From today’s Morning Links comes this interesting little tidbit from our friends at GigaOM. A new study has come out which says that the iPad 2 is the most widely used of all iPad tablets, accounting for 38% of the market share—or more than the later two models combined.
There are two reasons the article gives for why this might be. Firstly, since the iPad 2 has never been retired, it remains for sale (at $100 less than the newer models) and so people are buying it. Secondly, the study explains ‘this could be an indication that the innovation in tablets is slowing down and the perceived differentiation of the latest-generation tablets is getting smaller with each new release.’
I’d have to agree with this latter assessment. The folks at GigaOM say the retina display was a game-changer, but I have never been able to see much of a difference. Certainly, they don’t look different enough—to me—to merit a price premium. When the retina ones came out, I looked at them—and then replaced my aging iPad 1 with an iPad 2 and saved a bundle. I still have that tablet and use it as my at-work machine.
I have found that the only ‘innovation’ time has brought which interests me is the iPad Mini. I’ll use my iPad 2 until it can’t be used anymore, but I probably won’t replace it with another big one. We have Smartboards at school now for presenting to the kids, so the Mini will more than meet my needs at a tablet, and it’s got a better form factor for reading and leisure for me.
LOL, the 64 bit cpu and IOS are the game changers for the future. For the moment, buy any Apple hardware and get iLife and iWorks iCloud apps for all platforms for free. iBooks is now on all platforms.
Not every step is revolutionary and sometimes even evolutionary steps turn out to be revolutionary.
I give you an example: when Apple released the first iMac it was basically the Mac repackaged with new interfaces, same OS and CPU. At the same time, Apple extorted a couple of hundred million from Microsoft and saved them from being broken up – thereby keeping its enemy close and guaranteeing MS Office for OSX.
In retrospect this was Apple’s first step towards consumerism as well as insurance that OSX would get critical mass.
Oh, I totally see the difference with the Retina display on my iPad 3. I read a lot of magazines on it and the extra pixels make things so much easier to read. That said, I’m not in a hurry to run out and buy the next generation because my iPad 3 continues to work just fine for me.