> . $200 Android tablet with a simple enough design works just as well.

I mean, the normal (and I assume best selling) iPad is about 300, and will likely be supported for a lot longer than the Android one (my Air 2 is getting on for 6 years old).

iPad succeeds in these examples because it's a consistent environment with updates.

The problem with the cheap Android tablet is that unless the entire world standardises on a single model of tablet for these purposes you'd have all kinds of quirks around hardware, etc. Updates are also another issue even on premium-priced Android devices, so the cheap one is a lost cause.

I get that, but after all it's not really Apple's choice what their buyers do with their devices. If they overwhelmingly decide the iPad is a nice base for this kind of application, Apple can either embrace that decision and cater to these customers (of which a good part are obviously ready to at least pay more than those $200 for the cheap Android tablet option, probably because of better update support as suggested by that other comment alongside this one) or try to make the device appealing to other target markets that they'd like to be in.

But when those other markets don't really take the bait, at some point it might be a good idea to accept that there is a market, but in a somewhat different place than originally anticipated.

This reminds me time (2013) where I had to choice new Nexus 7 or Ipad Mini 2. They were close in the price, in my country and they were both new. In few years , Nexus stopped getting updated and support but that Ipad mini got even ios 12 and still works well. For me Apple hardware is consistent and reliable that it can work well even more than 5 years.