Federico Viticci at MacStories:
The return of the 16 GB iPad 4 marks the company’s official discontinuation of the iPad 2, first introduced in March 2011 and sold until today as the most affordable iPad in Apple’s line-up. The relaunched iPad 4 is the same device that Apple unveiled in October 2012 — it comes with an A6X processor, FaceTime camera, and LTE support, but it replaces the iPad 2′s 30-pin connector with Lightning, making it consistent with the rest of Apple’s iPad family.
The iPad 4 — now named the “iPad with Retina display,” which was the name of the iPad 3 — sits at the $399 price point.
At $299, the non-Retina, A5-powered iPad mini remains. Clearly the A5 is still a player, as the iPhone 4S is also still for sale.
(Granted, the A5X-powered iPad 3 was fairly slow in many regards; the iPad 4 is a much better device on the power end of things.)
On the iPhone front, Apple’s now shipping a 8GB version of the iPhone 5c. Ina Fried at Re/code:
The company on Tuesday started selling an 8GB model of the iPhone 5c in Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Australia and China, with the unlocked device selling for around $70 less than the 16GB model.
“The mid-tier iPhone segment is growing year-over-year and the 8GB model provides a more affordable option for markets where LTE is becoming more established,” an Apple representative told Re/code. The iPhone 5c, unlike the iPhone 4s, which is also still sold, supports LTE networks.
While many nerds consider 8GB way too limiting storage-wise, my guess is that this new model may fair well in certain markets, but not as well as if the iPhone 4S had gone away today.