For the most part, has dominated the tablet market – and that probably won’t be changing anytime soon. In recent years, though, I think many people have been struggling to come up with reasons to buy a new iPad – especially when the previous generations have been so good. While this likely isn’t a huge problem quite yet, I do think it raises some questions going forward.

The iPad lineup, with the exception of the redesign, has remained extremely consistent. There’s at $599 with a basic 11-inch LCD display and Touch ID, with a smaller design at $499, and the at $349.

, despite not changing much since its last redesign in 2020, has retained its $599 price point. Meanwhile, it’s only gotten cheaper to buy an older . If you want an M1 or , you can easily , and those will have Face ID, 120Hz, Thunderbolt, better speakers, brighter screens, and so on – all for about the same price as .

The stagnation of the lineup most definitely won’t drive customers to competitors, but I do think it’ll eventually drive people to stop buying new iPads. Either they’ll be happy with their current one and take longer to upgrade (as has been the case for many people who own a 2018-2022 iPad Pro), or if they are buying a new iPad, they’ll be buying an .

With , even the has some harsh competition coming from within. Why would you buy a $349 iPad and a $249 keyboard when you can just get a – with double the storage? It isn’t an apples-to-apples comparison for everyone, but there’s definitely a large amount of overlap there.

Outside of the and (and even then, foldable iPhone will likely steal some appeal from the iPad mini) – it feels like a lot of the iPad lineup is lacking appeal. As stated earlier, the has only gotten chip bumps over the years. It did gain center stage and eventually moved the selfie camera to the landscape orientation, but it’s been incredibly light on upgrades.

could likely use some new features, like 120Hz , more base storage, and Face ID. is probably fine, though the keyboard should almost definitely be cheaper.

If Apple wants its sales to stay consistent, it should probably put a little more effort into making the hardware more appealing, both to new customers and existing ones.

My favorite Apple accessory recommendations:

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