It uses the same mechanism as the $99 Magic Keyboard. It integrates a trackpad, which one presumes is as good as the ones in MacBooks (or the $129 Magic Trackpad) - and we’ve seen that 3rd party trackpads all have proven themselves to be inferior so far. It also integrates a folio-like case ($99)… plus offers pass-through charging and unique adjustable hinge. At $100 more than the tepidly (or worse, unless you like a laggy trackpad) reviewed equivalent from Brydge (which also doesn’t offer pass-thru power or as adjustable a a viewing experience), if this keyboard is as good as it promises to be then no one should be insulted.
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Sure, but what does that cost Apple to make? $50? And the trackpad they sell for $130? Are we really to believe that these are still expensive for Apple to make? In every other business, prices should go down over time as you get better at making things and the costs go down. Instead, Apple sets the price high and keeps the price high.
Obviously I don’t expect Brydge to be able to make a better keyboard/trackpad than Apple does, especially when Brydge didn’t know that iPadOS would get touchpad support. But could Apple still make a profit off their Magic Trackpad for iPad if they charged what Brydge does for theirs? I bet they could.
We’ve all just gotten used to, and in large part accepting of, the fact that Apple is making giant profits off of us.
See also the $130 surcharge to add cellular to an iPad. In 10 years of making iPads, Apple is still charging the same amount. How much profit are they making off those now?
Apple dumps billions into AppleTV and the competition seems pretty fierce, so they just give it away to the majority of their customers. Who else could do that? No one. Why can they do it? Because of their profit margins that come from us.
We all remember when Apple was barely scraping by and, I suspect, all got used to paying higher prices as some type of “doing our part” to keep Apple alive.
Now Apple is one of the richest companies in the world, and it’s built largely off of (I believe) keeping their prices artificially high because they can. Hey, that’s good business, right? Economics and capitalism 101: make as much profit as you can.
But at a certain point it feels gross to see them charging $700 for wheels for a $50,000 computer, and it feels bad to know that we’ve all just accepted that we’re going to pay… what, 30%-50% more for Apple’s stuff.
Actually the wheels and the Mac Pro are a bad example, because few people “need” that computer or the wheels, and those who do probably don’t care about the price.
Here are some better examples:
- keeping 4GB of RAM as starting point in Macs when Mac OS X needed more to run well
- keeping a spinning hard drive in the base iMacs even in 2020
- keeping the 16GB iPhone around as the base model for as long as they did
- 5GB of iCloud storage. Still. And making it basically impossible to use other backup systems.
- the absurd amount Apple charges for RAM and SSD (while simultaneously making it impossible for others to replace/upgrade them)
Apple has a long-standing habit of keeping base specs insufficient and overcharging for upgrades.
I’m sitting here with an iPad Pro, iPhone 11 Pro Max, Mac, HomePod, AirPods Pro, and more, so I’m not throwing any stones at anyone who buys Apple’s stuff. I do too. But each one of those items that I listed would be see as extremely expensive by anyone not used to the Apple Surcharge.
What I’m saying is that I love that Apple has all of this money to donate to all of these good causes, and I’m glad they are doing something to help with the crisis. What I would like to see in addition in recognizing that even before COVID-19, corporate profits have been sky-high and salaries have been flat for most people for many years. So maybe they could make a little less in profit for their shareholders and make their products more affordable across the board.
Yeah, I know, it’s bad capitalism/economics. Tim Cook would probably be fired for trying to do something like that. I get it.
Sometimes it still bothers me.
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The issue is the value, based on the pricing of separate component pieces they already sell (and people are happy with), and how it compared to the competition. I see no reason to feel insulted by a quality keyboard/case/trackpad combo if it’s decidedly superior to problematic competition that’s $100 cheaper. If you don’t want to pay the money that’s fine, but the pricing doesn’t seem out of line given the price of a separate Apple keyboard/case/trackpad, and given the inferior competition.
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I appreciate the long comment about prices and profits. Just one comment about margin: Apple’s gross margin is 39%. That’s good, but its competitors aren’t much cheaper. Dell’s is about 30-32%; Samsung’s is about 35%. Apple achieves its huge profits by maintaining its margin while driving the cost/value of its hardware up as high as the market will bear, not by driving the price up and keeping cots the same. Its cheaper competitors have similar margins but cheaper bills of material. So while $350 is a lot, the cost to Apple of that thing is probably at least a couple hundred dollars.
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After much thought, I think I’m gonna stick with my current Apple Magic Keyboard and Magic Trackpad. As much as I would love an all-in-one solution, I would prefer to have a keyboard and trackpad that I can use for many iPads to come. I’ve seen a friend who runs a kiosk selling tablet and phone cases. It’s crazy that she has to have different cases for each generation. It’s mostly because the camera port is off a little or the volume buttons shifted ever so slightly that current cases won’t fit the new device.
I got my Magic Keyboard today. I’ve had it for all of five minutes (this post is the first thing I’ve typed on it), but I love it so far.
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Same here — I have been using it half the day and love it. Typing on it is a breeze, and I don’t find it too heavy. I think it’ll complement my Smart Keyboard Folio well!
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Just over 1 month with my new iPad Pro. I have the folio keyboard case and a regular case but so far haven’t used the keyboard one at all. After a few glitches I am now able to keep the iPad in sync with my main Mac for calendar and contacts without a problem. The Apple pencil 2 with the click to charge is a lifesaver.
GoodNotes has been a bit interesting to learn and I still have a ways to go but it is VERY useful and I’m finding more ways to use it every day. That is the biggest new use of my iPad compared to my older device. I’ll go post about the whole GoodNotes saga on another thread in Software.
Reading is about the same but I like having more books. My unread Kindle library is about 200 items and they all fit on this device.
It feels a bit more sturdy but that may be just the difference in the radius of the case edges.
Overall a very nice upgrade and I’m glad I got it.
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I bought a new iPad Pro 12.9" about a month ago and I bonded with it in no time at all. I also got the Magic Keyboard, but it came about 2 weeks after the new iPad arrived. I had some buyer’s remorse while waiting for it over how expensive it is. However, I just love it now, so I have no regrets about buying it.
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