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00:00Hey what's up, MKBHD here.
00:04Okay, there's a book called The Myth of Fair Value.
00:09And in that book, it's all about pricing strategies for different products and things like that.
00:12And in that, there's a study that they go over about purchasing patterns.
00:17So in test number one, a company selling a product offers a regular option and a premium option.
00:22And four out of five people pick the more premium one.
00:25So then in test number two, they added a third cheaper option
00:28to see if they could maybe increase revenue by looping in an audience that's looking for a cheaper, lowest possible price.
00:34Turned out, the cheapest option was kind of just ignored,
00:37but it completely flipped the ratio of standard to premium purchases.
00:41Because now people would assume that the middle one was the appropriate value.
00:45So then in test number three, they took away the cheap option,
00:48but then added an ultra premium option over the top.
00:52And this ended up flipping the ratio right back to the original premium one,
00:56but also some portion of people just went with the more expensive one just because that's what they want.
01:01And so this ended up with the highest overall revenue generated.
01:05Pricing ladders are very real and very much designed to get you to spend as much as possible
01:09and make those companies as much money as they can.
01:12This is the new 2022 iPad Air with the new M1 chip inside.
01:17You can tell because it's a nice, shiny, deeper blue color.
01:20It's nice, but it is one of the stranger Apple products that I've seen in a long time
01:25because of its price and where it sits in the lineup.
01:27Because it kind of messes with the ladder a little bit.
01:30So look, it's actually very simple to understand what you're getting here with this spec bump,
01:35which is an even more powerful version of the iPad we already know.
01:39I already reviewed the 2020 iPad Air, and I'll link that below the like button.
01:43So you already know what you're getting on the outside.
01:45And then I've already reviewed several computers with the M1 chip, including the iPad Pro with this M1.
01:51So you know what you're getting on the inside too.
01:54This is a thin 11-inch tablet, same exact dimensions as the last iPad Air,
01:59so those cases all still work.
02:01Your single camera on the back, USB Type-C at the bottom,
02:05the Touch ID fingerprint reader in the power button up in the corner,
02:09and the 11-inch 60-hertz display up front running the exact same iPad OS as every other iPad.
02:15The reason it's so strange is this is the most I've ever seen one Apple product seem to overlap another.
02:23That other product being the iPad Pro.
02:26So the last iPad Air was already very close to the iPad Pro, right?
02:30It had basically the same dimensions, same exact camera, same battery life,
02:34and the same software features of all the other most expensive iPads.
02:38It works with the same second-gen Apple Pencil. It's just as thin.
02:42In my review, I called it the one true iPad Pro killer because it's 80% of the tablet for $200 less.
02:50And so this year, now that the new iPad Air also gets the incredible massively overkill new M1 chip inside,
02:58it's one more thing that they do exactly the same.
03:01So the iPad Air starts at $599, and the 11-inch iPad Pro starts at $799.
03:08But let's take a closer look at this pricing.
03:10See, this is a pricing ladder after all, so it's designed to have something available at every price,
03:15and then every time you arrive at one price, there's something a little higher to try to nudge you up
03:19and try to get you as high in that ladder as they can.
03:21So the base price iPad Air is only a 64GB iPad.
03:26For $600 in 2022, that's not really great. I mean, we got 20GB games today.
03:32So of course, the only available storage option is straight up to 256GB, which is $150 extra.
03:39So now, you're playing in the $750 territory, which is a lot of money to spend on an Air,
03:44when for just $50 more, you can get a Pro, right?
03:49So now, you might as well just bump up to the iPad Pro.
03:52So you can see what they're doing, right? They're nudging you up a little bit by a little bit.
03:56But the thing is, the iPad Pro is more expensive, but it's almost the same tablet in so many ways.
04:04So they're already practically the same dimensions,
04:06to the point where the iPad Air works in all the same cases and keyboards that the iPad Pro works in.
04:12They're the same primary camera on the back, the same USB-C port, the same battery life, and now the same M1 chip.
04:19So you'd have to think extra hard about spending extra money on an iPad Pro,
04:23when the list of reasons to do so is smaller than ever before.
04:27Now, as someone who's used both tablets, honestly, one of those reasons is pretty huge.
04:33And then the rest are all pretty minor, but let's just go through each of them.
04:37So the only reason I still pick an iPad Pro as a better overall experience,
04:41a better tablet than the Air, is the ProMotion display.
