Apple has refreshed its iPad lineup with a new 9.7-inch iPad with Pencil support which is out with a student-focused $30 discount. The device is meant to substitute last year’s $329 base model iPad, and the price is still the same for regular consumers. Apple’s hope to beat Google in the classroom is bringing about cheaper prices which is good.
The web store of the company has been updated and the 7.9-inch iPad mini, which came out in September 2015 is still being sold for $399. The device only comes with an A8 chip, in contrast with the more powerful A10 Fusion in the new $329 iPad with Pencil support. There’s more, you get a smaller display that doesn’t support Apple’s stylus or the new cheaper Logitech Crayon stylus announced at Apple’s iPad event.
Apple has a reputation of keeping devices for a long time past their obvious utility to consumers and advantage over superior products with the same price. The MacBook Air sold for $999 that was eliminated by the new standard MacBook and similarly priced MacBook Pro or the $499 Mac mini which hasn’t been updated since 2014.
Now the device was introduced in 2012 to meet a very certain and small chunk of the market. At the moment, the tablet market has contracted, however, and has only grown since it doesn’t make too much sense to keep investing in 7 or 8-inch models thanks to Apple’s cheaper full-sized iPads. However, Apple might continue to sell it till it’s entirely unusable, but it doesn’t make any sense to keep it at $400.
No one has to be told that buying the iPad mini 4 is not a very smart investment. You can get a more superior device with a bigger screen, faster processor, and stylus support for $70 less. If you are really pushing for a portable iPad, you will be most likely better off with the out-of-date components of the iPad mini 4 most especially if you just care about reading ebooks and watching Netflix. Then again we live in a world where full-sized iPads are cheap and in this particular situation cheaper than the mini-sized tablets of a few years ago.
