There are too many iPads, iPhones and Apple watches

Last week I decided I was going to buy a new iPad.

It is OK wrong with the sixth generation iPad I currently have, but it’s heavier than I’d like. All I want to do is watch my stupid dramas in bed and it hurts less when I hit my forehead while drifting off i sleep It would be nice to have a faster tablet for odd jobs when the iPhone screen is too small and my laptop is too big — especially on vacation. Also, four years is a respectable amount of time to wait when all you want is a slightly faster (and maybe more colorful) version of what you already have.

I looked at Apple’s website. There was a ninth generation iPad and a 10th generation iPad. There was also an iPad Mini and an iPad Air. I’m no pro, but there were two of them — an 11-inch model and a 12.9-inch model. I’m a gadget reviewer. I know a few other gadget reviewers and knew what I wanted from a new iPad. You’d think I could figure this out. But not.

As my colleague Monica Chin aptly said, the new iPad makes no sense. At $449, it’s too expensive to be entry-level — especially when, as my editor Dan Seifert points out in his review, the Air can easily be found on sale. Plus, I don’t buy stupid USB-C to Lightning Pencil adapter just to try and digitize my analog calligraphy hobby. And if I was really that concerned about the price, there was no way I could justify the iPad Pro. Ok whatever. I wanted faster, lighter and much more colorful IPad. That left Air or Mini. I’m currently in my purple era — purple iPhone, purple Beats Fit Pro, purple backpack, purple water bottle, and purple keyboard. A purple Air or Mini would work. Except they’re both more expensive than the 10th-gen iPad, and the price was a big reason I was looking at the entry-level color iPad to begin with. That left the ninth-generation iPad, which at this point didn’t feel like a big enough change from my sixth-generation iPad.

I ended up not buying anything.

I had the same problem when it came time to upgrade my iPhone this year. There were four iPhone 14 models. I hemmed and hemmed. When I finally bought one, I got nostalgic for the days when it was around one iPhone. The only reason I don’t tear my hair out because of three Apple Watches that came out this year is that I reviewed them all. (Also, I’m still doing some additional Ultra testing.)

10 years ago I wouldn’t have had this problem. There were seven iPhones, six iPads, five MacBooks, three Apple Watches, three AirPods and a HomePod in pear wood. (Throw a few Macs in there too). Android and Windows have always had a hell of a lot more choices. The whole appeal of Apple’s portfolio was its simplicity.

You can put almost any product that we [make] at this table. I mean, if you really look at it, we have four iPods. We have two primary iPhones. We have two iPads and several Macs. It is. And we’re arguing and debating like crazy about what we’re going to do, because we know we can only do a few great things. It means not doing a bunch of things that would be really good and really fun.

It’s part of our core principle that we’re only going to do a few things. And we will only do things that we can make a significant contribution to.

This simplicity is why I bothered to switch to Apple products in the first place. I put up with the things I didn’t like because they streamlined my workflow and made my life easier—even though a big part of me cringed at Apple’s rudeness. I didn’t have to do so much research each produce season. The only question I had to ask myself was: should I upgrade or wait another year?

I don’t think Apple will be reducing its catalog anytime soon. That means I’m either getting used to this upgrade calculus or I’m getting to know life as a green balloon. In any case, I’m pretty sure you can’t put every Apple product on one table anymore. But seriously, if it was going to saddle us with six iPad models, would it have killed Apple to make the 10th generation iPad in purple?