Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

AidenShaw

macrumors P6
Feb 8, 2003
18,667
4,676
The Peninsula
Issaacson related a story speaking to Steve's versatility that went something like this: Steve had a pet peacock in his yard, for some reason it bothered the neighbors, who voiced their concern to him. Steve replied that he'd found that he wasn't that fond of it either.

WTF does this have to do with the topic, or anything?
 

zObsidian

macrumors member
Nov 25, 2010
53
0
It's funny that everyone is saying Apple needs to build a 7" iPad to compete in the $199 to $299 market.

I keep thinking about something Jobs once said....

"What we want to do is deliver an increasing level of value to these customers, but there are some customers which we choose not to serve. We don't know how to make a $500 computer that's not a piece of junk; our DNA will not let us do that. We've seen great success by focusing on certain segments of the market and not trying to be everything to everybody, and you can expect us to stick with that winning strategy." - Steve Jobs

Remember this is a company that sales $2199 to $2799 base price laptops that they cannot keep in stock due to demand.

Why would they care about the $199 to $299 market?


I totally agree with what you said, but man... you totally got ripped off on that $2199 base price laptop.


(I think you mean $999) :D
 

CapnJackGig

macrumors 6502a
Jul 17, 2011
572
0
Haha, and now all the Apple fanboys that decided 7 inch tablets were bad because Steve told them to think that have to change their minds too. Hilarious.
 

superman23

macrumors regular
Nov 10, 2011
125
3
Let Apple release it and see what the market has to $ay. I have a feeling it will be successful and may even lead to the 9.7" iPad being discontinued in favor of a larger iPad, maybe 11-12" so there's a bigger size difference between the two.

So maybe in a couple of years, it could be the choice between a 7.85" iPad and an 11" iPad.

you mean take the existing 9.7" iPad and make it taller ;)
 

the8thark

macrumors 601
Apr 18, 2011
4,628
1,735
Or did he? He didn't like the idea of a 7" iPad, but that didn't mean he didn't allow it to be built later on.

Agreed. I'm sure there is probably a smaller iPad in the Apple labs. ANd why this is not on sale right now? Because it just does not work. Even Eddie admitted that web browsing on a smaller tablet is not the best. ANd not the best is something that does not ever make it to an Apple product. (well most times, even Apple have screwed up in the past)

So hence no smaller iPad. And I agree. I do strongly believe not selling a smaller iPad at the current point in time is thew right decision.
 

macUser2007

macrumors 68000
May 30, 2007
1,506
203
Maybe there is a market for 7" tablets, but it's a market in a race to the bottom - there is a 7" Android 4.0 tablet coming at $89 retail. Apple is not great competing in such races.

I have to agree with Jobs, 10" is the minimum for a quality tablet experience. Apple should be pushing larger, to 11"-13", to grab the lucrative business market. Hell, I'd buy the first tablet which has good battery life and a screen which will allow me to read a full size PDF, or Zinio magazine titles, without zooming in and out.

Samsung appears to be be coming out with an 11" Retina Display this month, which may be the first viable competition for the iPad. This is where Apple needs to be, not in the "cheapo" market, where consumers are more concerned with saving a dollar, than with great quality and design.
 

Lancer

macrumors 68020
Jul 22, 2002
2,217
147
Australia
I prefer that Apple looks for new markets and if there is a call for a smaller iPad then so be it, but where does this leave a 4" iPod touch? Could we have a 4", 7" and 10" touch devices in the coming months, each with their own market or is the iPod obsolete with the iPhone?
 

lukarak

macrumors regular
Jul 29, 2011
180
4
Haha, and now all the Apple fanboys that decided 7 inch tablets were bad because Steve told them to think that have to change their minds too. Hilarious.

Well, Apple is the only one that gets to decide what's best for us. And it is never wrong.

On a serious note, it's not just the 7'', but the aspect ratio.

I don't like the 16:9 aspect ratio, and especially not on a 7'' tablet. I have a Galaxy Tab 7'' and it's not that great except for video, but I rarely watch that.

