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I bought a Magic Keyboard today for my 5th gen iPad Air and I have been playing around with it and Blink terminal and I’m really impressed with it and can see t

by rcarr 4y ago

I bought a Magic Keyboard today for my 5th gen iPad Air and I have been playing around with it and Blink terminal and I’m really impressed with it and can see the iPad being a full MacBook replacement in a few years, presumably when Logic and Final Cut Pro make their way on to the iPad (they’ve got to do it now DaVinci is on iPad surely). Anyhow, I decided to have a look to see how much it would cost to upgrade to the 12.9 iPad Pro and a Magic Keyboard. To my astonishment, a 512Gb iPad Pro is now £1599 and an accompanying Magic Keyboard is £379. That means a full setup is going to set you back £1978. In comparison, a 13” 512Gb MacBook Pro with 8GB RAM is £1549. I understand that the iPad has a better screen and camera but I was still a bit taken aback that it was both £50 more expensive outright or £429 more expensive when you add a Magic Keyboard. Does anyone else think this is a little crazy?

chiefalchemist 4y ago
A little little. I'll take a stab at it. Let's presume the better camera + screen cuts that in half. Then, let's presume Apple prices the iPad Pro to reflect a one time purchase. That is, the majority won't buy the Magic Keyboard (or that some already do). Finally, (I presume, typically) the margin on accessories is higher. Let's say that cover half of the half. In the end, the difference is approx 100-ish quid. Given the added convince of the iPP they're kinda sorta the same price.
- rcarr 4y ago
  > Then, let's presume Apple prices the iPad Pro to reflect a one time purchase. That is, the majority won't buy the Magic Keyboard (or that some already do). I’d love to know the numbers on this. I would think that iPad Pro users are more likely to be buying the Magic Keyboard than other iPad users as they’re presumably using the device for actual work rather than just entertainment purposes where an Air would suffice. Just from having the Magic Keyboard a single day the iPad is making a lot more sense as a device to me. Besides being able to type properly, using cmd + tab for app switching and globe + ctrl + left/right arrow to multitask makes it way more productive than the palava involved when trying to do the same via the touch screen.
  - chiefalchemist 4y ago
    Yeah, I'd like to know as well :) To your point, they might, but a new MKB every time? Probably not. So for say 66.66% it's a one and done purchase.
    - rcarr 4y ago
      Yeah I see what you’re saying, I had my last iPad for about 7 years and I only upgraded because I wanted the latest OS and also wanted my Mac and iPad to both be on the Arm chips. I will probably upgrade my MacBook in 3-4 years but will wait longer on the iPad unless it becomes a full fledged replacement in which case the MacBook will end up getting ditched entirely.
    - jbverschoor 4y ago
      Like hell I’m gonna pay that kind of money for a keyboard which I cannot use on the next iteration, and is not as good as what it should be on a device which really still really lacks features. If they wouldn’t be such a b** as just release macOS on it, or even just a good vm with Linux without side loading (and external display support), that’d be great.
ksec 4y ago
>Does anyone else think this is a little crazy? Because you included the price of Magic Keyboard, which is not part of iPad Pro. Apple's accessories have extremely high margin.
- rcarr 4y ago
  The point is that when you buy a MacBook Pro, it has a full-size keyboard and a trackpad. It also has fans, ports, a larger case etc. The MacBook presumably costs more in terms of raw materials, parts and assembly so it is odd to see that the iPad Pro costs £50 more than it, or £429 more if you want the equivalent keyboard and trackpad functionality you get with the laptop.
  - ksec 4y ago
    Well, as stated, the iPad and MacBook Pro aren't accessories, hence their margin aren't marked as such. You dont calculate the same BOM cost on Accessories with higher margin and expect the same result on a different product categories.
  - saiya-jin 4y ago
    Well clearly Apple doesnt have a fixed margin on all stuff they make, rather they do continuous detailed analysis of each segment of the market, competition etc. and push given price as much as possible to have largest income. Accessories are logically overpriced even more since they already have you in their ecosystem, ie you dont buy samsung watch if you have iphone (but you still probably should buy top garmin instead, at least now). All this (and much more) is kind of expected from most worthy company ever. Competition does the same to some extent, Apple just has a bit more protected position so it can go further.
floydnoel 4y ago
the 13" macbook "pro" does not deserve the name. it is not pro in any sense, it should be called just macbook. better to compare to the 14"
- dan-robertson 4y ago
  I think this is basically right. The 13" is basically the old hardware (including Touch Bar) with an M2 jammed in there. I think any competent enterprise would procure either the other MBP models or the M2 airs. I assume this model exists because there was spare manufacturing capacity and some organisations move at a glacial pace and seemed to think they wanted this model (or the transitional M1 13" MBP this one replaced) or because Apple had more M2 chips to use for the hardware than M1 chips.
2muchcoffeeman 4y ago
I bought a knockoff Magic Keyboard from aliexpress. The hinge mechanism works great. It was 1/4 the price of the real thing. So you can imagine the margins Apple is making.

