Apple announced a bunch of new devices in its keynote event a few days ago including the iPhone 11, the Apple Watch Series 5 and more interesting the 7th generation iPad.

The new 7th gen iPad comes at a very strategic time in Apple’s timeline for the release of its services platform. Apple TV+ starts streaming November 1st with planned Apple original shows like See, the morning show etc at just 4.99 a month, Apple Arcade starts on September 19 at 4.99 a month with a one-month free trial.

The thing is, to use any of these services you need an Apple device and not everybody has that, the reason for which the 7th generation iPad exists.

Signing up for Apple TV+ is a two-step process.

step 1 is getting an Apple device and

step 2 is actually signing up for the service

Apple is going head to head with some of the biggest and already established streaming services out there like the upcoming Disney Plus and Netflix with its Apple TV + service. These two streaming services, for instance, have a whole lot of content which Apple TV+ doesn’t yet have. Netflix’s stranger Things season 3 was watched by 40 million people in just four days. In addition to this fact, you need an Apple device to use the service meanwhile anyone can access Netflix on any device be it a TV, an Android phone, whatever can run the Netflix app.

Apple knows that these two factors, in particular, puts its own streaming services at a great disadvantage and their strategy to overcome this is the 7th gen iPad.

The iPad or tablets generally are the best mobile devices for media consumption. It has a large enough screen while being light enough to be conveniently portable. That is why Apple has chosen to make the iPad the best entry-level Apple device anyone can get. The new iPad has a great screen, iPad OS, 10.2-inch retina display with 3 and a half million pixels, the A10 Bionic processor, smart connector, all features to drive this fact home

The new iPad despite all of its features is priced at a very reasonable $329 and its already being discounted even before it starts shipping. Moreover, with it or any new apple device you buy gets you a full year of Apple TV+ family subscription for free.

This takes away from the two-step sign up process Apple TV+ seems to have. You don’t have to immediately shell out hundreds of dollars for an upfront purchase of an Apple device and also pay for a year of Apple TV+. You just need to buy the cheapest Apple device available and the 7th gen iPad seats at that perfect price point spot for this.

There may be some people who may be interested in the Apple TV+ streaming service but not necessarily on an iPhone or iPad, still for those people, the iPad sounds like a reasonable compromise and I don’t think Apple is going to make these services available for non-Apple devices anytime soon.

Apple’s whole device dynamics is also changing. Their devices are cheaper than they used to be and they are also strategic entry-level devices not particularly built for speed or performance like the 2019 Macbook air which seems to be a disappointment for so many tech enthusiasts, the iPhone 11 and the iPhone XR.