Final week, I made a decision I used to be going to purchase a brand new iPad.
There’s nothing improper with the sixth-gen iPad I at the moment have, besides it’s heavier than I’d like. All I wish to do is watch my foolish dramas in mattress and for it to harm much less once I whack myself within the brow whereas drifting off to sleep. It’d be good to have a sooner pill for odd duties the place my iPhone display is just too small and my laptop computer is just too massive — particularly on trip. Moreover, 4 years is a good period of time to attend when all you need is a barely sooner (and maybe extra colourful) model of what you already bought.
I moseyed on over to the Apple web site. There was the ninth-gen iPad and the Tenth-gen iPad. There was additionally the iPad Mini and the iPad Air. I’m not a Professional, however there have been two of these — an 11-inch and a 12.9-inch mannequin. I’m a gadget reviewer. I do know a number of different gadget reviewers, and I knew what I needed out of a brand new iPad. You’d assume I’d have been in a position to suss this out. However no.
As my colleague Monica Chin aptly put it, the brand new iPad doesn’t make sense. At $449, it’s too costly to be entry stage — particularly when, as my editor Dan Seifert factors out in his overview, the Air can simply be discovered on sale. Plus, I’m not shopping for a foolish USB-C to Lightning Pencil adapter simply to strive digitizing my analog calligraphy interest. And if I have been actually that involved about value, there was no strategy to justify an iPad Professional. Okay, no matter. I needed a sooner, lighter, and rather more colourful iPad. That left the Air or Mini. I’m in my purple period proper now — purple iPhone, purple Beats Match Professional, purple backpack, purple water bottle, and purple keyboard. A purple Air or Mini would work. Besides they’re each costlier than the Tenth-gen iPad, and value was a giant motive I used to be trying on the colourful entry-level iPad to start with. That left the ninth-gen iPad, which at that time, didn’t really feel like a sufficiently big change from my sixth-gen iPad.
Ultimately, I purchased nothing.
I had the identical concern when it got here time to improve my iPhone this 12 months. There have been 4 iPhone 14 fashions. I hemmed and hawed. After I finally purchased one, I felt nostalgia for the times when there was one iPhone. The one motive I’m not tearing my hair out over the three Apple Watches that got here out this 12 months is that I reviewed all of them. (Plus, I’m nonetheless performing some further Extremely testing.)
I wouldn’t have had this downside 10 years in the past
I wouldn’t have had this downside 10 years in the past. There weren’t seven iPhones, six iPads, 5 MacBooks, three Apple Watches, three AirPods, and a HomePod in a pear tree. (Throw a couple of Macs in there, too). Android and Home windows have at all times had a hell of much more decisions. The entire attraction of Apple’s portfolio was its simplicity.
You might nearly place each product that we [make] on this desk. I imply, should you actually have a look at it, we have now 4 iPods. We’ve got two major iPhones. We’ve got two iPads, and we have now a couple of Macs. That’s it. And we argue and debate like loopy about what we’re going to do, as a result of we all know that we will solely do a couple of issues nice. Which means not doing a bunch of issues that will be actually good and actually enjoyable.
That’s part of our base precept, that we’ll solely do a couple of issues. And we’ll solely do issues the place we will make a big contribution.
That simplicity was why I bothered to modify to Apple merchandise within the first place. I put up with the issues I didn’t like as a result of it streamlined my workflow and made my life simpler — even when a giant a part of me bristled at Apple’s heavy-handedness. I didn’t must do as a lot analysis each product season. The one query I needed to ask myself was: do I improve or wait one other 12 months?
I don’t assume Apple is more likely to pare down its catalog anytime quickly. This implies I both get used to this improve calculus or begin acquainting myself with life as a inexperienced bubble. In any case, I’m fairly certain you possibly can’t match each Apple product on a single desk anymore. However significantly, if it was going to saddle us with six iPad fashions, would it not have killed Apple to make the Tenth-gen iPad in purple?
