Apple launched 2 new iPads at their event on 22nd October 2013. An obvious question that popped in everyone’s mind after the event was why are they still selling the iPad 2 even when its 3 generation behind the current one. Why have they discontinued the (relatively) newer generation models of the iPad and still keeping one that is more than 2 years old? What is more surprising is the fact that it is being sold at the same price as the new iPad mini with the retina display ($399). Considering the much faster specs of the iPad mini and retina display, it is difficult to fathom why anyone would like to buy the iPad 2 at the same price.
The answer is simple: Education & Corporate customers. iPad 2 was a huge success owing to the great response received by the iPad. So much so that many educational, healthcare and corporate institutions jumped up to deploy iPads in their ecosystem. Many government institution also sanctioned iPads in government schools and offices.
Now these bulk orders, especially the ones coming from government organization have a lengthy process before the procurement can be done. Typically, tenders are invited from vendors and then after many approvals, procurement is done. Any change in the product needs to go through the same process again.
This is probably why Apple is keeping the iPad 2 running. There are probably many educational, government and corporate orders running which need iPad 2 to be procured in bulk. Until these contracts are renewed for a newer version of the iPad, Apple will most likely continue selling the iPad 2.
Another set of customers this might cater to is the customers on a tight budget who prefer big screen over any other spec in the device. These customer will most likely prefer to buy the iPad 2 over iPad mini just because of its larger screen because they don’t care about how fast the device runs. They just need the tablet with the largest screen.
