Are you ready to experience the iPad Pro, or Is the costs putting you off exploring this strange new world of large-form tablets? It will cost well over $1,000 for the entry-level 32 GB version of the super sized tablet, the Apple Pencil and the Smart Keyboard. Equipping yourself up with an iPad Pro is not an easy financial choice to make.
Apple does offer you an option for a third-party finance deal to pay up over eighteen months, but that's no different that popping the tablet on your credit card. And why would Apple push customers to take up another company's financing when Cupertino already has a workable option on the table, or did it forget the iPhone Upgrade Program?
This was introduced alongside the iPhone 6S and the iPhone 6S Plus. It is a twenty-four month long payment plan, with the added bonus that after one year you can upgrade to the new iPhone as it comes out. This naturally extends the payment plan out by another twelve months, but gives consumers access to the latest hardware as the payments roll over.
With networks almost exclusively putting high-end handsets on twenty-four month contracts, this helps Apple change that thinking back to a yearly cycle, as well as bringing the consumer closer to Apple and further away from the carrier.
Why not do the same with the iPad Pro?
First of all it addresses the barrier of the high cost. By spreading the payments over two years it's going to be an easier sell. The Upgrade Program would only offer the iPad Pro with the Apple Pencil and the Smart Keyboard, ensuring that the best presentation of the device is offered, and just like the iPhone program it would include Apple Care. That would take the cost to around $1300, or $55 a month.
That's a much easier sell, and because of the inclusion of the peripherals and warranty, a much more profitable deal for Apple.
(Next: Using the Upgrade Program to shorten the product life-cycle...)
The iPad Pro is likely going to receive a hardware upgrade over the next year or two. With an iPad Upgrade Program in place Apple would be able to address the concerns of the longer life-cycle of a tablet and bring consumers into a yearly upgrade path, as opposed to the three or even four years currently being experienced in the tablet industry. It also allows the iPad Pro to be sold with the acknowledgement that the 'better' device will be available to upgrade to in 2016, making it safe to buy into the iPad Pro family right now.
As for any worries about the iPad Pro being 'wrong' for a customer, that could easily be taken care of with an introductory offer that would allow a user to switch to the iPhone 7 or the latest iPad Air that is released in 2016 if the iPad Pro is not suitable. Encouraging people back to the iPad and retaining their confidence would be much more beneficial in the long-term than some of the short-term transition costs for Apple.
It's easy to push the iPad Pro as a niche device, and the high cost of entry and unclear value proposition for the average consumer is not helping. Apple has acknowledged the need to be more-proactive in gathering and retaining customers for the iPhone family of devices. It's time it did the same for the iPad family and in turn use that to increase the turnover of the product line.