A friend bought an 8'' 4:3 tablet a few months ago, some cheap chinese ****, and it's not all that bad. If Apple's 7'' will be similar, I would consider it.
If they go with 16:9, I'm against it.
 

brentsg

macrumors 68040
Oct 15, 2008
3,578
936
I saw a blog posting on ZDNET the other day saying the race to the bottom in the tablet market is a bad idea. Basically saying its very hard to build a good tablet with decent margins for $199. But now consumers are expecting it and are price sensitive to more expensive devices. Of course it's easier for Google and Amazon when they don't care if they make any money off the hardware. Will be interesting to see how MS prices the surface.

This reminds me of what happened with the HDTV market. At one time there was a good cross section of different display types, all at various levels of quality and price.

The disposable TV vendors suppressed consumer expectations in terms of price. The end result was that the Pioneer's of the world dropped out.
 

faroZ06

macrumors 68040
Apr 3, 2009
3,387
1
But nobody is buying an iPad instead of an iPod Touch, or an iPod Touch instead of an iPad. They have completely different use cases. It's similar to comparing a $129 iPod Nano (8GB) with an iPod Touch (8GB). The prices aren't necessary relative to the cost of manufacturing. You buy an iPod Nano if you want a tiny mp3 player that is of high quality and can clip onto your shirt while running. You buy an iPod Touch if you want a quality mp3 player, but don't necessary need it to be tiny, and don't want to actually buy a smartphone (teens or students). You buy an iPad if you want a big screened device. And with any three of those purchases, you will be buying an extremely high quality product that many believe to be the best experience for that said form factor. So while it may seem a bit odd for an iPod Touch to be $199 (or even $299/$399 in the case of 32GB/64GB) when an 8GB iPad is just $249. But very few will have skipped on the iPod Touch purchase because they could have bought an iPad Mini.

I was just pointing out that Apple would make much less profit on a $250 mini iPad than a $200 iPod touch since the mini iPad has a much bigger screen. They would probably not sell a mini iPad that cheap. It's not a question of market intersection.

----------

And the screen is remarkably sharp - probably because it has the same pixel count as my 13.3" Latitude. It's "retina" to me.

My 1920x1080 20" screen is retina for me at the recommended viewing distance, but I sit a little closer than that. I'm very nearsighted, so I don't think a 3rd gen iPad would be any better for me than an iPad 2.
 
Last edited:

stfwayne

macrumors regular
Apr 10, 2011
217
7
I wish everyone would just shut the **** up about the upcoming iPhone being the downfall of Apple's cutting edge designs.

Steve Jobs APPROVED this before he died. What are you idiots stupid? It was written in about 50 articles that he left a 4-5 year plan for the company.

You think a man as OBSESSED with details would just be like "**** it I am dying and dont care about the next iPhone and the aspect ratio and if its taller instead of wider"

People's stupidity set aside, lets talk money.

The biggest way Apple can kill the market is price and if they don't take advantage of that, then you can say they have lost their edge.

Right now they have a perfectly usable iPad 2 for $400 new, with the new iPad coming in at $500.

That means that they will probably price the iPad Mini at $300 and the new iPod touch for $200. The Nexus Tab is $249, so its not that much of a stretch to price the iPad mini at $300.

However, if Apple really wanted to stick it to Google/Android they would pursue a price war. They easily could price the iPod nano at $100, the iPod touch at $150, the iPad mini at $200, the older gen iPad at $349 (which many stores are selling it for on sale anyways), and the new iPad for $500.

How could Google or any company compete with an iPod touch that starts at $149, or an iPad mini that starts at $199.

Yes maybe Apple would lose money for a few years but they have stockpiles of cash and can use this opportunity to put a death grip on Android tablets in general.

