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Apple's Ludicrously Fast Launch Is A Ludicrous Flop

Austin Smith

Published: May 12, 2024 11:55 am

Last Updated: May 17, 2024 9:08 pm

Apple’s (Nasdaq:AAPL) recent release of a new iPad, its first update in three years, failed to make a significant impact on consumers. Despite boasting an M4 chip and other high-end features, the public’s response was lukewarm, suggesting that the product may no longer be seen as essential or sufficiently innovative compared to its predecessors or cheaper alternatives.

TRANSCRIPT: Apple released its new iPad.
It hasn’t had a new one in, I think, three years.
And they came out, Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple, said it was the greatest piece of hardware in the history of the universe.
New M4 chip, ludicrously fast.
And the reaction was… Nothing burger.
I don’t think that anybody cares anymore.
And I don’t know if it’s because the iPad is somewhat dropped as a favorite tool or that, you know, people just don’t want to have to have an iPad and an iPhone and an iWatch and everything else.
Apple now has a disease, and that is we can’t upgrade it well enough.
And people are worried about the fact that that’ll happen with the iPhone 16.
But if you look at the new iPad and you look at the old iPad, the people who can actually tell the difference in terms of chip speed, camera quality, the ridiculously beautiful, apparently, screen glass.
Those sorts of things.
I just think it’s hard to sell this stuff now because it isn’t any different than the one that was before it.
No, and it’s expensive.
And I actually looked as my iPad, my old one has finally died, and I started looking at them and I was like, gosh, I don’t know if I want to spend that kind of money just to read stuff on Sunday.
I looked at it.
If you want to get the 13-inch screen with the nifty little keyboard they’ve invented to sell with it,
You know, like an upgraded storage.
Nothing great.
Right.
It’s $1,800.
Yeah.
The entry-level stuff I saw was like $1,200 to $1,400.
And I’m like, wow, that’s really a lot.
But people ask the questions of why this stuff doesn’t sell better.
And one of the answers is you can go get a tablet like a Lenovo or something.
Yeah.
$499, almost no one knows the difference.
That’s the problem Apple has right now is that it used to be a differentiated product.
It’s still a differentiated brand, but the brand only carries you so far.