The non-upgrade support group

Like you I have the latest iPad Pro 10.5 and a 7+, though.
But like you say, a kid will do that - I can relate - plus I’m a softie for the little guy & his puppy eyes, so between getting an Xbox One S along with the usual accessories & having replaced both display and battery on his 6+ (my old phone) and his iPad Mini 2 (also my old one) my bank would probably prefer that I hold off upgrading any of my “toys” for a year😂

But I look at it like this - that way I don’t have to go through all the “baby illnesses” and I get an iPad Pro that’s even more jacked up than this year.
Same thing goes for iPhone😁

I completely agree. I’m going to try to stick to this 3-year upgrade cycle for my phones. I might have to hold off longer for the iPad upgrade, but we’ll see. It definitely takes some cognitive effort to reframe the situation. Like you did by refocusing on the major jump you’ll experience when you finally do upgrade.

When you add it all up, it’s an absurd amount of money to spend. $1000 iPhone, $400 Apple Watch, $1600 iPad (with keyboard and pencil and apple care). Even if you upgraded every 2 years, that’s still $2000 a year. And this doesn’t include any laptop or desktop upgrades.

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Couldn’t agree more - the amount of $ spent - it’s actually like that increases the more tied in to the Apple ecosystem one gets🤔

I made the mistake of calculating how much I’ve spent on Apple products since the iPhone 3G, which were the first to be released in Denmark, and that kinda made a huge impact, too ( I’ve spent a total of $12.202 give or take a couple of $ over the span of 10-11 years covering both iPhone, iPad & MacBooks):sweat_smile:

So for me switching to all iOS started as a way of simplifying my workflows, but does to some extent also contain a way of saving on Apple purchases by only upgrading if / when my current devices no longer live up to my needs, or at least the hardware in current devices are a “must-have” for the geek in me, and right now I can’t really justify an upgrade… YET😂

Base models:
iPad - $329
iPad Mini 4 - $399
10.5" iPad Pro - $649
11" iPad Pro - $749

The iPad and 10.5" iPad Pro have the same CPU; that’s a huge price gap IMHO. Something seems askew here, especially when compared to Apple’s portable Mac lineup with products at seemingly every price point. It really feels like they’re missing a model in the $400-$550 range.

The Mini 4 (which remains a product in their lineup) doesn’t count. It’s 3 years old and commanding a hefty price tag (when it debuted in 2015, it was the same price but had 16GB of storage vs. today’s 128GB) relative to its age.

If you look more closely $329 is the low-end, barely-usable 32Gb ‘get them in the door’ price unit that they don’t expect most consumers to choose (schools another story). Next step up is the (also barely usable) $459 unit with 32Gb + WiFi+ Cellular.

But that $400-$550 range you mention gets easily covered by the iPads Apple expects to sell most of:

$429 for 128Gb storage
$559 for WiFi+Cellular

which doesn’t of course include the possibility of add-ons like $99 Pencil_1 (or Crayon), or Airpods, or Smart Cover, or keyboard case, or dongles.

So I think that someone with that budget would probably go for a 128Gb iPad, possibly with some accessories.

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I’m still using my iPhone 6 and, despite massive temptation, I’m going to hold out at least one more year. I’m actually getting more and more satisfaction out of keeping it this long. To be honest, if I hadn’t had to wait till Nov for a new model to be available, I’d have caved; but I’m glad I didn’t.

I have an iPad 9.7, base model, and it is perfect for my needs as I don’t need lots of photos or videos on it and I can tether to my phone if it ever leaves the house. It is insanely capable of anything I want to do on it.
My wife uses her 9.7 Pro massively, but she has no desire to change yet as Procreate runs smooth as silk still.

My workhorse is my MBP, which is still the best machine for me. As I write this it is working through an automation script that’ll take 30 min to complete, something just not feasible on an iPad.

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Wanted to thank you all, brought a bit of reason to my madness. Have a 2017 12.9 and ordered the 11 inch to replace it having not changed my phone this year.

I use my iPad as my main machine but had a niggle I was upgrading because there was new as opposed to there was an issue with old…

Cancelled the order 5 mins ago and saved £1000.

The 12.9 I have is absolutely fine, my only justification was a lighter iPad!

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No upgrades for me! I have an iPhone X from last year (still 97% battery, if that’s accurate), and the home, work and back up machines are recent enough. I have an old iPad (not sure what model) and, well, I can’t see surfing getting better with a new one.

I do think about hard drives … hard drive space feels like closets to me: you can never have enough.

Didn’t last long, temptation got the better of me and I was able to collect in store today - now using the 11”. It’s lovely, but I am trying not to think about the complete lack of justification I have for changing and now need to sell my 12.9

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Didn’t take advantage of Apple’s GiveBack program for your old iPad?

I agree, and don’t forget that out of warranty repair cost is now running around 65% of new purchase price. AppleCare+ is now a mandatory purchase for most people.

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We found ourselves upgrading most of our Apple gear at our house this year. Everything got old at the same time. It’s been a very expensive year.