If a customer walks into Best Buy and sees the new iPad mini for $199/$249 aka the SAME PRICE or CHEAPER for the current flavor of the week Android tablet (Nexus $249) he or she would chose the Apple product due to higher quality casing (aluminum vs plastic) and due to the desirability of owning an Apple product. If however the price starts at $299 there are a large amount of customers that will instantly say screw Apple Ill buy the cheaper Android tablet (bc of lack of knowledge and basically bc of the savings no matter how little they are) and save a little bit of money which I can use to buy a case or other accessory. Ill give Google and Android a chance if they are pricing their tablet 50/100 cheaper.

So if we are splitting hairs on price why doesnt Apple once and for all price the damn iPad mini at $199 effectively ending any chance for Android tablet makers to compete. Apple is ordering massive amounts of tablet parts and screens and can easily pull a deal off like this. The Nexus was a marvel due to its price at $249 (many articles stressed the amount of deals that needed to be made to deliver the tablet at this price). If Apple were to match or beat that magical $249 price tag customers would flock to the perceived higher quality device instead of a cheap plastic tablet.

Yes they would lose money short term (easily make it back on iOS purchases) but after a few years it would be stupid on a customers part to buy a shoddy Android tablet when they can have a high quality aluminum Apple iPad mini for the same price or cheaper.

However, this will probably not happen sadly and they will keep the Touch at 200, price the iPad mini at 300, the older gen iPad at 400, and the new iPad at 500 giving customers an easy to follow pricing scheme. Apple should realize that that extra $50 is the difference b/w crushing Android and allowing it to exist (in the tablet market, as Apple has no way of stopping the growth of Android in the cell phone arena)

What do you guys think??
 

Fruit Cake

macrumors 6502a
Mar 31, 2012
597
20
I like myn7 and it's weight etc, but I just can't use it as long as using the iPad. Maybe it's just how I'm used to it or the screen size, but I just can't use it as long without preferring a larger screen. Also the apps on iPad seem better written. Netflix on iPad runs flawlessly, android is a mixed bag, on previous tablets it was slow and stuttered, now it's fast but occasional hiccup still. iPad doesn't do this. Hope they fix it.
 

faroZ06

macrumors 68040
Apr 3, 2009
3,387
1

peterdevries

macrumors 68040
Feb 22, 2008
3,146
1,135
Amsterdam, The Netherlands
I wish everyone would just shut the **** up about the upcoming iPhone being the downfall of Apple's cutting edge designs.

Steve Jobs APPROVED this before he died. What are you idiots stupid? It was written in about 50 articles that he left a 4-5 year plan for the company.

You think a man as OBSESSED with details would just be like "**** it I am dying and dont care about the next iPhone and the aspect ratio and if its taller instead of wider"

People's stupidity set aside, lets talk money.

The biggest way Apple can kill the market is price and if they don't take advantage of that, then you can say they have lost their edge.

Right now they have a perfectly usable iPad 2 for $400 new, with the new iPad coming in at $500.

That means that they will probably price the iPad Mini at $300 and the new iPod touch for $200. The Nexus Tab is $249, so its not that much of a stretch to price the iPad mini at $300.

However, if Apple really wanted to stick it to Google/Android they would pursue a price war. They easily could price the iPod nano at $100, the iPod touch at $150, the iPad mini at $200, the older gen iPad at $349 (which many stores are selling it for on sale anyways), and the new iPad for $500.

How could Google or any company compete with an iPod touch that starts at $149, or an iPad mini that starts at $199.

Yes maybe Apple would lose money for a few years but they have stockpiles of cash and can use this opportunity to put a death grip on Android tablets in general.

If a customer walks into Best Buy and sees the new iPad mini for $199/$249 aka the SAME PRICE or CHEAPER for the current flavor of the week Android tablet (Nexus $249) he or she would chose the Apple product due to higher quality casing (aluminum vs plastic) and due to the desirability of owning an Apple product. If however the price starts at $299 there are a large amount of customers that will instantly say screw Apple Ill buy the cheaper Android tablet (bc of lack of knowledge and basically bc of the savings no matter how little they are) and save a little bit of money which I can use to buy a case or other accessory. Ill give Google and Android a chance if they are pricing their tablet 50/100 cheaper.

