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'iPad Mini' Pricing to Begin at Approximately $329
- mmobile 14y agoCurious about the form and if it gets the thinner bezel as rumored
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- fumar 14y agoI am in the market for a tablet. I have an HP Touchpad running CM9. Im going to Mexico in a few weeks and will give it away to one of my cousins. I have the Nexus 7, iPad, Surface, and the (smaller potential) iPad, as viable options. I also looked into Asus' Transformer line. My Macbook is on its last legs. I purchased an iMac for home use earlier this year. I want to replace the Macbook with something equally as productive. I mainly use it for email and managing customer relations. The Surface Pro entices me, but lacks concrete information. Nexus 7 has a great price, and I like Jelly Bean. It is a little smaller than I would like. The iPad is a solid piece of hardware, but im not the biggest iOS fan. With that said a cheaper tablet, bigger than the Nexus 7 and smaller than the iPad, would be great. I hope the smaller iPad can fill that niche. Then I go back to the Surface... I'm tempted by the ability to load to apps on the same screen. The keyboard integration looks very slick. Too many choices for me. As a consumer, I feel like the tablet market is what I dreamed of as a kid. As a side note, I am unsure if the Surface Pro fits in with the rest of the group. It aims to be more of a "laptop" computing experience with a touch/stylus input method. Which I like, but am skeptical on the practicality of it. I should wait a few more months...
- barrkel 14y agoThe Nexus 7 is very nice. IMO it's a more usable size than the iPad. I'm not sure it should be much bigger.
- kellishaver 14y agoOther than testing, I've barely touched my iPad since getting the Nexus 7.
- Mythbusters 14y agoLack of any details on surface is sad but that is the game that Apple has played for many years. From what I have read about it, it seems the most viable product if you have productivity in mind.
- jevinskie 14y agoIt sounds to me that you need a device that can stand up like a laptop and has a keyboard (either integrated or BT). I have a Transformer 101 with the keyboard dock. The dock is awesome! Extra battery, USB port, and a great way to type long emails! Hardware: great, software not so much. Boot loader access is restricted in my TF101 (Asus provides an unlock tools for later/premium models but not mine) but luckily there is an open source, reversed unlocker letting me run Ubuntu! Ubuntu was a huge hassle to get working but a great dev environment. Asus took a few months with many delays to deliver 4.0. Rumor has it that it won't get 4.1 from Asus. So I would encourage you to look at a newer Transformer tablet with a keyboard but beware about future support. The Surface is almost guaranteed to have great support for a long time given MS's history. Keyboard probably isn't as nice (it's squishy, right?) but much more compact than a Transformer keyboard.
- fumar 14y agoThe Transformer is nice. I held the new one and I like the hardware. I like that the keyboard charges the tablet. Does Ubuntu load side by side or does it over ride Android?
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- tomjen3 14y agoThats too much. The nexus 7 is the same size but only 199.
- enraged_camel 14y agoI don't think $329 is low enough to break into the lower market segment.
- rimantas 14y agoWhy would Apple want to break into the lower market segment? This is their entry to smaller screen market.
- knowtheory 14y agoI don't see how they could possibly justify their iPhone prices if this were the case (which are respectively $649, $749, and $849)
- NathanKP 14y agoI imagine because iPhone is a smaller device it is more expensive to produce.
- jonknee 14y agoThe iPod Touch is even smaller and has almost the same hardware (lacking cellular radios). Apple still is able to make a nice profit selling them at $299 ($450 cheaper than the 32GB iPhone).
- barredo 14y agoMiniaturization is expensive. It would be also 2x-3x more powerful than a iPad mini
- jonknee 14y agoAll iPads are sold unsubsidized, most iPhones are sold subsidized. It's a lot easier to soak the mobile operators than it is the consumer at the store trying to decide if they should buy luxury item.
- nilsbunger 14y agoIn the US, carrier subsidies distort pricing. The iPhone premium is paid by the carrier. For example, AT&T retail iPhone 5 is $649, while retail SG III is $499. But both are $199 to the consumer with a 2-year contract. I have no idea how this works out in other countries... $649 is a lot to pay for a phone when you can buy a galaxy nexus for $349 at retail!
- jdietrich 14y agoBecause Apple set prices for normal human beings, rather than geeks. The clearest example is the iPod Touch vs the iPhone. From a geek's perspective, they are the essentially same product, differing only in the presence or absence of a cellular radio. The iPhone is more than twice the price of the iPod Touch, which is a scandalous mark-up for the addition of what we know to be a relatively inexpensive component. From the perspective of nearly everyone who has actually bought an iPhone, the two devices are completely different - the iPhone is a smartphone, the iPod Touch is just an MP3 player with games. That's why Apple are the most valuable company on earth.
