The major factor in this is +price+.
I dont believe the form factor is all that important to people buying a KF or N7 (7 still wont fit in a pocket, its only slightly more portable)
7" won't fit in a pocket, but it will fit in a lady's purse. I have heard that complaint that the ipad is too big from multiple women that I know.
I have "known" several women and have yet to ask their preferred pad size.
Not if you live in a 3rd world country, which is what Brazil is, and where the rumor says it will be manufactured.
The price has to come way down for the iPad to go mainstream there. An iPad mini may be the way to accomplish that.
The major factor in this is +price+.
I don’t believe the form factor is all that important to people buying a KF or N7 (7” still won’t fit in a pocket, it’s only slightly more portable)
7" won't fit in a pocket, but it will fit in a lady's purse. I have heard that complaint that the ipad is too big from multiple women that I know.
I have "known" several women and have yet to ask their preferred pad size.
Please stop babbling nonsense. Brazil is as "third world" as most European countries nowadays, with a ridiculously large middle-class and richer-class consumer market, and an extremely high labor and welfare cost, which makes it impossible to be a sweatshop as happens in China or India.
The country is already the fourth largest market in the world for cars, the sixth for cell phones and the seventh in Internet usage, not to mention that it's the place with the highest C-level salaries in the world.
The only reason Apple devices do not sell MORE over there is because of taxes, which normally more than double the price of such devices (as well as the prices of telecom services, which suffer from at least 40% taxation). If prices in Brazil were the same as in the US, Brazilians would probably have more disposable income to buy more iPads than virtually any other country nowadays.
And just to remind people again: only a handful of people live in the remote Amazon, OK? The US equivalent of that would be Alaska.
I think people lose sight of the fact that Apple makes 33% from all content sold from their App/iTunes stores.
They are on a quest to make the iPad the defacto tablet standard for the entire planet, getting it in the hands of all the people of the world. Driving the price point down further is essential to making that happen, since not all economies are equal.
Not only is this consistent with Steve Jobs' vision of making information accessible to everyone, but that 33% cut of all content is a huge long-term profit center for Apple Inc.
The mini will happen!
Without Steve Jobs, Apple is falling into the rabbit hole.... This company it's supposed to LEAD not to FOLLOW. Let the small tablets fight with each other and keep improving the iPad in it's form factor. Now we are going to have an inconsistent app ecosystem as Android with apps that will look good on that space and others that wont fit. Why Apple?? Why?
+1
I was concerned this would happen.
Apple takes approximately 30% of revenue from iTunes. Their costs related to iTunes equal about .... 30% of revenue. It's a profitless game for them.
http://www.appolicious.com/finance/...asses-600k-apps-1-9-billion-in-revenue-for-q2
"Apple also revealed that iTunes itself dragged in some $1.9 billion in revenue in just the second quarter of 2012. The store sells apps for iOS, as well as music, movies, podcasts and e-books, all of which contributed to the giant take. Apple receives a 30 percent cut of revenue generated by content sold through iTunes, which means that app developers and content makers shared some $1.33 billion in revenue from the digital portal. The leftover $570 million, Apple said, went to iTunes operational costs."
Apple doesnt compete with cheap smartphones, Apple doesnt compete with cheap laptops, Apple won't compete with cheap tablets.
There will be NO iPad Mini.
Just stop posting fake info...
Apple is not a kind of company that pursues markets, it defines and creates markets.
iPad mini just doesn't make any sense.
After 2 years of posting "news" about it you should learn that it's not going to happen.
Get over it!
As I said before, a smaller iPad is as relevant as a 27" inch iPhone.
maybe they should have called the current iPad line, "iPad Pro" and the smaller one just iPad