Apple’s $349 iPad 11 is missing a lot, but it’s still all the iPad most people need

Other iPads are nicer and faster, but I end up using all of them the same way.

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[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

This year it really feels like Apple is creeping into the old Detroit 3 building-to-a-price-segment philosophy. Meaning, "where can we cut costs to force upgrades?"

This is one of the richest companies in the world with a non-union workforce, mind you.

Everyone has to build different devices for different segments, of course, but are all the devices sincere? The Ford Focus and Toyota Corolla were sincere in ways that the old Cavalier and Escort weren't. Apple's adherence to 3+ models in everything (pencils?) seems increasingly artificial and phony.

I understand inflation, and that the home buttons were increasingly outdated, but they had options here and a lot of clever engineers without much going on it seems.

They always have the most powerful engines now, I notice.

I suspect that the low end ipad is sort of a weird hybrid on the sincerity/cynicism scale since being the cheapest option makes it both a very sincere statement of where Apple is willing to risk putting price of admission for things like EDU buyers who need a crate of 10,000 that will remain in service for the next 4 years; and quite possibly will just buy chromebooks if they don't like your price, not their problem that children think of ipads as nicer; and the most obvious cannibalization risk that the more expensive lines aren't necessarily thrilled about.

You certainly get a...distinct... "Ipads start at $500; there's also the stepchild" vibe from Apple's lineup; but there's presumably a very real reason why they haven't just compressed that to "Ipads start at $500, full stop."