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iPad 2: Why It’s Still on Sale, and Why You Shouldn’t Buy One

Apple this week unveiled the new new iPad Air and iPad mini with Retina display. They cost about the same as the 4th-generation iPad and the first iPad mini, but include feature major upgrades to their processors, builds, and, in the case of the iPad mini, display. We haven’t tested them in our lab yet, but on paper they’re significant steps up from the previous versions.

But while the iPad Air replaces the existing 4th-gen iPad, Apple decided not to do away with an even older device, the iPad 2, which will remain on sale for $399.

Why Buy an iPad 2?

First, let me make this very clear: Do not buy an iPad 2. It’s massively overpriced for what it offers. It doesn’t have a Retina display, its processor is much slower than the iPad Air and iPad mini, and it doesn’t incorporate the most recent Bluetooth standard. It doesn’t even have Siri.

If you already have an iPad 2 and love it, keep loving it. It was a top tablet when it was released back in March 2011, and it’s still a functional one. But for $399, you can get the slightly smaller, yet much-better-equipped iPad mini with Retina display. Paying that much for a tablet with a sub-720p screen and a three-year-old CPU is simply a poor buying decision. It’s not much better than if Apple continued to offer the Newton, but now at a lower price of $500 down from its original $700.

It you want a cheap tablet, don’t get an iPad. Apple makes premium products and knows it, which is why it can sell a small-screen tablet for $150 more than similar Android models, and it’s of the reasons why Apple is still selling the iPad 2. Android is no longer a massive, fragmented beast of many tablets of dubious quality. Okay, it is still pretty fragmented and many tablets are still of dubious quality, but Android now has a few tentpost tablets that are worth your attention and, if you’re not married to Apple, are as accessible, and can be even more functional.

The Google Nexus 7 ($99.99 at Amazon)(Opens in a new window) and the Amazon Kindle Fire HDX ($179.99 at Amazon)(Opens in a new window) are both 7-inch tablets available for $229 in 16GB versions, less than two-thirds the price of the iPad 2 or iPad mini. They’re both powerful and easy to use, and can serve all of your reading, watching, listening, and playing needs you would otherwise fulfill with an iPad. They’re not only faster than the iPad 2, but they’re sharper even with their smaller screens, with nearly double the resolution of the iPad 2 at 1,920 by 1,200 (compared to 1,024 by 768). They’re not as big as the iPad 2, but like the iPad mini they’re better in every other way. I have a third-generation iPad, but even that’s fallen by the wayside next to my Nexus 7.

Why Apple is Still Selling the iPad 2

There are a few possible reasons Apple is still selling the iPad 2. I believe it is so Apple can continue making money licensing its 30-pin connector. The company is still selling the iPhone 4s (but phased out the iPhone 5 for the 5s and 5c) for the same reason. While Apple doesn’t make speaker docks for the iPhone or iPad, it licenses the rights to include the 30-pin connector on those docks. That connector has been replaced by the Lightning connector, which similarly is owned by Apple and used in new devices. But keeping the iPad 2 and iPhone 4s as products that continue to be produced and sell means other companies will still have a reason to make docks with 30-pin connectors. This is Apple ensuring it can keep making money through that connection.

Wireless audio has made massive leaps in the last few years, and while Apple has captured a good chunk of that market with AirPlay, it means there’s less reason to actually dock your phone or iPad except to charge it. Why walk over to your speaker to control your music when you can keep your iPhone or iPad on your desk or table connected to your computer or charger, and be able to easily pick it up and walk around the room with it? Bluetooth offers similar benefits, and its speakers are much less expensive than AirPlay speakers. Companies will still make speaker docks with Lightning connectors, but wireless audio is clearly replacing the dock that once was a big part of the iDevice lifestyle. The iPad 2 and iPhone 4s can use those wireless standards (even though the iPad 2 has just Bluetooth 2.1 and not Bluetooth 4.0), but their 30-pin connectors ensure that, even if Lightning connectors don’t strike the speaker dock market nearly as hard as the previous dock types, 30-pin will keep going.

Bulk Education Purchases

My colleague Sascha Segan has a different explanation. Apple could be keeping the iPad 2 available for bulk purchases for education and enterprise situations. At $100 less, they could be bought in great quantity compared to the current iPad, which means you could equip schools and businesses with them easier. This makes sense, because the iOS ecosystem is large, well-established, stable, and has tons of education and business apps that can be integrated into systems.

However, Apple is selling the superior iPad mini with Retina display for the same price, and that approximately 2-inch difference in screen size can’t be worth the massive drop in speed and picture quality. Apple is also selling the iPhone 4s, which might still have business uses, but won’t be seen purchased by school districts in large amounts. Neither of those things quite fit with the appeal of bulk purchases for education or business.

More importantly, again, Android offers much less expensive alternatives that can also be purchased in bulk and integrated into education or business. The 10-inch tablet market is still neck-and-neck in price between iPad and Android, but 7- and 8-inch tablets are available for less that can destroy the iPad 2 in speed and sharpness. It might be difficult for a school district or business to move from using iOS devices to Android, but if they’re considering buying iPad 2s en masse, they probably haven’t invested a lot into it yet. Best of all, with Android, you can make significant shell modifications. You could take part of the $150-a-pop you save on a Nexus 7 and use it to have your IT department or a contractor make a menu system to put over the tablets with your school disctrict or branding and the most common apps people will use.  

Apple’s persistence in selling the iPad 2 and iPhone 4s is puzzling, and could be explained by the ways I mentioned above, or something as simple as Apple still has a glut of both products and wants to get rid of them. The iPad 2’s price doesn’t make sense, but there are still many good reasons Apple might still sell it. Whatever those reasons are, though, one thing is clear: You shouldn’t buy one.

For more, check out PCMag’s hands on with the iPad Air (video below) and iPad mini With Retina Display.

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