Sorry but apple screwed up! $329. Really?
Why not eat the $100, make it $229, or even $259 and sell a bazillion of them?
"These amazing tablets retail for £599.99 but we're craaaaazy so we sell them to you for just £9.99! That's right, we take a £300 hit on each device! How do we do it?! We make it up with VOLUME!!!"
All joking aside, your comment reminds me of something. It reminds me of the comments made when the iPhone came out. And when the iPod came out. And when the iPad came out. And when the Macbook Air came out...
How many times have we seen this pattern?
1) Apple releases a gorgeous piece of hardware made from excellent materials with amazing fit and finish, integrated into its unbeatable ecosystem, and pits it against cheaper "higher spec'd" competitors.
2) The interwub moans - too expensives! X Product is cheaper and has more megahootz! No rocket launcher? No sale!
3) Critics compete with each other to be the first to point out how Apple has finally lost it.
4) Millions of normal people (not Apple fanboys or deluded sheeple - just regular folk) buy the device and Apple posts record breaking sales and profits.
5) Customer usage stats demonstrate that these customers are using their devices more and for more things than the competitors supposedly superior products. Customer satisfaction scores remain way above the competition.
How often do we have to see this same pattern repeat over and over and over again before people stop making the same basic error in reasoning - price is only one part of the marketing mix. Value is not only dependant on the specs of the product as listed on a sheet of paper.
Honestly, guys - history repeating!
None of this is to say that Apple can't ever fail or make a terrible error. They have and they will again. But, if they do, it won't be because they refuse to compete on price or they refuse to include the latest tech in everything they do. We have seen, time and time again, that those factors are not the key differentiators.