Back when Steve Jobs was running things at Apple, iPad mini's, iPad pro's, and iPhones that are larger than 3.5 inches were non-existent. Even iTunes back then meant buying music straight up, and not renting them until your subscription expires.
At the recent "Let Us Loop You In" event by the company, AppleInsider editors Daniel Eran Dilger and Victor Marks discussed about Apple and the Environment, CareKit, iPhone SE, iOS 9.3 and a 9.7-inch iPad pro. The iPad pro is the first 9.7-inch in size which is not launching at a starting price of $499. Instead, the latest addition to Apple's tablet family starts at $599 for only a 32GB model. An even higher priced version with 128GB shall arrive anytime soon, too. Back when Jobs revealed the first ever iPad, he explained that a lot of people can afford it at $499.
There has been a prominent change in the pricing. For starters, iPad sales haven't exactly been allowing the company to celebrate lately. In the words of AppAdvice, "iPad sales haven't exactly been setting the world on fire lately". The sales were down 25% year over year in the most recent quarter. Apple didn't also update their iPad Air last year, which could also be a factor why sales numbers haven't been skyrocketing for Apple.
Apart from all the pricey alterations made by the company, a new iPad Pencil is also introduced at $99. But that's not all. A separate Smart Keyboard is also expected to launch which would cost $169 for the 12.9-inch iPad pro. To sum it all up, Apple is trying to make up for the declining sales by making sure that those who make new purchases will spend far more than just Jobs' $499 introductory price. Indeed, Apple has been shifting its traditional strategies slowly. This makes a lot of people, especially solid Apple users, wonder what Steve Jobs think of Apple nowadays?
