IPad is back after three-year slide
New operating system, lower prices make it a go-to tool
LOS ANGELES Remember when analysts were writing off iPad?
After three years of middling sales, Apple’s tablet appeared to be fading away — until the company’s recently completed fiscal third quarter and its sudden turnaround.
Apple shipped 11.5 million unit sales in the July quarter, compared to 9 million in the same quarter a year earlier. What changed? For one, you can thank lower prices. Apple dropped the entry-level price from $400 to $329 for the basic 9.7-inch screen iPad and began pursuing more aggressive ways to get students using the iPad, with hot deals for educators.
On the other side of the spectrum, it put more powerful chips into the iPad to make it speedier and marketed the top-of-the-line model as a smaller, lighter and more compact laptop alternative.
That iPad, the Pro, starts at $649, and if you really want to go the replacement route, you’ll also have to spring for the $159 accessory keyboard. You might also want to spend another $99 for the pencil, to draw on the screen. So now at around $900, that’s about $300 less than an entry level MacBook, with performance speeds that are almost on par with the bigger laptop.
Plus, you get a built-in camera that can shoot great stills and video up to 4K video resolution, the ability to read books and magazines without lugging paper copies and all the other things people love doing with mobile devices.
Apple hasn’t stopped there.
Most of the coolest new features on iOS 11, the new mobile operating system out in September, have been reserved for the iPad.
Playing on the laptop replacement theme, Apple is adding files to the tablet, like on a computer. In other words, finally, you can find those notes, photos and other documents either created or downloaded on an iPad for the first time.
There is a dock at the bottom of the screen to show you which apps you are working with, and forthcoming drag-and-drop functions will make it easier for consumers to move text, photos and files from one app to another.
Improved iPad functions have helped it reverse what had been a downward trend since the late 2014 introduction of larger iPhones, starting with the iPhone 6.
Why buy a 10-inch tablet, the reasoning went, when you could use a 5.5-inch?
A new operating system and lower prices have again made iPad a compelling, go-to tool while on the run or traveling.