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- denzil_correa 14y agoI hope this is not true. $329 would not cut it, I think $249 would be more like it - definitely not $329.
- TillE 14y agoYeah, anything above $279 would be a huge disappointment. For a very long time, I was convinced that Apple would never do a smaller iPad. What's in it for them? The profit margins will certainly be smaller. Then I realized: if they wanted to completely own the tablet market, they need a cheap option that's competitive with the Kindle Fire and co. $249 gives Apple almost complete dominance in the tablet market. $329 does not.
- rimantas 14y agoApple does not want dominance. Apple wants to make money. They are not Google making money on ads sold. They make money on hardware sold.
- TillE 14y agoBut if that's the case, why make the 7" iPad at all? Like I said, the profit margins will inevitably be lower than on the 10" iPad. Unless it's about dominance, this is a pointless niche product and a waste of time. Look at what Apple's been doing with iPhone pricing for the past few years. If you're in the US, you can now get a "free" iPhone 4. That's absolutely a move to seize the low end of the market, even if they're not making as much per device.
- alexqgb 14y agoA few months ago Tim Cook went on record saying he "wasn't going to leave any price umbrellas". As Ryan Jones (via Forbes) observes, "a price umbrella is the cover that a market leader provides other companies by establishing a premium price for their products. Competitors can enter the market at lower price points and disrupt the leader’s dominance, in Jones words, 'from the bottom up.'" http://www.forbes.com/sites/anthonykosner/2012/07/22/apple-will-sell-a-smaller-ipad-or-be-disrupted-from-the-bottom-up-by-google-and-amazon/ http://www.forbes.com/sites/anthonykosner/2012/07/22/apple-w... Per this logic, $299 seems like the best bet. This is $100 lower than the point where iPad and iPod prices presently converge ($399 for either a 64GB Touch or a 16GB iPad 2). This move would also mean dropping the price of the 64GB Touch to $299 (where the 32GB model currently sits) and dropping the 32 GB to $249, which is where you find the 160 GB iPod classic ($100 above the new nano).
- antoinec 14y agoI was skeptical about the iPad (either you want a phone either you want a computer, but why something between ???)... It turned out well for Apple finally and they have found (or created) a great market. But now we have something between the iPhone and the Ipad ? Seriously.... I hope for them they will find people who will want to buy it (not only because it's a new Apple product of course...), but it's hard to believe, even for these marketing genius.
- heyitsnick 14y agoFwiw, I have an Android Nexus phone and 10.1" Galaxy Tab and found i rarely used it, and phones just aren't big enough for watching video, typing anything but tweets/short SMSs. But I recently picked up a Nexus 7" and i've found a lot more uses for it and i'm using it daily. It's the right form factor for slipping into the pocket to carry around, you can type adequately while standing/sitting (the 10" i found cumbersome), good size for reading most websites, more comfortable to lounge with on the sofa etc. Yeah the price is a lot less but many people who buy Apple products are probably pretty price insensitive, and there is def people who would prefer the smaller size
- recoiledsnake 14y agoAt that price, if you want an iPad, it's easy to justify paying $70 more for the iPad 2(non retina but so is the iPad mini) or the iPad 3 for $170 more. If you want to explore other options, the 9" Kindle Fire HD at $299 or 9" Nook HD at $269, or 7" Nexus 7 are similarly pretty competent. Perhaps Apple is trying to mitigate the cannibalization of the larger iPad, but this does seem expensive.
- Mythbusters 14y agoApple has always proudly sold its products at a premium so I am not surprised. They will market it out with some snappy music and celebrity footage.
- jonknee 14y agoApple's mobile products haven't carried a large premium. Starting with the iPod Apple has used economies of scale and massive purchasing power to stay very competitive (for high-end devices, they're not chasing the bottom of the market).
- Klinky 14y agoI would have to say that 400% over estimated manufacturing cost is quite a bit of cream on top, at least for the iPhone 5.
- dmishe 14y agoSeriosly, production cost again?
- philwelch 14y agoBecause we all know that product development, distribution, and retail are free, right?
