Apple replaces iPad Air 2 with A9-equipped 9.7-inch iPad starting at $329

As part of a spate of announcements, Apple on Tuesday revealed a new 9.7-inch budget iPad, beginning at $329 and equipped with an A9 processor.

The tablet comes with 32- and 128-gigabyte storage options, and like most iPads a choice between Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi + Cellular configurations. Silver, gold, and space gray colors are available. Prices can range up to $559 for a cellular-equipped 128-gigabyte tablet.

"New customers and anyone looking to upgrade will love this new iPad for use at home, in school, and for work, with its gorgeous Retina display, our powerful A9 chip, and access to the more than 1.3 million apps designed specifically for it," Apple PR head Phil Schiller said in a prepared statement.

The product also has an 8 megapixel rear camera — without flash — and a 1.2-megapixel FaceTime HD camera, enough for 720p video.

Other features include support for Touch ID and the international Apple SIM format, which can make it easier to switch data plans. Active battery life is rated at about 10 hours, the same as the 9.7- and 12.9-inch iPad Pros. Likewise its display has a 2048-by-1536-pixel resolution, matching the 9.7-inch Pro.

Online orders will open on Friday, March 24 at Apple, although select Apple authorized resellers are accepting 9.7-inch iPad pre-orders now. Deliveries and retail sales will only begin the following week, but to over 20 regions, including Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the U.K.

Denmark, India, Mexico, Norway, Russia, Turkey, and various other markets will get the product in April. Brazil, Taiwan and others will follow from May onwards.

Apple is also selling polyurethane Smart Covers for $39, in colors including gray, white, blue, pink, and (Product)Red.

44 Comments

macxpress 5910 comments · 16 Years

About 7 years ago

So basically, they've done very little to try and get more iPad sales. I don't think price was the issue. Unless there's a new regular iPad coming at some point but this sounds like just that.

hattig 860 comments · 19 Years

This is a far better price for an iPad, and the A9 is still a stellar SoC.

I still don't know why Apple insists on charging so much more for the mobile data enabled model. 5 years ago $130 was reasonable, but today that should be a bit more reasonable.

drony 2 comments · 7 Years

Actually, will be on sale in Turkey on 24 March

Metriacanthosaurus 880 comments · 8 Years

sog35 said:

macxpress said:

So basically, they've done very little to try and get more iPad sales. I don't think price was the issue. Unless there's a new regular iPad coming at some point but this sounds like just that.

Price is a huge issue.

165 million tablets were sold last year. There is still a huge chunk of tablet sales that Apple is missing because of price.

The drop to $329 and probably sub $299 during the holiday season should boost new iPad users.

Later this year we will see a high priced iPad for hardcore users like you

I don't know that this is any different than the smartphone market. Apple can't compete with the $50 Kindle, but personally I can't even call that a tablet. They are the worst imitation devices ever made, and the fact that Amazon gets away with comparing them to iPad is ludicrous.

I was going to say that I think $329 is a bit greedy and that $299 would have been more appropriate, but you're right that during the holidays/black friday/etc. the going "discount" for this will be $299, without a doubt. Always gotta leave room for that all important "discount".

MacPro 19838 comments · 18 Years

sog35 said:

macxpress said:

So basically, they've done very little to try and get more iPad sales. I don't think price was the issue. Unless there's a new regular iPad coming at some point but this sounds like just that.

Price is a huge issue.

165 million tablets were sold last year. There is still a huge chunk of tablet sales that Apple is missing because of price.

The drop to $329 and probably sub $299 during the holiday season should boost new iPad users.

Later this year we will see a high priced iPad for hardcore users like you

I agree. For me as a Mac user primarily, an iPad is for watching Netflix and Amazon Prime TV in bed and web reading. The base model will be perfect replacement for my iPad Air which I stupidly went for 16 gigabyte thinking for my needs it would suffice, it doesn't 16 gigabyte is very limiting even for my use. 32 gigabyte should be just fine assuming the OS hasn't grown too much.