iPad Mini Gets the Siri Treatment, iPad 2 still Left Out
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Yesterday’s big announcement was both predicted and surprising. We finally got our iPad mini. However, we also got the fourth-generation iPad way before we thought we would. Even more surprising is the fact that Apple has wiped their third-generation tablet from existence. Only eight months after its launch, the “New iPad” is now obsolete. Consumers can pre-order the iPad mini and the fourth-generation iPad starting Friday, or buy the iPad 2 from Apple’s online store today.
Even though the iPad 2 is technically the only model of Apple tablet available for purchase at this very moment, it still lacks one important feature that all other iPad models (and the two most recent iPhone models) include, Siri.
Why Apple decided to keep the iPad 2 and toss the third-generation iPad is a mystery, but you’d think they would at least add Siri to the old dog. Presumably, the tech giant wants to keep the iPad 2 around as a “low-cost” model. The now defunct third-generation iPad certainly couldn’t be sold for any cheaper.
It is also possible that Apple wants to keep the iPad 2 because it is practically an identical hardware match for the iPad mini: except the fact that the latter will offer LTE support, improved front/back cameras, and is nearly two inches smaller, it sports the same A5 CPU after all. But if the iPad mini can run Siri, there’s no hardware limitation from getting Siri to work on iPad 2.
Siri is a software program, so it is difficult to imagine why Apple would intentionally choose to exclude the virtual assistant from the iPad 2, other than because they want people to save up for the newest model. If you could buy the second-generation iPad with Siri for $100 cheaper than the current generation iPad, which one would you choose? Is Siri that much of a selling point?