04:45So they're about the same size and resolution,
04:47but the faster 120 Hz refresh rate is one of those things that just makes everything about using the Pro
04:53smoother and snappier and more responsive.
04:56And that's the thing that makes the M1 chip in this iPad Air so funny,
04:59which is, it theoretically closes the gap in performance versus the Pro,
05:05with, you know, rendering and exporting and compiling and things like that.
05:10But it does not feel as fast because of the 60 Hz.
05:15So those big animations where your hand moves across the entire screen,
05:19the unlock animation, the multitasking gestures, the big stuff like that,
05:23you could put a 3090 in here and it wouldn't feel as smooth as the ProMotion iPad.
05:28Now, sure, some people need to see them side by side,
05:30and even then they barely see a difference.
05:32In which case, yeah, that person should just get the iPad Air.
05:35But I'm telling you, for me, if you're like me, that's something I would spend the extra money for.
05:41But then the iPad Pro has one extra camera, the 10 megapixel ultra-wide,
05:45plus a LiDAR scanner and a flash.
05:48The iPad Air just has a single camera, no flash.
05:51So, you know, for the occasional video call or document scanning, it's totally fine for me.
05:56And like I said, it's the same main camera as the iPad Pro,
05:59so there isn't even a quality difference here.
06:01Then the iPad Pro has quad speaker audio instead of the dual speakers of the iPad Air.
06:06They're both very solid speakers and it's definitely a bit fuller and louder from the Pro,
06:11but that's not something you're going out and spending extra money on specifically.
06:16And then the Pro has a higher max storage, so you can go up to 2 terabytes instead of just 256 gigs.
06:22And the USB-C port is thunderbolt on the Pro instead of just faster USB-C on the Air.
06:28So that might open up some potential peripheral options for actual Pros plugging in drives, etc.
06:34And then, of course, you have Face ID on the iPad Pro,
06:37where you've got the Touch ID fingerprint reader on the iPad Air.
06:41Honestly, at this point, it's kind of preference.
06:44Like, you get used to having Face ID on the tablet very quickly when you have it.
06:48But also, the good old-fashioned two fingers registered on the iPad Air works really well too.
06:53So in portrait, it's the right index finger that unlocks,
06:56and then in landscape, it's the left index finger. Great.
06:59You know what's funny, though?
07:00The only other update to the Air, besides the M1 chip being inside,
07:03is the selfie camera is now the ultra-wide with center stage.
07:07So it's got the newer selfie camera.
07:10And it's convenient. It follows you around the room.
07:12It's kind of in an awkward location, but it's decently smooth with FaceTime, Zoom calls, etc.
07:18But because the iPad Pro has the Face ID sensors and stuff,
07:21technically, only that older selfie camera will support Animojis and Memojis and things like that.
07:28So there's that.
07:29But that's basically it, right? That's the differences.
07:32So now hearing that list, you probably already know if you would be tempted to move up one more rung on that ladder.
07:39You know, maybe 50 extra bucks for ProMotion does it for you, like it does it for me.
07:44Or maybe you just want a larger tablet,
07:46because you do have the 13-inch iPad Pro with mini LED if you're tempted to go large.
07:51But other than that, you know, the extra camera, LiDAR, Face ID, the speakers, all pretty minor things.
07:58But then the funniest part, usually, right, the ladders are designed to try to nudge you up,
08:02to try to get you to spend more and more money.
08:04Putting one of the features from the more expensive model in the less expensive model just removes one reason to upgrade
08:13and may actually encourage a small number of people to move down.
08:18Because now that theoretical person who would have spent the extra money to get the hugely improved processing power of the M1
08:25now just has one less reason to get the Pro.
08:28They can get it in the air.
08:29Well, that is until the M2 version comes out anyway.
08:32Either way, it's fascinating.
08:34It's always interesting to see these new products come out at these different various price ranges.
08:38I think in that example from the beginning of the video,
08:41you know, Apple clearly has a baseline iPad, an iPad Air, and an iPad Pro.
08:47And most people don't need to spend the extra money to get the most premium iPad Pro.
08:52I think the promotion is enough just for me, and a lot of people would too,
08:57but there's also going to be a bunch of people that just spend the extra money just because they want the most premium thing.
09:02Fine, but this iPad Air is another great spec bump that actually makes me even more frustrated
09:08that iPadOS is not evolving to fully take advantage of it.
09:13But that's another rant for another video.
09:16Either way, that's been it.
09:18Thanks for watching.
09:19Catch you guys in the next one.
09:21Peace.