  • My MacBook Air had to go into the shop for a week or two. I couldn’t be without a Mac for that long, so I bought a MacBook Pro, thinking I would return it for a full refund when the MBA was fixed. Problem with that plan: I was out of town on a business trip right up until the deadline for returns, plus – let’s be honest – I fell in love with the MBP. Except for the goddamn noisy keyboard and I don’t care about the touchbar and the USB-C is a mixed blessing but the speed and better display are lovely. So I kept the MBP. That’s a $2,500 expense.

  • I had an iPhone 7 Plus but came to dislike the size over time. I wanted a smaller phone. So I bought the iPhone XS. I’m happy with that purchase.

  • My iPad Mini was just plain old, and slow and unreliable. I waffled about whether to replace it, but finally did, with a sixth-generation iPad non-Pro. I’m happy with the replacement. I use the iPad at LEAST an hour or two a day so it’s not like it’s sitting on a shelf gathering dust.

  • My wife’s purchases are still up in the air. She’s got a 2013 iMac that’s getting flaky. She’s currently using my hand-me-down MacBook Air and waffling about whether she’ll stick with it or push for a newer model. She inherited my iPhone 7 Plus and seems to like that (dodged a bullet there!). She’s thinking about upgrading to an iPad Pro.

All of this is just too much money to spend. Hopefully everything will last many years.

I’m on the subscription upgrade plan for the iPhone. I’m leaning toward not upgrading and just letting the subscription lapse.

I’m starting to wonder whether Apple gear is getting just too expensive for us. Chromebooks and Android are pretty nice.

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No, the trade in price is a lot less and have the accessories also that don’t fit the new one so just left it.

Very very tempted to buy the new iPad Pro, even though my iPad Pro 9.7" is running perfectly fine after 2+ years. What stopped me was the fact that I would need to buy new accessories for it (new Pencil and smart keyboard) and the total price of the whole setup.

Given I bought an iPhone XS recently on impulse when my iPhone 8 Plus was perfectly fine, and also upgraded my Apple Watch to the latest version, not buying the new iPad Pro keeps me disciplined. Can’t help but silently grumble to myself about the state of Apple hardware and accessories pricing these days.

The only reason I would buy the new iPad Pro is if a family member needed an iPad and wanted my hand-me-down 9.7" … At least I wouldn’t have to try to sell the “old” iPad Pro + setup or leave it collecting dust in a drawer.

Oldest device I have now that I use regularly – my 2015 Macbook Pro 15" which I am typing on.

Let’s see the devices I have in current use are:

iPad Air 5th Generation from late 2013 or early 2014 - Current iPad
iPhone 8 I got in December 2017 - Current phone
MacBook Air 13 inch - Mid 2011 - Current Android development system
iMac Intel 21.5-inch, Late 2013 - Current main computer
iMac Intel bought in December 2006 that I use for scanning glass plate negatives for the historical society
iMac G4 from 2003 that I use to play Craftsy classes off the Internet over in my fiber workshop

No real need to get anything new. Currently running Sierra but I do plan to upgrade to High Sierra on my main machines this winter.

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Why is it a support group for not upgrading? Seems to me the support is needed for the compulsive buyers, eh? My guess is that a whole lot of these expensive “upgrades” are done for reasons other than the practical ones. And since these items are tools, why replace a tool that isn’t broken, and still does its job?

EDIT:
We’ve got a 2009 MBP and a mid 2011 27" iMac both simply modded with extra RAM and SSDs (from the era when you could still do that :wink: ) They both run almost constantly and I’d say about 99 and 44/100 % drama-free. They’re both running El Cap 10.11.4.

We also use an iphone 7 and an SE. The SE has been performing the same since day one (I think for two years now?) despite an unplanned water resistance experiment… until someone here fell for Apple’s misleading ios update notification. The battery life is now unpredictable and occasionally bizarrely so. The 7 has been kept on ios 10.3.3 although the battery life has been very slowly degrading since its purchase 13 months ago.

I haven’t considered what will replace these items if and when they are no longer usable - which is the only time we’ll replace them. I hope that decision will come much later than sooner, although I expect that we’ll have to make the decision about the phones sooner than the decision about the computers.

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Consider it like AA, but for Apple addicts rather than alcoholics.

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iPhone 7 - no upgrading b’cos I don’t want face ID… Love fingerprint ID & feel much more controllable (not that I have used face ID - but _feels__more gimmicky - & I appreciate not everyone has @katiefloyd’s experience but as a “not really a power user just trying” person if she can’t make it work, bet I can’t!

iPhone 6s (yeah headphone jack!) and Old MacBook Air (2015?) guy here. I like using things until they wear out. As tempting as it is to buy the latest/greatest I am honest w/myself and am NOT a power user so the bump in spec won’t make much difference to me.

My biggest test was the Series 4 watch. I really thought some of the health features were worth it, but I resisted. I may still get one for Christmas or my birthday but am holding off awhile.

Also thinking about getting the kids an iPad for Christmas. Not the lastest, prob whatever is on Black Friday specials. The Kindle Fires we’ve bought them in the past are garbage and die so fast. I want something they’ll actually use and that lasts.

The basic $329 iPad is a great machine for what you’re describing.