I predicted before last week's event that the iPad 2, after a long run and stellar sales that boosted interest in iPad, would retire. Not only did Apple not retire the iPad 2, it didn't even lower the cost. Here's one reason:
My daughters’ elementary school bought 40 iPad minis at the end of last year and those systems have mostly been used by the fourth and fifth grade classrooms. Realizing they could use about 10 more devices, the school moved forward with purchasing this fall. I advised the principal to wait until after the October 22 event, believing that retina iPads would replace non-retina iPads and be better bang for the buck, so to speak.Our principal reminded me that that didn’t matter. What did matter is that all students were using the same devices, that teachers didn’t have to know one thing for one group of devices and another thing for another group of devices. Even more important, she didn’t want students fighting over who gets to use the nicer devices.
That last point, the fighting, surprised me but makes complete sense.