Earlier this month, we knocked Apple for releasing a new version of the Retina iPad mini that was literally the exact same as last year’s model except for the addition Touch ID and the option to buy it in gold. Now famed Apple blogger John Gruber, in his otherwise laudatory review for the new iPad Air 2, singles out another point of criticism about the company’s newest tablets: Namely, he doesn’t think there’s any reason for Apple to release larger iPads with only 16GB of storage anymore.
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“Apple should not be selling 16 GB iPads,” he states bluntly. “The starting tier for typical consumers should be 32 GB. There’s just not enough usable space on a 16 GB iOS device to do the things Apple has worked so hard to make easy to do. High-def slo-mo video? Panoramic photos? Console-quality games? Those things all consume large amounts of space.”
Gruber goes on to explain that he understands 16GB may be enough for many iPad users and that economically it helps the company’s margins when it can so easily upsell consumers on pricier iPad models by offering devices with 64GB of storage for just $100 than the 16GB models. Nonetheless, he doesn’t believe Apple is delivering good value to its customers and he thinks the company should look at this issue more in terms of long-term branding and not short-term gain.
“Apple is not a short-term business,” he writes. “They’re a long-term business, built on a relationship of trust with repeat customers. 16 GB iPads work against the foundation of Apple’s brand, which is that they only make good products.”
Gruber’s whole review of the iPad Air 2 and the iPad mini 3 is worth reading and an be found at the source link below.
