"Cheap" and "entry-level" are two terms Apple is particularly unfond of, however. The reason why the Mac mini is no longer being updated may be because it's simply too cheap.
This is confusing me more and more not your comment but Apple’s position on this. I used to think the Mac Mini was a bit if a cast off because it was really the only Mac for awhile that didnt encourage buying all your periphels from Apple.
That being said with the ending of Airports and Apple branded displays it appears first party accesories arent as important as I thought. I’m not entirely sure why it’s being left to stagnate.
4x the price of some vastly inferior tablets. Don't get me wrong, the margin is still high, but the entry level iPad is well above the specs and build of the Kindle Fire
Please. They lowered the price from $499 for iPad Air 2 w/16gb to $329 for iPad w/32gb. The change in 2017 was to bifurcate the line, targeting general market use and schools with the regular iPad, and creative professionals and higher end market with the pro line. The iPad Air 2 didn't fit that strategy, and schools couldn't afford the $499 entry point of iPads and were going with Chromebooks.
Re: screens, students are really rough on equipment, and laminated screens like those in iPad Air 2 and iPad Pro are quite expensive to replace. The iPad has the glass/digitizer separated from the screen which lowers repair costs significantly.
The iPhone SE is primarily aimed at emerging markets, isn’t it? In such markets, a $600 (base price) computer without any peripherals is a comparatively much more difficult sell.
The iPad at $329 is an odd exception to Apple’s typical rules, I’ll admit. There’s a large price divide between it and the iPad Pro without there being a comparatively huge feature divide, making it kind of unique in Apple’s lineup.
I disagree. The strategic product development options a cheap low-energy fanless machine gives are enormous. For example, Apple could market it as a secure privacy-respecting home server against Google cloud services.
