Why the new iPad is the last iPad you need to buy

Wednesday, when Apple unveiled the latest iPad, the biggest topic of discussion was not its specifications or the what's-new or what-we-wanted-but-Apple-still-won't-give-to-us. It was instead the name. Before the "media event", the solidest bets were on "iPad3" and on "iPadHD". Trust Apple to surprise (and shock) everyone by calling

it simply, the new iPad.

What followed was mass confusion. It was as if someone had announced that the year after 2012 will simply be called "the year". How were we supposed to distinguish the new iPad from the iPad 2 and from the original iPad? (Perhaps exactly the way I just did?) What happens next year when the next version is released? Will that be the newER iPad? Will the 2012 version be called the old iPad? Or perhaps the "was-new-last-year-but-no-longer-new" iPad?

News articles and blogs all over the place called it the most asinine decision. Some even considered it to be the end of Apple and iPad as we know it. An example of Apple slipping up after Jobs' departure.

But maybe, just maybe, there is some method to this madness. And here is my take...

The latest iPad now has an HD screen (Retina Display in Apple-speak). It has a pretty powerful processor (A5X dual core processor with quad core graphics). It has 4G LTE connectivity. It has a pretty good battery life (still 10 hours).

So in short, it has a processor to power all kinds of stuff you want to throw at it. Its screen is so good that if it were any better you couldn't tell the difference. And it lets you stay connected wherever you are, at the fastest speeds possible today (and for the foreseeable future).

What more could Apple do to it from a hardware perspective to improve it? Not very much. The screen isn't going to get any better. The connectivity is enough to last the next few years till 5G comes along (There is no such thing as 5G at the moment). Any improvements to the processing power would be mere incremental changes, meant to "update" rather than enhance the device. Same holds true for the storage. The maximum capacity on the iPad is 64GB. Maybe next year there shall be a 128GB option but again that would simply be another incremental change. Although depending on how the whole iCloud / streaming / download limits business pans out, maybe there will no longer be a need for more storage.

From a hardware perspective, this new iPad is as good as it is going to get. Barring dramatic changes and innovations that we don't see yet, the following versions of the iPad will see very small differences (from the current one) on hardware specifications. The greatest chunks of the "what's new" will happen on the software side.

As a result, there will be less hardware differentiation between iPad 2012 and iPad 2013 and iPad 2014. If you compare the new iPad to the original iPad, there are a lot of differences. So in 2 versions there has been a significant leap. I would be surprised to see a similar leap between the new version and 2 versions later (2014).

As a result I believe that buying the new iPad should future proof you a lot better. With most of the enhancements coming though improvements in iOS as well as through Apps, you should be able to keep on top of most of them.

From Apple's perspective, going back to the simple iPad name, allows them to avoid having to let everyone down when the next iPad doesn't quadruple the screen resolution again. It will be easier to manage expectations if the newer iPad is simply a "refresh" without the burden of numbers attached to it.

Of course that does not mean that Apple will be happy with you not wanting to buy the latest and greatest version of the iPad. They will try to make the Software enhancements so compelling that you wouldn't want to miss it. Think Siri on the iPhone 4S. A significant number of people adopted it simply because of that one application. On the iPad as well, there shall be similar "must-have" applications that will require you to upgrade (if you want them of course).

But for the most part, this new iPad should satisfy your needs (and wants) for a good amount of time.