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Comment by epmatsw | Hacker News Reader

Hmm. iPad Mini, iPad Mini 2, iPad Mini 3, iPad Air, and iPad Air 2. Wasn't one of the key insights that Steve Jobs had when he returned to Apple that they had too many variations of their products with no obvious differentiation? As much as I love their products, it seems like they're rapidly slipping back down that slope...

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The mid-'90s Apple product line was an unholy mess. There were dozens of Performas and PowerMacs with random 4-digit model numbers. The PowerMac 7600CD might be succeeded by the PowerMac 7300, which would be sold as the Performa 5200 in another part of the world... [1]

An incrementing product revision number is a bit boring, but certainly nowhere near those depths of marketing misery.

[1] This example is semi-fictional because nobody could possibly remember the actual model numbers from that era.

Eh, I can see that argument with the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6+, but in this case we're just talking about keeping older products alive at a lower price point.

No, there are a set of ipads that cover the price range from $249 to $800+, every 50 or $100. Every step up has a clear benefit -- Faster, bigger, more storage, cellular.

I'm more worried about the original iPad Air still in the lineup. I've got an ipad2, and it's feeling old and slow (without having a newer one to compare to). That's not going to be a long term good purchase.

s/Air/mini/ up there. Otherwise, doesn't make much sense.

I agree, but as a counterpoint, part of the argument was that they couldn't afford to spread their design resources too thin.

Now they could afford to, but they don't. Yes, it takes effort to keep those old lines running, but the guys doing that needn't even talk to the ones designing the new versions and the software running on it (those older generations get left behind, OS-wise, don't they?)

iPod Classic, iPod Mini, iPod Nano, iPod Shuffle, iPod Touch...

I guess the counter argument to that would be that those products are all clearly differentiated by their names and appearances. The iPad Mini 1-3 all look identical barring close inspection, and their names give no indication of what the differences are other than that one has a higher number.

Perhaps that was a luxury offered by the fact that the iPod had no meaningful competitors to speak of (and would be strong today if Apple hadn't cannibalized the product line).

Also, today cases and accessories rely on Apple form factor as a platform on which to build - and that's a huge market, and important for consumers and 3rd party vendors... I'd like to think my iPhone6 case (if I owned a 6) would fit the next year's model.

iPod nano with 5 different form factors in 8 years? Ain't nobody got time for dat no more.

There was a clear difference between these products,despite the "iPod" label. Can you mix an Nano with a Classic ? A shuffle with a touch ? now ask most people the difference between an iPad Air and another iPad Air 2 ? touch id ? really ?

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