Apple Cuts 1 TB iPad Pro Prices by $200

MacRumors reports that Apple has quietly dropped the price of its 1 TB 11-inch and 12.9-inch iPad Pro models by $200. The 11-inch model now starts at $1349 (down from $1549) and the 12.9-inch starts at $1549 (down from an eye-watering $1749). They’re still not cheap, but at least they’re more reasonable.

These iPad Pro price cuts are just the latest example of how Apple has recently been adjusting prices down. Most notably, the base-model iPhone 11 is $50 cheaper than last year’s “budget” iPhone XR (see “Apple Announces iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, and iPhone 11 Pro Max,” 10 September 2019), but as Ben Thompson of Stratechery pointed out, Apple cut the iPhone XR’s one-year-out price by $150, not the usual $100, and the iPhone 8’s two-year-out price by another $150 instead of the expected $100. Plus, the company dropped the price of several of the fancier Apple Watch bands by $50 (see “Apple Watch Series 5 Introduces Always-On Display,” 10 September 2019).

Many TidBITS readers have complained that Apple’s prices seem to have been rising across the board in recent years. Given the company’s struggles to maintain growth in the face of slowing iPhone sales, these small cuts may be Apple’s way to test if lower prices will improve sales. Or maybe that’s reading too much into things, and Apple is just passing lower component and materials costs on to customers.

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