Being a broke student, I have no choice but to chant “PC master race” as I secretly lament how I’m too poor to afford any of Apple’s cool hardware. However, that doesn’t make me any less excited whenever Apple releases something new, like the iPad Pro.
This article discusses the features of the iPad Pro, as well as some ideas on the audiences that Apple is trying to market to with this product. I agree with some, but not with all of their ideas.
1) The iPad Pro is directed at “Artists, Doodlers, [and] Dreamers”.
I mostly disagree with this point of view. Personally, I do not think that the iPad Pro can target serious, professional artists efficiently. The reason is, most artists already have a tool that do the exact same thing as the iPad Pro at a lower price– the drawing tablet.
Drawing tablets can sell for as low as $60 apiece, and has been a more than viable tool since the dawn of digital art. Knowing this, A budding professional artist would be more likely to pick up a light, equally useful, and hardy tablet rather than Apple’s bulky and fragile gadget.
On a side note though, I noticed how they’re partnering up with Adobe (the software firm who created programs like Photoshop) to increase the revenue of both firms. Photoshop is a necessity for many artists; by noticing and keeping up with this trend, Apple can increase the chances that iPad Pros are purchased by artists. In the meantime, Adobe gains more sales revenue since Photoshop is proprietary.
2) The iPad Pro is for “Serious Note-Takers”
I agree with this opinion; however, I believe it should more effectively be reworded into “The iPad Pro is for scatterbrained students that keep losing their stuff”.
While it is true that diagrams are important to notes, most of us do draw them already– on paper. Then, scatterbrains like me proceed to lose those notes like we lose our IDs, phones, and other things.
The best perk of electronic notes is how they cannot be lost easily like paper notes. If Apple can market the iPad Pro to students that lose things often, it could solve a huge pain that many students worldwide experience daily. The iPad Pro is definitely a very attractive gadget for students.
3) The iPad Pro is directed at “Mobile Workers”.
I do not think this one makes much sense. In my opinion, people who are “out in the field” for their jobs would benefit much more from traditional pen-and-paper clipboards than a fragile device that weighs almost a kilogram. There are already phones for photos, and diagrams for engineers and architects do not need to have 365 shades of color– red, blue, and black are enough.
The “fragile” aspect of the iPad Pro (or any Apple device in general) especially hurts its potential in this sense. The types of occupations that could receive some benefits from the iPad Pro at work also tend to be professions that see a lot of rough, outdoors work. Therefore, it would be better for them to have a tool that can actually survive being dropped a few times.
(For those who have yet to experience how ridiculously fragile Apple Devices can be, here is an informative video.)
3) The iPad Pro is directed at “Retailers”.
I agree with this statement. I think the iPad Pro would make a good piece of physical capital. Like any other Apple Product, it is so easy to use (even children can use it!) compared to the “proprietary devices like cash registers and kiosks”. If small stores invest in an iPad Pro, they can cut down on employee training time and improve efficiency during data processing.
When combined with the Apple Pencil, it would have the ability to have forms that customers can write on directly. Then, the retailer can have the forms in digital form that would not be lost easily.