by rcarr 4y ago

chiefalchemist 4y ago

A little little. I'll take a stab at it. Let's presume the better camera + screen cuts that in half. Then, let's presume Apple prices the iPad Pro to reflect a one time purchase. That is, the majority won't buy the Magic Keyboard (or that some already do). Finally, (I presume, typically) the margin on accessories is higher. Let's say that cover half of the half. In the end, the difference is approx 100-ish quid. Given the added convince of the iPP they're kinda sorta the same price.

rcarr 4y ago
> Then, let's presume Apple prices the iPad Pro to reflect a one time purchase. That is, the majority won't buy the Magic Keyboard (or that some already do). I’d love to know the numbers on this. I would think that iPad Pro users are more likely to be buying the Magic Keyboard than other iPad users as they’re presumably using the device for actual work rather than just entertainment purposes where an Air would suffice. Just from having the Magic Keyboard a single day the iPad is making a lot more sense as a device to me. Besides being able to type properly, using cmd + tab for app switching and globe + ctrl + left/right arrow to multitask makes it way more productive than the palava involved when trying to do the same via the touch screen.
- chiefalchemist 4y ago
  Yeah, I'd like to know as well :) To your point, they might, but a new MKB every time? Probably not. So for say 66.66% it's a one and done purchase.
  - rcarr 4y ago
    Yeah I see what you’re saying, I had my last iPad for about 7 years and I only upgraded because I wanted the latest OS and also wanted my Mac and iPad to both be on the Arm chips. I will probably upgrade my MacBook in 3-4 years but will wait longer on the iPad unless it becomes a full fledged replacement in which case the MacBook will end up getting ditched entirely.
  - jbverschoor 4y ago
    Like hell I’m gonna pay that kind of money for a keyboard which I cannot use on the next iteration, and is not as good as what it should be on a device which really still really lacks features. If they wouldn’t be such a b** as just release macOS on it, or even just a good vm with Linux without side loading (and external display support), that’d be great.

ksec 4y ago

>Does anyone else think this is a little crazy? Because you included the price of Magic Keyboard, which is not part of iPad Pro. Apple's accessories have extremely high margin.

rcarr 4y ago
The point is that when you buy a MacBook Pro, it has a full-size keyboard and a trackpad. It also has fans, ports, a larger case etc. The MacBook presumably costs more in terms of raw materials, parts and assembly so it is odd to see that the iPad Pro costs £50 more than it, or £429 more if you want the equivalent keyboard and trackpad functionality you get with the laptop.
- ksec 4y ago
  Well, as stated, the iPad and MacBook Pro aren't accessories, hence their margin aren't marked as such. You dont calculate the same BOM cost on Accessories with higher margin and expect the same result on a different product categories.
- saiya-jin 4y ago
  Well clearly Apple doesnt have a fixed margin on all stuff they make, rather they do continuous detailed analysis of each segment of the market, competition etc. and push given price as much as possible to have largest income. Accessories are logically overpriced even more since they already have you in their ecosystem, ie you dont buy samsung watch if you have iphone (but you still probably should buy top garmin instead, at least now). All this (and much more) is kind of expected from most worthy company ever. Competition does the same to some extent, Apple just has a bit more protected position so it can go further.

floydnoel 4y ago

the 13" macbook "pro" does not deserve the name. it is not pro in any sense, it should be called just macbook. better to compare to the 14"

dan-robertson 4y ago
I think this is basically right. The 13" is basically the old hardware (including Touch Bar) with an M2 jammed in there. I think any competent enterprise would procure either the other MBP models or the M2 airs. I assume this model exists because there was spare manufacturing capacity and some organisations move at a glacial pace and seemed to think they wanted this model (or the transitional M1 13" MBP this one replaced) or because Apple had more M2 chips to use for the hardware than M1 chips.

2muchcoffeeman 4y ago

I bought a knockoff Magic Keyboard from aliexpress. The hinge mechanism works great. It was 1/4 the price of the real thing. So you can imagine the margins Apple is making.