A few ways: 1) Brand that consumers associate with high-quality consumer goods. (Most Android devices carry the brand of their maker and not Google. Asus is no

A few ways: 1) Brand that consumers associate with high-quality consumer goods. (Most Android devices carry the brand of their maker and not Google. Asus is not widely considered a high-quality brand.) 2) Channel availability. iPad Minis will be in the stores where consumers are shopping. Google has historically done a bad job here. For example: as of this writing, Target doesn't even carry the Nexus 7, but they do carry iPads. Wal-Mart bills the Nexus 7 as "The new $249 tablet from Google", effectively reducing the price differential at the largest U.S. retailer. 3) Apps, apps, apps. Note that Google Play isn't 100% available in many countries where the iTunes app store is available. In the end, both will likely sell tons of units. Note also that Apple is supply-constrained; they typically cannot make iPads fast enough to satisfy demand at their current price points. The corollary of this is that lowering the price would do nothing to increase actual sales, but would simply lead to them earning less money on each sale for no upside. Finally, if Apple follows the template they have been using since the launch of the iPod 11 years ago, the price of the iPad Mini will begin dropping right after the holiday quarter. This will likely coincide with them tightening up production and improving yields. It will also allow them to more effectively use the 100% of production capacity even after the holidays end. They've done this on pretty much every consumer product they've released for the last 10+ years, and I'd be surprised to see the iPad Mini selling for > $299 come March.