On raw performance might, the M4 really does live up to Apple’s promises, should deliver. Single core is up about 20% compared to all M3 chips and more than 40% compared to M2. The generational computational leap from the previous M2 iPad Pro is at least a 42% jump on single-core and multi-core.
Market segregation is worth it for them and the chips will be used in plenty of other hardware anyway, so dumping them in iPads doesn’t hurt, even if it’s mostly just marketing fit the products, nor does it necessitate a product change.
It’s a waste of computing power, though.
I have an M1 MacBook Air and barely ever actually used the CPU. Putting these chips in iPads, which are mostly used for drawing at most, is just a waste, and one of the reasons they’re so incredibly expensive. Apple could have just kept producing M1s and putting those in current iPads.
The reality is, there’s zero innovation in Apple products. The switch to M1 was really great, but everything since then was just “more M is more better”, utility stayed the same, price went up. Awesome.
It’s not a waste at all. The extra computing power allows them to get much better performance than previous model OR the same performance with half the power use. That’s pretty important in a mobile device.
It isn’t a waste if people buy it. Putting M4s in the iPad lets them market it to rubes who think bigger number is better without reading the spec sheet or understanding their own requirements, and if they’re already manufacturing M4s to put in other things, that’s one less production line that needs to run. Sure, they could release an iPad Cheapass Edition with an M1 in it and sell it comfortably at a profit for like $80, but the market for those is likely to be small, they won’t make nearly the overhead profit that the M4 iPad will, it requires an entire extra production line setup, and most importantly it isn’t flashy enough for Apple. They don’t want to release a product that feels cheap, even if it was specifically intended to be cheap. It’s bad brand optics and they care about that a lot. Let China sell a bunch of bootleg tablets to people that want them, they’re gonna do that anyway regardless if Apple gets in the train or not, and this way Apple isn’t tarnishing their product lineup with a PoorPad^TM
I agree completely with your comment.