The iPad upgrades that Apple unveiled at its September event go a long way toward solving their long-running value disparity.
After offering tributes to the Golden State and promising its streaming subscribers a golden slate, Apple turned the attention of its California Streaming event to what have been its least glamorous iPads: the baseline model and the iPad mini. The specs for both have long lagged behind the company’s stages for advancing the tablet, In its divergent upgrades for each, though, Apple set a new roadmap for the products by resolving a longstanding conflict in their related histories. Also: Why the iPad Mini 6 is Apple’s most exciting new product in years First came the iPad. With its classic Home button planted in the center of a bezel expanse just above the glacially fading Lightning connector, the baseline iPad’s design remains the last to bear the design DNA that defined the modern tablet. To be sure, the way Apple talks about the iPad has evolved 180 degrees in the decade since the original Pad. First positioned as something for tasks that fell between the smartphone and laptop, Apple now touts the device’s “amazing versatility,” a more grounded variation of its characterization as “a magical sheet of glass.” (Fret not, fans of silicon sorcery. Apple calls the iPad’s panning Center Stage camera functionality “magical.”) With the iPad family’s proliferation over the years, the baseline iPad has become something the company had sought since the days of the eMate 300 — an inexpensive computer that could serve schools. However, unlike that banished, translucent green oddity, the iPad has served as an entry point to the company’s broader product line. Like virtually all computing products, but particularly those that cater to students, the iPad line saw 40% growth last year.
