Retina iPad Mini Launch Supplies Set to Be 'Ridiculously Tight' Until Early 2014

bernhard said:

well Apple: it's not a "launch" if you can't buy it...

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quite interesting to see the differences in pricng from country to country, in Austria nobody would care about 200MB as having at least a GB and thousands of minutes voice service per month for about 10USD is standard.

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Lucky

TouchMint.com said:

I really don't understand why they are having such an issue here. Nexus and kindle can do it at pretty much at the same dpi so what's the holdup? I guess apple is a pretty new company and didn't really have the resources to plan for something like this. I feel like every other product the put out is on shortage because of some part that they knew they would need. coincidence or marketing tactic?

I know it takes a lot to make these products and I know they sell more of each than most companies but they either have the worst supply chain manager or they do this on purpose.

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Nexus and Kindle aren't selling in the quantity iPads are.

xofruitcake said:

And did you say the same thing when Nexus 4 was out of stock a few weeks at a time when Google launch the device? Waiting is part of the fun of getting the latest and great hi tech gadget. If you don't like waiting, get last year or a few months old devices and you don't have to wait. In a couple months, 5s will probably be available for walk in purchase. But it wouldn't be the latest devices. Someone else probably has a newer device available at that point.

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What fun? I need a smartphone for work as my 4S was stolen, I'm waiting since months for the device using an old, crappy Android phone in the meantime, so there is no fun involved here.

And no, it's not OK for Android-people to wait for their newest high-tech gadget either.

TouchMint.com said:

I really don't understand why they are having such an issue here. Nexus and kindle can do it at pretty much at the same dpi so what's the holdup? I guess apple is a pretty new company and didn't really have the resources to plan for something like this. I feel like every other product the put out is on shortage because of some part that they knew they would need. coincidence or marketing tactic?

I know it takes a lot to make these products and I know they sell more of each than most companies but they either have the worst supply chain manager or they do this on purpose.

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Apple sells a lot more tablets than their competitors.

NIKKG said:

Its all a game they playing, they know exactly what their doing.

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Creating an artificial shortage is one thing, but what company would deliberately do that in Quarter4 (Apple's Q1), by far the most profitable time of the year? Sorry, your hypothesis makes zero sense.

Chupa Chupa said:

1) Your anecdotal stories are just that, no more. You can't make a rational conclusion by generalizing the entire non-techie population to the experiences you witness w/ your family, friends, or a stranger in a store.

2) There are not enough Apple loving techies in the world to account for even the majority of iPad 3 & 4 sales to date.

3) it's a bit disingenuous to call retina screens "slightly more crisp" [emphasis added]. It's kind if like saying Miami is only slightly warmer than New York City in January. Retina iPads are 2x the dpi of non-Retina models. That's not a minor technical difference.

Yes, some people would rather save $100. But not all are non-techies. Others think $100 for a better screen is a worthy upgrade. Not all of them are techies.

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My wife is the perfect slice of the general audience. If you even walk into an Apple store and sit by the genius bar for 10 minutes you'll see about 20 of her to 1 of me. I check out all my co-workers tech and most of my co-workers still rock the iPhone 4 or 4S. Not the 5 or 5S until they get the upgrade. They don't pay extra for the little things... they're happy with "just the phone" or "just the tablet".

The iPad 3 and 4 have been in the market for nearly 2+ years now. Of course they'll have good marketshare... why don't you look up the iPad 2 sales outright and compare over the last 3 years? Why is Apple still selling the iPad 2? As the article posted in Macrumors stated; it's because it still sells. Why does it still sell? Because people prefer the cheaper model, in general.

As for your #3... that is subjective. After the honeymoon phase from switch up from iPad 2 to 3rd Gen I personally regretted the upgrade as it was so unnecessary. It does NOT help when watching video and while I CAN see the difference it doesn't change anything for me when I read (web or books). I've since dropped down to the iPad Mini, A. for cost and B. I wanted the smaller/lighter tablet... the only iPad I skipped so far has been the iPad 4th Gen.

As for your comparison I'd say the difference is it's more like; is it more Sunny in California or Florida?

Yes, not all people who paid the extra 100 for the upgrade are techies. They're the ones who have the extra income to burn. Basic economics dictates though that there are far more non-wealthy people than there are wealthy. (1% ring a bell?) And with more of one group means more of the bargain hunters.

