely high price of $400, sporting a screen resolution (1024 * 768 pixels) that even the cheapest Chinese knock-off manufacturer would blush to be offering nowadays, especially at such a seemingly insane price point.
