Any reason why ipad 2 32gb and 64gb is not being sold, less the refurbished ones?

Still showing in the Apple Store UK, which surprises me.

When a manufacturer updates their product, whatever it is, they don't continue to manufacture the previous version, do they?

I would imagine they had several thousand, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of 2's in stock in a warehouse. They may not be making them anymore, but they do have a stock that they are selling off. Once those are gone, weeks, months from now, all you'll be able to get are 3's.

Diocyl wrote:

Then whats the point of stating that ipad 2's price dropping by $100 in comparison to the new ipad's counterparts if they stop producing? Aww...wanted to take this chance to get me an ipad 2 32gb

It's basically the equivalent of a clearance sale. Obviously, the point of stating the price drop is that there WAS a price drop.

Only if you can find one somewhere. But the only iPad2 models I've seen, at least in brick and mortar store, is a 16GB.

Apple has made no announcement or indication that the 16gB iPad is being discontinued. It is being actively marketed alongside the iPad (New). This is the same as the iPhone 4 being actively marketed alongside the iPhone 4S.

Anytime there's a 'new model' the old one goes on sale. That's what most Black Friday sales are....discontinued or soon to be discontinued computers and tv's with a new model coming out later or soon after the first of the year.

They may continue to make 2's for a while, they may not. Apple is notoriously closed mouthed about their plans and speculation is frowned upon here.

They, like every other manufacturer out there, only makes a device for so long, and after they make it, they only support it for so long, then they stop supporting it.

As far as I know you can no longer buy an iPad 1 new, and eventually that'll happen to the 2 as well.

Go for the refurbished ones! You'll save money. I've been buying refurbished equipment from Apple for years. The devices are completely, totally indistinguishable from new except for the packaging. The warranty is exactly the same as new. I save $200 on my MacBook Air a couple of months ago.

1. Upgrades and new releases comes because innovation is required to keep the company alive while it competes with other industry players.

2. Companies need to provide returns to its investors by growing.

3. By selling just the 16GB version of the predecessor (iPad 2) it increases the chances of consumers adopting the newer device. Mass production also creates economies of scale which lowers costs for Apple.

4. By keeping the older version, it gives an option for consumers on a lower marginal propensity to spend to still adopt the device. It's also kept for marketshare reasons.

5. In devices like iDevices, Androids etc with a e-commerce store that's held captive because of proprietary software reasons, increasing marketshare also helps to increase the e-commerce revenue (in this case, iTunes/App Store)

When using iOS itself, you'd also find several structures which are deliberate, for business reasons.

Just some reasons here.

I'm aware of your second link. It is factually an iPad 2. iPad 2,4 marks the 4th hardware revision of iPad 2. What's interesting is that Apple is leveraging on the demand of the iPad's predecessor to "test run" newer technologies like HKMG adopted by Samsung Electronics in the recent years. I'll explain more.

In layman, HKMG essentially allows shrink the die of the processor. By packing the instruction set and everything on a smaller semiconductor, it results in material savings and various other performance benefits with the main one being

• Power savings, as mentioned in the link (I'm already aware too) due to operating efficiency (good use in the future)
• Better thermal management - the natural effect of reducing inefficiencies also leads to less heat production

Bottom line is, this technology is fairly new. Definitely, Apple wants to put newer processors like the A5X or any other future processors on a 32nm architecture because the natural efficiency benefits will help mitigate power consumption issues stronger chips may cause. But, Apple is testing the water by putting this on an already stable iPad 2 running a stable A5, that's why they don't making a "A5 v2" available to iPad 2.

I also have to tell you, it's a true litmus test or water test. The New iPad's A5X runs on 45nm. Which shows they aren't really ready for the technological advancement. Apart from this change, the iPad 2's still an iPad 2. If you haven't considered the iPad 2,4 an iPad 2, you should.

The iPad 2s should still be available. Look around regional Apple sites. I'm seeing them on mine as well.