Apple may be the leader in the tablet segment but it also got to face some major dips in the sales graphs recently. Maybe as a result of it or otherwise, Apple will reportedly come out with a cheaper variant of the iPad that will cost just $259. Funnily enough, we saw the same company announce its most expensive phone yet a couple of months back.
DigiTimes has provided this piece of information that cites “related upstream suppliers” as its source. The report mentions that the cheaper iPad variant will help Apple maintain its per quarter tablet shipments by bringing the price conscious customer onboard.
This pricing is for a 9.7-inch iPad which is the lowest till date for an iPad of this size. On the other hand, the 9.7-inch iPad launched earlier this year was priced at $329. With that kind of pricing, the competition might want to fight back, leading to many more affordably priced tablets from other vendors too.
The report points out that Apple might also tap business customers in the industrial and service sectors to achieve its target of 10 million quarterly shipments. Apple might even choose to outsource the production of the iPad to Compal Electronics, while the PCB orders might go to Compeq and United Printed Circuit Board.
Like always, none of the information mentioned in the report has been verified or has been confirmed by the company. You must take it with a pinch of salt.
The $259 iPad will reportedly debut sometime during the second quarter of 2018. Another affordable product from Apple that is also expected to come out next year is the iPhone SE 2. It is reportedly in works and the company might make it official early next year. No confirmation on that as well.
Apple has been rumoured to improve the battery performance of the next iPhone generation. The future iPhones will witness some major hardware changes and software enhancements to offer a better battery performance than they currently do.
