After I awakened Thursday and scanned the Apple rumors circulating across the internet, one specific set of headlines caught my consideration: The upcoming iPad Professional can have an OLED show and begin at $1,499. In line with Korea-based The Elec (translation), which has a reasonably respectable observe file for rumors, the 11-inch mannequin will begin at round $1,500 and the 12.9-inch mannequin will set you again $1,800.
Some fast math reveals that that worth is close to twice that of the present 11-inch mannequin, which begins at $799. It’s $400 greater than the 12.9-inch iPad Professional with a Liquid Retina XDR show. It’s $300 greater than a MacBook Air. It’s as a lot as a 24-inch M1 iMac with an 8-core GPU. And it’s simply $100 lower than the 27-inch Studio Show. Add a Magic Keyboard and 1TB of storage and also you’re into 16-inch MacBook Professional territory.
Granted, Apple isn’t afraid to lift costs. The iPhone SE went from $399 to $429 final 12 months. The Tenth-gen iPad is $449, a steep improve over the Ninth-gen mannequin’s $329 price ticket. The M2 MacBook Air jumped $200 to $1,199. And the iPhone 15 Extremely is anticipated to hold a $100 premium over the iPhone 14 Professional Max.
However in every of these instances, the worth bump was comprehensible. The iPhone SE bought 5G help; the Tenth-gen iPad has a very new design and bigger show; the M2 MacBook Air has a bigger show, new design, and quicker chip. And when it launched the Tenth-gen iPad and M2 Air, Apple stored the older fashions round as a less expensive possibility.
An OLED iPad Professional that prices $700 greater than the present mannequin is senseless. Apple’s present iPad screens are improbable, and even the sharpest eyes can be hard-pressed to see a distinction with an OLED mannequin. In my assessment of the 2020 iPad Professional, I had a tough sufficient time seeing a distinction between the mini-LED show and the prior era’s customary LED—there’s no method an OLED improve can be price $700 over the present mannequin. The present mannequin is already among the best tablets you should purchase–if not the most effective–however I’m assuming its worth retains gross sales figures fairly low. Add $700 and they’d be anemic.
Even when an OLED iPad is a component of a bigger redesign and re-positioning of the iPad, I’ve a tough time believing that Apple would launch an iPad Professional that prices lots of greater than the present mannequin except it has a a lot bigger display screen. And even then, it must be one thing fairly particular to justify spending $2,000 or extra on it. And apart from, Samsung sells an OLED pill with a 14.6-inch display screen for $1,099, so clearly, the show tech isn’t that costly.
Perhaps Apple will launch an OLED iPad Professional sooner or later. Perhaps it’ll price extra. Perhaps it’ll be a brand new iPad Extremely mannequin with higher-end options and a titanium case. However in case you consider it’ll price $700 greater than the present fashions, I’ve an Apple Automotive to promote you. Or one of many present fashions, which appears low cost by comparability.