So if we are splitting hairs on price why doesnt Apple once and for all price the damn iPad mini at $199 effectively ending any chance for Android tablet makers to compete. Apple is ordering massive amounts of tablet parts and screens and can easily pull a deal off like this. The Nexus was a marvel due to its price at $249 (many articles stressed the amount of deals that needed to be made to deliver the tablet at this price). If Apple were to match or beat that magical $249 price tag customers would flock to the perceived higher quality device instead of a cheap plastic tablet.

Yes they would lose money short term (easily make it back on iOS purchases) but after a few years it would be stupid on a customers part to buy a shoddy Android tablet when they can have a high quality aluminum Apple iPad mini for the same price or cheaper.

However, this will probably not happen sadly and they will keep the Touch at 200, price the iPad mini at 300, the older gen iPad at 400, and the new iPad at 500 giving customers an easy to follow pricing scheme. Apple should realize that that extra $50 is the difference b/w crushing Android and allowing it to exist (in the tablet market, as Apple has no way of stopping the growth of Android in the cell phone arena)

What do you guys think??

We think calling people stupid idiots is a stupid way to start asking us for our opinions...
 

cjbryce

macrumors 6502a
Jun 4, 2008
554
276
London
And it'd also be a better option to give kids, instead of spending +800 dollars on a laptop or computer, they can spend about 200/300 on a tablet, which will full fill pretty much all the basic needs of a child's/teenagers use with tech.

Just see it as adding more sizes to a product that exists, just like we have 13' and 15' inch MacBooks...

This. I can imagine my kids clamouring for an iPad "mini" and, if they're priced right, Santa will probably deliver.

I would also like an iPad "mini" for myself - it'd be an ideal eReader on the train/holidays, universal remote, quick browser/emailer (especially if Apple decided that glossy screens aren't that great for eReaders:)). It'd just be a lot handier than the full size iPad, which I would retain for "power" use.

I see a lot of posts here about Apple cannibalising their own market - I think the chances are that dual purchasers like me would offset any real cannibalisation.
 

admanimal

macrumors 68040
Apr 22, 2005
3,531
2
The best case against an ipad mini in my mind, is that it would cannibalize sales of the existing ipad.

http://www.fool.com/investing/gener...nt-against-apples-ipad-mini.aspx#.UBxylqP4JcY

How in the world is "it will cannibalize sales of an existing product" still a valid argument against anything Apple is rumored to be doing? Apple constantly releases products that eat into sales of their other products. The iPod Mini/Nano cannibalized iPod sales. The Macbook Air cannibalized sales of Macbook Pros. The iPad cannibalized sales of Macs. The iPad Mini will cannibalize sales of the iPad. Apple doesn't care!
 

gnasher729

Suspended
Nov 25, 2005
17,980
5,565
The iPad was actually priced and still is priced to match other top end 10" tablets, Apples iPod Touch starts from $200, the Classic starts from $250, the Nano is $129.
So with that in mind, how would they sell an iPad again for $200 anyway? They would need to scrap the Touch and Classic in essence.

That's a total non sequitur. iPod and iPad are completely unrelated products. Whatever Apple does with iPads has nothing to do with their iPods.


How in the world is "it will cannibalize sales of an existing product" still a valid argument against anything Apple is rumored to be doing? Apple constantly releases products that eat into sales of their other products. The iPod Mini/Nano cannibalized iPod sales. The Macbook Air cannibalized sales of Macbook Pros. The iPad cannibalized sales of Macs. The iPad Mini will cannibalize sales of the iPad. Apple doesn't care!

Apple understands one thing: If you don't cannibalize your products, someone else will. (That's why Kodak is bankrupt. That's why RIM is in trouble).
 

Marx55

macrumors 68000
Jan 1, 2005
1,913
753
Size does matter? Indeed. And weight. Apple should bring a lighter and smaller Mac (whatever form factor of clamshell, slider or tablet; 400 to 600 g and 7-inch or so). Great for Keynote and PowerPoint presentations. The Mac in your pocket. Always.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.