[vbezhenar]

IMO this is the first future-proof mobile device from Apple.

Apple has bad habit to install absolutely minimum amounts of RAM into their mobile devices. iPhone had 2 GB RAM when Androids (with similar price) had 8 GB RAM. It means that RAM will be main issue for supporting those devices in the future iOS versions and eventually they'll be dropped, despite extremely powerful CPU and huge storage.

But with 16 GB it won't be the case ever. And, of course, CPU will not significantly progress in the future and certainly will not the limiting factor. So this tablet should easily last for another 10 years (if battery could be replaced with reasonable efforts).

[walterbell]

Agreed, but not worth almost $2K for the 16GB/1TB model. Until Apple un-cripples the iPad Pro, it's better to buy a lower-end iPad + MacBook.

[saagarjha]

My iOS devices with 2 GB of RAM are still going strong today. Actually, I’m responding to you from one running the latest iPadOS 15 beta.