The new 2022 iPads went on sale this week, but most of our readers won’t be picking one up. Opinions in last week’s poll were against the new Apple tablets and with the same reasoning too – higher price, not enough upgrades to entice potential buyers.
In the case of the iPad Pro 11 (2022) and iPad Pro 12.9 (2022), a MacBook Air is seen as a better tool for getting some work done on the go. macOS has always been geared towards work and creativity and has only gotten better over the years. Is iPadOS finally ready to let you harness the full power of the Apple M2 chipset?
Well, the new iPadOS 16 brought important improvements to multitasking with Stage Manager, which works even better when you connect the tablet to an external display. However, this also works on M1 iPads, including the latest iPad Air, which despite a recent price increase is still cheaper than the Pros. Looking at 256GB tablets, the Air is now $750, the iPad Pro 11″ (2022) is $900. Also, the 2021 Pros work just as well, unless you really need that Apple Pencil hover feature.
Price is also a big issue for the iPad (2022) – it now starts at $450, while the 2021 model is still available for $330. Yes, the new one is better with USB-C and a 5G option (over Lightning and 4G), but most people don’t see it as $120 better. So last year’s tablet is seen as the better choice for those who want a cheap iPad.
And judging by the amount of negative votes (about 2/3), most people don’t want a cheap iPad. Or in some cases they don’t want one new cheap iPad – many in the comments said they have an old iPad that still does everything they need it to do and see no incentive to upgrade.
We have no doubt that Apple will continue to sell millions and millions of iPads. But it looks like the 2022 iterations will be part of the pack rather than the leaders of it.
