Apple's method of designing products for the future

I am on little sleep, so rambling a bit.

Does anyone else think Apple designs products intentionally as 2-3 versions out from the start?

Lets take the iPad. Price it at 499$ for 16GB WiFi. but lets leave it at 256mb RAM, and leave out front\rear cameras like we have on other iPhone\iPod devices.

We also can sell an adapter to accept a SD card reader, then integrate this feature into the next version based on sales of the adapter.

They could have easily added the extra RAM and cameras in the first generation, but would leave less to look forward\want in the 2nd generation.

More profit with less features & functions now, and we can add these in for the same price point later, as manufacturing costs go down from making millions of iPhones and iPods.

All computer companies drop features to hit price points Apple is not alone. I sell a range of laptops and the less expensive ones come with 2 gb ram sometimes no HDMI, fewer USB ports, no keypad etc etc development and delivery of any product takes years not months costs of ram have been an issue for 2 years which is one of the main reasons the first gen iPad has 256mb and as for USB. Apple has used the standard connection across all iO devices. One only has to look at competitors to see they're struggling to hit $499 price point by adding tbis and that. Not putting a forward /rear camera in is not really a big to most users when majority already have cameras on mobile phones. Of course they have multiple versions of any product under production. Frankly I believe Apple did an amazing job in providing a device like the iPad for under $500 US. I am sure that next gen iPad will have more ram and other features that users are wanting but keep in mind the cost of these items has dropped and again they can add them and still hit the price point desired. One more thing if USB is added it will because of Europe requirements on mobile devices

There is also the matter of starting a product with a competitive price...they would have to drop some features in order to make any profit. By next year they can get their parts manufactured for cheaper...so they can add in the new hardware at basically the same cost (especially since they can gauge the market) and release it in another version.

If they would have added everything that everyone wants into the first gen it would do two things

1) cost a LOT more.....(I'm looking at you $1199 Xoom!)
2) have features that people don't care about and thus wasted money on.

And at some time, you have to stop designing the product and actually start selling it. From that point on, the market will generally guide upgrading path.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by 1991-C4

And at some time, you have to stop designing the product and actually start selling it. From that point on, the market will generally guide upgrading path.

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HP could use a lesson in that!

Totally agree on all the above.

I agree to all of that too. And what's best is that a new generation gets to be of better quality, has more features and is lighter than the preceding. Not to forget slightly cheaper too.

Sent from my iPad using iPF