In 2023, the iPad product line has been stopped for a whole year. Previously, Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman broke the news that Apple will overhaul the iPad product line in 2024. If nothing else, in 2024 we will be able to see several new iPads. However, the new product has not yet been released, and rumors of price increases have been released.
A few days ago, the well-known Apple broke the news **Macrumors posted that the OLED version of the iPad Pro will usher in a sharp price increase. You know, as a representative of high-end tablet products, iPad Pro's ** has never been cheap. The starting price of the 2022 iPad Pro has come to 6799 yuan, which is more expensive than many thin and light laptops. If the OLED version of the iPad Pro continues to increase in price, I am afraid that it will be more and more distant from ordinary users.
Macrumors said that the price increase of the OLED version of the iPad Pro came from a South Korean bloggerHe said: The OLED version of the iPad Pro is available in two versions, 11-inch and 13-inch, with the 11-inch version starting at $1,500 and the 13-inch version expected to start at $1,800-2,000. According to the current exchange rate, the starting price of the 11-inch version of the iPad Pro is about 10,670 yuan, and the 13-inch version is about 12,804-14,227 yuan.
And judging from past experience, the price of the Chinese version of the iPad is often higher than that of the American version. If the starting price of the 11-inch version of the OLED iPad Pro in the United States is about $1,500, then it is not surprising that the national version exceeds 12,000 yuan.
Compared with the previous old models, the biggest change and selling point of the iPad Pro is of course the new OLED screen. The biggest change in the screen on the iPad Pro before was in 2021, when 12The 9-inch version of the iPad Pro is equipped with a Mini LED screen. Compared with LCD materials, iPad Pro with OLED screen will be able to obtain some better display indicators, such as contrast, power consumption, etc. At the same time, after using the OLED screen, the iPad Pro can be made thinner, which can effectively reduce weight.
However, there is still a question about this revelation, that is, the new iPad Pro to be released this year, will it be all OLED screens or will it continue to retain the LCD version?After all, the starting price of more than 10,000 yuan is too scary even on the iPad Pro, which is 1 times more expensive than the iPad Pro currently on sale.
Source: Apple).
Based on the revelations of all parties, Xiaolei believes that the new iPad Pro will be fully equipped with OLED screens, and the overall positioning will take a step up, focusing on the higher-end market of more than 10,000 yuan. At the same time, the iPad Air series will continue to be equipped with LCD screens, and some of the original product features of the iPad Pro will be decentralized, such as high brush, Face ID, etc., to make up for the positioning gap left by the iPad Pro.
Previously, Mark Gurman said that the new iPad Pro and iPad Air will be released in March this year. In this way, the problem of overlapping positioning of the iPad Pro and iPad Air series can also be solved.
For the iPad Pro, its selling points include a more powerful M3 chip and MagSafe charging in addition to the OLED screen. Moreover, Apple will also launch a specially adapted, newly upgraded **Magic Keyboard. Overall, the comprehensive strength of the new iPad Pro will reach a new height, helping Apple firmly occupy the ultra-high-end tablet market. It's just that its pricing has become even more unfriendly to the average person.
For a long time in the past, in the tablet market, Apple's advantage over the Android camp was crushing. At that time, Apple used one or two models of iPads to defeat Android, and Android tablets were often concentrated in the entry market, mostly small in size, staggering the competition with iPad. Even, many brands don't pay attention to tablets, and after releasing a few products with the mentality of testing the water, the follow-up will be directly interrupted.
But in recent years, this has changed a lot. Recently, when Xiaolei reviewed the tablet market in 2023, he found that Android tablets are developing rapidly. First of all, more and more brands are entering the tablet market, and almost every leading mobile phone brand is participating. Secondly, the positioning of Android tablets is becoming more and more high-end. The mid-range Android tablet products are very rich, and they are concentrated in the 2000 yuan price segment. Huawei, Samsung, Xiaomi, Lenovo and other manufacturers have launched super-large screen tablet products, with office and productivity as selling points, covering many original PC scenarios, trying to explore the higher-end market.
Source: Produced by Lei Technology).
Of course, there is still a gap between the higher-end tablets launched by these Android brands and the iPad Pro, after all, their pricing is in the mid-range price segment of Apple's tablet. However, the trend of high-end Android tablets continues.
Recently, in @数码闲聊站爆料称, the Android flagship tablet launched in 2024 will appear with models with Dimensity 9300 and Snapdragon 8 gen 3 chip solutions. He did not announce the specific brand name, but judging from previous experience, the Dimensity 9300 tablet that will be launched should be vivo, and the Snapdragon 8 gen 3 tablet may be the Xiaomi tablet 7 Pro series products that have already been announced. This means that soon we will be able to see more powerful Android flagship tablets, and their chips will keep up with the most advanced flagship phones.
Now, Apple and Android brands have gradually explored different directions in the product route of tablets. Apple's presentation of a high-end tablet is the iPad Pro, which is backed up by a strong hardware configuration and productivity story. M-series chips, Mini LED OLED screens, high-precision stylus, iPadOS ecosystem, etc., are all selling points that Apple is trying to create differentiation.
Source: Apple).
The Android flagship tablet is also a product route that takes a high-spec hardware + productivity story. However, the productivity scenarios created by the Android brand are more down-to-earth and localized. For example, domestic brands will directly adapt the office software with PC operation logic to the tablet, directly optimize the conference application, and solve the most practical office needs of users.
In general, Apple's use of the OLED version of the iPad Pro to occupy the higher-end tablet market will not directly block the development path of the Android flagship tablet. After all, at present, even the highest-end Android tablets, most of them can only touch the four or five thousand price range, and it is still far from the 10,000 yuan market that iPad Pro wants to develop.
Apple's move to reshape the iPad product line is not difficult to understand at the product level. The tablets currently available at Apple are the iPad Pro (11-inch and 12.).9 inches), iPad Air, iPad mini, and entry-level iPad, but there is overlap in the positioning between them, such as iPad Pro 11 inches and iPad Air with similar size configurations, iPad Air and entry iPad performance is close but ** gap. Moreover, because the iPad implements the strategy of high premium storage capacity, the different models and pricing are even more confusing.
Source: Lei Technology Production).
Back to the breaking news we said at the beginning, the addition of OLED screen and other features has given Apple the confidence to put the iPad Pro into the 10,000 yuan market, and it can also raise the positioning of the iPad Air by the way. As for the entry-level budget iPad and iPad mini, the rest can be filled with a suitable upgrade. In this way, the product line of the iPad will be clearer.
Source: Apple).
However, we can find that after the formation of the new iPad product line, the overall ** of the iPad has been on a level. If you want newer technology, stronger configurations, Apple's answer for you is strengthening. In other words, Apple has gone to great lengths to restructure its product line, with the goal still being to make more money, and maximizing profits is the ultimate goal.
From a business perspective, this is not difficult to understand. The market capacity of the iPad is already saturated, and it is unlikely that Apple will get the increment. At the same time, the product advantages formed by the software and hardware ecology have made the iPad lack of competitors in the tablet market for a long time. There will be zero iPad updates throughout 2023, but Apple's tablet shipments are still the world's first. In this case, Apple has a natural incentive to adjust its product line and pricing to capture more profits. Better OLED screens and more powerful M3 chips are, in Apple's eyes, both powerful tools that can leverage profits.
As far as Xiaolei is concerned, on the one hand, I am pleased with the continuous application of new technologies in the **iPad Pro, but on the other hand, I scoff at this behavior of trying to find ways to increase prices. As an ordinary user, choosing an Android tablet the next time you change your phone may be Xiaolei's most determined resistance.
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