Intro
It’s no secret that Apple seriously needs to rethink the way the iPad lineup looks. There are currently 5 different screen sizes (8.3″, 9.7″, 10.9″, 11″, and 12.9″) and 4 different lines (iPad, iPad mini, iPad Air, iPad Pro). This is just a lot of different things going on and it could really stand to be streamlined quite a bit.
I propose a solution that follows what we’re starting to see on the MacBook and iPhone lines: pick the features you need, then pick the screen size you want those features at. In addition, there’s at least one lower cost model that you would be able to choose as well. In this lineup, I’m largely throwing out how we currently conceptualize the iPad lineup today, so some things will seem like downgrades in certain regards, but bear with me.
With all of that being said, my proposed iPad lineup looks like this:
iPad SE
This is the base iPad, what is currently the iPad 10. This model would have a 60Hz LCD display, TouchID, and an older-generation A-Series chip. It would also have a single 12MP camera with no LiDAR scanner. It’s pretty basic, but it does the iPad things you need well enough. Lastly, this iPad will rock a 5Gbps USBC port. What are you plugging into it? This new iPad SE would fit the current accessories for the iPad 10 as well, we’re really just renaming this iPad.
iPad
This is where we get into the new “baseline” iPads. Here, we have a lineup of three sizes: 8.3″, 10.9″, and 12.9″. Like the standard line of iPhones, these will rock a 60Hz OLED display. Unlike the standard iPhones, these devices would be fine with TouchID, though I would not say no to FaceID, should Apple be so inclined. These devices would use a current-generation A-Series chip and rock a 10Gbps USBC port. On top of that, the new iPad line would feature a 12MP camera and could also have a LiDAR scanner. This is a slight departure from what the Air currently has in the M-Series of chips, but this is no longer the iPad Air, it’s just the iPad now.
iPad Pro
This is the new top of the line for iPads. This line mirrors the differences between the different Mac models: the screens are a little bigger. We’ve got an 8.4″ model, an 11″ model, and a 13″ model. This would come from smaller bezels for each of the devices, but they would retain the same physical size. These models would have a 120Hz OLED display with FaceID. This iPad would have a current M-Series chip as well as a single 48MP camera with a LiDAR scanner and a Thunderbolt 4 port. It’s basically the same as the current iPad models, but there would also be a mini version for those who want a compact iPad with the best display. I opted to drop the ultrawide camera because why not. It doesn’t really need to be there if we’re being honest.
Storage Tiers
All of the iPads will start at 128 as will the iPad SE. The iPads will go up to 1TB, the SE will go up to 512GB. The Pros will start at 256GB and go up to 2TB. Storage increases will be $50, down from the $100 they are currently. Typically these margins are to get the starting price down, but when we get to pricing, we’ll see how this has changed.
Apple Pencils
I would have all iPads be compatible with the USBC Apple pencil as well as the new Apple Pencil 3, users would get a choice on features. I don’t really have any ideas for what an Apple Pencil 3 would look like, but they would need to solve the problem with the Magnetic Connector that currently charges the 2nd gen because of the next thing I’m going to talk about.
Front Facing Cameras
Yup. I’m doing it. All of the iPads will have a landscape front facing camera. You can thank me later. But, as mentioned earlier, this does mean that the Apple Pencil 2 is not compatible with the lineup anymore, which is unfortunate, but we’re fighting the laws of matter here: you can’t have two things in the same place.
Keyboards and the Like
I mentioned it earlier with the iPad SE, but that’s going to maintain compatability with the current keyboard contraption that Apple has for the iPad 10, it’s not really in need of much improvement in my opinion. The iPad line will maintain compatability with the current generation of keyboards that are compatible with the Airs and Pros. No the 8″ model will not be getting a keyboard. Why not? This is my list and I think that would be a terrible experience. If you don’t like it make your own list. The iPad Pros can get whatever contraption Mark Gurman has been talking about. Doesn’t make a difference to me.
Pricing
For this, we’re just going to follow Apple’s current playbook for pricing. The MacBook pricing is a little much for this, with a $700+ price difference between the Air and the Pro line of simliar size variants (13″-14″ and 15″-16″ respectively), so we’re going to go with the iPhone pricing structure.
So for the iPhones, there’s a $100 difference between screen sizes, and a $200 price difference between the standard and Pro models at the same screen size and storage, so we’ll just go with that.
We’re going to start with the base iPad SE which, like the iPhone SE, won’t follow this pricing at $399. I’m just being realistic. I don’t think the $329 pricepoint can last much longer. Then we’ll start the 10.9″ iPad in at $649 and the 11″ iPad Pro at $899 (Remember, the Pros start at 256GB and it’s a $200 jump at the same storage). From there we can fill everything in:
- iPad SE: $399
- 8.3″ iPad: $549
- 10.9″ iPad: $649
- 12.9″ iPad: $749
- 8.4″ iPad Pro: $799
- 11″ iPad Pro: $899
- 13″ iPad Pro: $999
Conclusion
Ultimately I think that this whole lineup will smooth things out a little bit more. I think things like a more cohesive feature set, a refined tier system, and a revamped pricing ladder will get people more interested in buying new iPads.
I haven’t covered much about software, I wanted to focus on the hardware here since the iPad launch is (hopefully) imminent. Maybe I’ll do one on software as we get closer to WWDC (or VVVDC, as it’s called on the announcement).
Does this make sense? Let me know what you think on either Mastodon or Threads.
