Apple By Matthew Humphries Mar. 18, 2014 8:00 am
Apple is finally consigning the 30-pin connector to the history books on its tablets today, with news that the iPad 2 will no longer be offered for sale.
The iPad 2 has disappeared from the Apple Store, and with it the last tablet to not use Apple’s Lightning connector. Instead, Apple is re-introducing the 4th generation iPad with Retina display, which will only ship with 16GB of storage on board. The WiFi model costs $399, with a Cellular version available for $529. Both versions come in black or white color options.
We speculated that the iPad 2 was set to be dumped last month when it came to light consumers were selecting the iPad mini instead. The iPad 2 has had a very good run, having been first introduced in March 2011 carrying iOS 4.3. But the 1GHz dual-core chip, 512MB RAM, and non-Retina 9.7-inch display clearly don’t cut it anymore.
The iPad with Retina display is a much better alternative to offer alongside the premium iPad Air. It remains $100 cheaper just like the iPad 2 was, and there’s enough of a performance gap between the two to warrant the price difference. Developers will also appreciate having access to the 2-year-old tablet for testing, although I bet a few are rushing to pick up any remaining iPad 2 units for legacy testing.
The only device still on sale that uses a 30-pin connector now is the iPhone 4S. It seems likely that will be the next to go. Is Apple going to wait until the iPhone 6 launch to do it, or is its demise imminent?
[Image courtesy of William Hook on Flickr]
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The iPad 2 has disappeared from the Apple Store, and with it the last tablet to not use Apple’s Lightning connector. Instead, Apple is re-introducing the 4th generation iPad with Retina display, which will only ship with 16GB of storage on board. The WiFi model costs $399, with a Cellular version available for $529. Both versions come in black or white color options.
We speculated that the iPad 2 was set to be dumped last month when it came to light consumers were selecting the iPad mini instead. The iPad 2 has had a very good run, having been first introduced in March 2011 carrying iOS 4.3. But the 1GHz dual-core chip, 512MB RAM, and non-Retina 9.7-inch display clearly don’t cut it anymore.
The iPad with Retina display is a much better alternative to offer alongside the premium iPad Air. It remains $100 cheaper just like the iPad 2 was, and there’s enough of a performance gap between the two to warrant the price difference. Developers will also appreciate having access to the 2-year-old tablet for testing, although I bet a few are rushing to pick up any remaining iPad 2 units for legacy testing.
The only device still on sale that uses a 30-pin connector now is the iPhone 4S. It seems likely that will be the next to go. Is Apple going to wait until the iPhone 6 launch to do it, or is its demise imminent?
[Image courtesy of William Hook on Flickr]
More...
