Is the apple care for the new iPad worth getting?

I got the Applecare+ and know in my old house under renovation, toss the tablet into the knitting bag and go, drop the bag on the floor and feed the dog life I need it.

Have a Toshiba Thrive, less than 1 year old, lives in a very good case, it, in the case hit the floor, slid off the sofa and landed with a corner down, enough to crack the glass, not a big crack, it still works, has a screen saver and am glad of that. So, here, I want that coverage and I have the Apple smart cover here, and a Targus bag for it to go in but I know my life..no kids to blame it on but any device here needs all the help it can get. I never destroy ear buds but I sure don't want to spend $$$ on this Ipad and have it go sliding off the truck seat, the sofa, the dog knocked it off the table....for $99 I get a lot less worry and far more enjoy my Ipad

maggimia, that's now my thinking on this issue, too--but you expressed it all better than I could! My hobby is astronomy and if I ever get into taking the iPad or the iPhone outside in the dark with me, I think it will prove invaluable! Thanks for the post and insights!

I buy AppleCare for MacBooks and I have found it worth it. (e.g. my keyboard started to die around the holidays on my 2.5 year old MacBook.)

But since this new AppleCare+ only adds an additional year, I do not think it is worth it, unless you think you might have accidental damage. My AmEx card doubles the manufacturer's warranty up to a year, so I just used that to purchase the iPad as I tend not to be an accidental damage type of person.

If you plan on keeping the iPad for at least 2 years, the AppleCare extended warranty extends the standard one year warranty by an additional year.

If not and there is a hardware failure after one year that would be covered under the warranty, you will have to pay for the repair out of pocket with a 3rd party, or Apple offers an out of warranty or not covered under the warranty "repair" price which pays for an exchange at a discounted price off the full retail sales price.

That is really only something you can decide. It is an extended warranty - do you generally feel such warranties are worth paying for? Do you normally or always buy extended warranties on items.

Everyone has their own school of thought about them, based on their own experience and their own financial viewpoint, so only you can decide if such a thing is "worth it" to you.

As mentioned Apple Care extends the warranty period an extra year, but Apple Care + is going to be available for the new iPad. AC+ is new. The first iOS device for which it was available was the iPhone 4S. AC+ is only available for purchase during the first 30 days after buying the new iPad. If you do not order AC+ with the purchase of the new iPad you have to take the iPad to an Apple Store and have it inspected by an Apple Genius to add the coverage during the 30 period. AC+ adds accidental damage insurance to your iPad which will fully replace your iPad after accidental damage up to two times, with a US$49 fee.

Apple has not yet announced the price for AC+, but it will be well worth the purchase. AC+ was not available for my iPad 2, so I paid double, once for an extended Apple Care warranty and a second time for damage insurance from SquareTrade.

Dah•veed

KONY 2012

AppleCare Plus for the new iPad is $99.00 USD - available when pre-ordering online to include at the time of purchase.

I declined as I don't buy extended warranties for anything - far better off just paying for those very rare times when one would have been of benefit. Overall, the considerable majority of the time, I would have been out of pocket for the extended warranty, and never had to use it. Just my opinion and my experience - others will have different views.

The last time I had looked it just said TBA. That is a great price then because I paid about that for the regular Apple Care for my iPad 2 and another $95 for the SquareTrade accident insurance.

Only once has an Apple Care warranty not paid for itself for me. On my iMac it replaced a $600 display twice and on my Mac mini it replaced the $150 Superdrive twice. I shall see with my iPhone and iPad. It was never used on my iPod.

I guess I would add, there are some situations I could consider that the risk of damage makes it worth the out of pocket for the AppleCare+. If you were an engineer or worked construction and would be using the iPad out on work sites and exposed to weather of all kinds, the risk of damage might be high enough to make it worth getting.

Along with your budget, you need to decide how likely are you to need the extra coverage based on your own comfort level, and your own use of the iPad (do you have young kids and are they going to be allowed to handle this iPad? that may be a factor too).

Like Michael, I'm generally not an "extended warranty" guy, as most products tend to die right after even the extended warranty ends. I'd never bought AppleCare before, but I did purchase the AC+ with my iPad (and of course, they billed me for it right away! 🙂). I decided to do it because of the coverage of up to two incidents of accidental damage from handling." Hopefully I'll never have need to use it, but the convenience of having Apple Support and Incidental Damage coverage (with a 49$ fee) made it worth passing on the Squaretrade.

The iPad, even though we're onto the 3rd iteration is still a, relatively, new type of computing/media device that is still in a state of flux and change.

iPad reliability over time seems to be variable. This is based on various discussion forums that discuss issues with iOS devices, in general and iPads, specifically.

I think these new tablet devices still need to shake out some more bugs and flaws.

The technology is still new even though iPhone has been around longer than the iPad.

I had one major event that precipitated having to get a replacement and now, long since after the warranty, I having issues with the screen, itself.

iPad still works, but the screen issue can be annoying at times and, probably, too expensive to fix at this date.

Based on all of this , I opted for the two year AppleCare plan. At least this way, I'll know that I can expect replacements and repaires at no cost for two years and maybe have my iPad stay in peak condition for, at least another year to follow.

IMHO.

I might be against the flow here....

I reckon that if an electronic device is going to have a hardware failure, it will be within the first year, which is covered.

Then again, I'm not a great believer in insurance. Insurances exist to make money, not to hand it out. I am happy to have saved enough money (instead of giving it to any form of insurance company) to pay for any repairs in the less than likely event they will be needed after the first twelve months. Don't get me started on life insurance (with a free Parker Pen). If I hadn't got to my age without my wife having enough cash in hand to burn me and live out her life, I would not sleep nights! 😉

As a rule of thumb, I seldom if ever buy extended warranties Apple or otherwise. Particularly with electronic devices, if there is going to be a manufactures defect, it will show in the first few weeks.

Comparing repair expenditures to the cost of warranties, I'd be out quite a bit of $ with nothing to show for it if I had purchased the warranties.

I typically agree, but not with Apple. I recently had my touch pad stop working on my Macbook Air and I was thrilled with the 48 hr. turnaround time of the Mail-in process. I was happy to have the Apple Care and get this needed repair at no additional cost. I honestly don't know what the touchpad replacement would have cost me had I not had the Apple Care.

I have started getting AppleCare lately and it has saved me many times. I usually don't go for the extended warranty, but decided to get it on My Macbook Pro and just recently had a problem and they fixed it at no charge becasue of my AppleCare. I now get it for everything, because you never know what might happen.