Apple didn’t draw much of a connection yesterday between the new iPad and the Apple Arcade game subscription service, but in the hands-on demos, it had the right idea.
I played Frogger in Toy Town, one of the premiere Apple Arcade games, on the new iPad. It was a lot of fun playing the game on the touchscreen, and it was even more fun with an Xbox controller synced to the iPad’s Bluetooth network.
Pairing the $4.99 a month Apple Arcade service — which will have more than 100 exclusive games when it debuts on September 19 — with the new 10.2-inch iPad would be a good idea. The new iPad is available now for $329, and it replaces a 9.7-inch version.
Education customers can buy it for $299. But gamers ought to be able to get this iPad and the Apple Arcade in some kind of discounted bundle. That would indicate some kind of love between the game side of Apple and the hardware side. Hopefully, that love is there.
Of course, you can play Apple Arcade games on the iPhone, and most players are probably going to play it that way. I also played Sayonara Wild Hearts, another Apple Arcade game, on the iPad with a game controller. Again, it was a good experience, much like playing it on a Nintendo Switch. Or better, considering the Switch’s game controllers aren’t that good.
This 7th-generation iPad is compatible with a full-size keyboard and the Apple Pencil, and it uses an A10 Fusion chip. The enclosure is made from 100% recycled aluminum. It has a 8-megapixel rear camera and a 1.2-megapixel front-facing camera.
It weighs over one pound. It comes with 32 gigabytes of storage and is expandable to 128 gigabytes for an extra $100.
Some competitive merchandising and marketing by Apple might work in this case. They can say they’ve got a discounted iPad with a game controller attachment, bundled with more than 100 games on Apple Arcade. How much would you pay for that? If you put 100 games on a Nintendo Switch, how much would that cost? I think Apple could come out a winner in that competition.