- ewillbefull 14y ago
- jpxxx 14y agoThis passes the smell test. All signs are go for Apple to make an extra couple billion dollars this Christmas. The 7" form factor clearly has value to customers over the predominant 10" form factor. Every review of them touches on how much nicer they are to read on and carry around. 7" tablets will be kids first computers, they'll replace the full iPad for lightweight POS installations, they'll be the go-to for portable employee applications, they'll sell into schools like crazy, and they'll make good purse-able travel iPads. Plus there's that media ecosystem, that OS, that app stack, that customer familiarity, and that third party universe. No readily identifiable competitive weaknesses.
- noonespecial 14y agoIf their primary goal with the product is market segmentation, then a price that high is likely a mistake. On the other hand, Apple has a long history of starting with a high price and then creeping it down into the sweet spot (temporal market segmentation?)
- rayiner 14y agoSlightly OT: I tried a Galaxy Note 2 in an AT&T store the other day while the wife was upgrading her iPhone. I can't believe how far Samsung is behind Apple at sales-time polish. The big feature of the Note 2 is the stylus. That's what I wanted to try. So I picked it up and the first screen was this home screen with three buttons. One was for the Notes app. I tapped it, and it took me to an explanatory page about the app. I started scribbling. Nothing. Looked for a "try the app" button. Nothing. Backed out, clicked the "explore this device" button instead. Looked for a notes app on the home screen. Nothing. Clicked "applications". Greeted with 30 apps per screen. On the second page, found a "Notes" app and a "Memo" app. Guessed it was the memo app. Guessed incorrectly, that didn't support the stylus. Finally opened up the Notes app. Scribbled. It was laggy. I can't understand how other companies can keep sucking so much at this when Apple has it figured out. It's just shocking.
- podperson 14y agoWe (me, my wife, two small children) have the original Kindle Fire, a Nexus 7, and two iPads (first generation). We used to have two iPad 2s but we had to return them to former employers. The Nexus 7 and Kindle Fire are only used in desperation, while we basically fight over the iPads. I wanted to like the Nexus 7, but I find it borderline useless for everything including simply browsing the web. (There's a lot to like about the Chrome browser, but it's simply too fiddly to resize text all the time.) Overally, I find the Kindle Fire to be a superior device to the Nexus 7 (which is pretty depressing given the Nexus 7 is a year newer, ostensibly has better hardware, is running a far more modern OS, and was more expensive). I think Apple is going to clean everyone's clocks with the new devices, even if they're a bit expensive. $330 for a really good device is a way better deal than $200 for a piece of junk.
- hollerith 14y agoSince I'm in the process of buying a tablet, I'd welcome elaboration on "it's simply too fiddly to resize text all the time". Do you mean that (like Mobile Safari) Chrome does not reflow text, so that you cannot make the text big enough to read without making the text expand past the edge of the window, so you have to scroll each line of text horizontally?
- protomyth 14y agoFirst, this is a report from 9 to 5 Mac (via macrumors), so their success record isn't exactly golden. I just have a tough time believing they are going to put out a 7" model for a price that is within $70 of the 10" model. Also, $329 is a weird price for Apple. They are very much into $x49 and $x99 prices. I could see $299, but $329 is just odd for a base price. It seems like the speculation that led people to believe the original iPad was going to be $999. It also seems like a serious deviation from the iPod / iPhone strategy.
- protomyth 14y agoWell, I guess I was wrong - $329 it is
- jsz0 14y agoNot sure I buy it. They floated higher prices before the original iPad came out too. I'm still betting on $249. They want the tech media to parrot the 'it's a great value at $249' angle of the story instead of focusing on the 'it's $50 more than this other tablet' angle of it.
- bryanlarsen 14y agoPrediction: iPad Mini will be priced at $249. - Apple has traditionally been willing to eat into their margin a little bit when facing competition & establishing a new market - We know that the Nexus 7 & Fire HD at $200 don't make a profit for Google & Amazon, but they do make a small profit for ASUS & Quanta. - According to rumours the iPad Mini is lower spec'd than the Nexus 7 (1024x768 screen rather than 720p screen), primarily, but it will probably also have less RAM, dual core vs quad core CPU, etc. - Apple gets better prices for their components than their competitors do. - combining the 2 above suggests that a $160 cost base is a reasonable guess. (the BOM would be less than that). - $250 gives a very Apple-like margin of 40% given the above. Apple is having trouble with rumour control. The traditional mechanism to deal with rumours if they can't be squelched at the source is disinformation. Given their supply chain, it's quite difficult to control the hardware rumours, but price rumours seem a lot easier to control with disinformation.