Today’s Apple media event at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco didn’t bring us anything that we hadn’t already been expecting for the past few weeks. The expected big announcements were made which centered around the release of the new iPad as well as a revamped Apple TV, featuring all of the specifications that had been predicted before hand. Apple also announced that all of their native, and official App Store applications have been updated to work seamlessly on the new iPad’s Retina display, which is definitely something that will be of benefit to those who are about to pre-order the new unit.
But wait, what about those users who aren’t about jump on the new iPad bandwagon? What about those users who prefer to stay one step behind the current technology to ensure that they get a bargain? Well, unlike last year when the iPad 2 was launched and we saw an immediate discontinuing of the original iPad, Apple have decided to continue to offer the iPad 2 16GB model to customers who don’t wish to pay premium price for a new generation device.
It is perhaps a clever move from Apple to appeal to that subset of users who either don’t want to go out and buy the latest model, or perhaps can’t get one due to stock shortages. It is however, likely to cut deep with those current iPad 2 owners who are looking to shift theirs through secondary sales channels in the hope of buying the improved model. Apple will continue to offer the iPad 2 16GB WiFi and WiFi + 3G model which will retail at $399 for the WiFi only version and $529 for the 3G-capable model.
The equivalent prices for the latest iPad, announced today, will come in at $499 and $629 respectively representing a straight $100 saving for consumers who wish to get their hands on last year’s model. Even though Apple are pushing the new iPad into the marketplace in nine days time, the iPad 2 is still a hugely capable and competitive device which some may argue is only bested by the latest Apple release. Other tablet devices on the market which retail for the same price don’t come anywhere near having the same functionality and number of dedicated, purpose built applications which is sitting at a total of 200,000 and rising rapidly.
We assume that the price drop will be effective immediately when the Apple Store comes back online.
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