Think about it this way; What kind of car do you drive? Is it the car you've always wanted to have? Is slower and fuel saving and slow like a Prius or Fast and fuel guzzling like a Ferrari? Two totally different cars and yet I see more of the slower one on the road. Don't people want the power? It's the same with tablets/computers/anything... you get what suits your personal lifestyle and in this economical world there are more people thinking of their wallets than their need to look at something more clearly vs not looking at one at all.

drsoong said:

Maybe check on the numbers of Nexus 7 sold: ca.six million in one year, that's 1.5million per quarter, which is less than 's planned 2 million...



Seriously?

Google: 15 years
Amazon: 19 years*
Apple: 37 years

*older than I thought.

So, yeah, Apple is a pretty new company, especially in the market of tablet business.

Maybe, I missed your irony tags. I that case, my apologies.

-drsoong

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I was not just talking about this tablet this goes back to pretty much every iphone launch including this 5s and last years imac launch as well as how this years macpro launch will go.

You are right demand is quite a bit higher for apple products but its just weird you really dont hear about shortages like this for other giant tech leaders.

As for the last part yea I was just being sarcastic haha.

bernhard said:

What fun? I need a smartphone for work as my 4S was stolen, I'm waiting since months for the device using an old, crappy Android phone in the meantime, so there is no fun involved here.

And no, it's not OK for Android-people to wait for their newest high-tech gadget either.

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heh heh, then you should be like me, my wife stayed up at mid-night + 1 minutes and ordered my gold 5s from ATT and I had the phone since Oct 1. 5c is plentiful and ebay is an option for 5s also. I understand your frustration buy yet this is almost a routine for all high tech mobile gadget roll out. So you can blame the manufacturer for not having adequate supply before they launch or you can blame yourselves for not getting ahead of the queue. I don't see how Apple delay the launch waiting for adequate supply will help you. You are still going to be out of a phone, waiting, and fuming...

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TouchMint.com said:

You are right demand is quite a bit higher for apple products but its just weird you really dont hear about shortages like this for other giant tech leaders.

As for the last part yea I was just being sarcastic haha.

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Which other company can sell a few million mobile device in the launch day? Just think about the logistic of creating so many device within a short period of time. And the double hard part is the newest components tends to have the worst yield. And you throw in the last minute manufacturing problem, you have a problem of building a few million unit for launch day. In 5s case, I though there is a problem of the chemical they use to color the ring around the finger print sensor in the white / gold phone. In mini retina case, it looks to be the yield from the LCD supplier. Delaying launch is an option. But how does it help the users? The few that they can produce now can get to users hand. Launch the product later just make more customer wait.

tongxinshe said:

Yes, you missed that the estimated production capability for the whole quarter would be only 2.2 million, that's a really really low number.

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Estimated by who, some blogger or analyst. Apple certainly didn't give out any numbers.

And the truth may be several times higher.

Nickwell24 said:

As someone who recently sold their iPad Mini to get the Nexus 7 let me share my experiences. Yes Android app store is normally cheaper, the hardware is a fraction of the cost, and the Nexus 7 is capable of everything the iPad is and then some (namely emulators for my purpose).

However, after using an iPad Mini for nearly a year I can say these things:
- The touchscreen in the Nexus 7 is not as precise as you get with a Mini.
- The OS is not as stable, mine reboots at least once a day on heavy use days.
- The apps are not as well written, one example is World Series of Poker, works perfect on iOS - won't run on android.

Just keep those things in consideration before writing off the mini for the nexus. The ecosystem is just one piece of the puzzle. I'll likely keep my Nexus for the emulators but get another iPad to replace the one I sold.

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Thanks for your input!

xofruitcake said:

So you can blame the manufacturer for not having adequate supply before they launch or you can blame yourselves for not getting ahead of the queue. I don't see how Apple delay the launch waiting for adequate supply will help you. You are still going to be out of a phone, waiting, and fuming...

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I'd be glad to hear your advice on how to get ahead of the queue if even the first person to order will have to wait 2-3 weeks.

Fair enough

TouchMint.com said:

I was not just talking about this tablet this goes back to pretty much every iphone launch including this 5s and last years imac launch as well as how this years macpro launch will go.

You are right demand is quite a bit higher for apple products but its just weird you really dont hear about shortages like this for other giant tech leaders.

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It is a bit. With Apple hype comes probably also more Apple scrutiny.

TouchMint.com said:

As for the last part yea I was just being sarcastic haha.

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I am much relieved.

-drsoong

Rogifan said:

My guess is this tablet will be in ample supply.

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I want one of those so badly...Especially when the Surface Pro 2 comes out but the price is ridiculous! Almost $2000 for the 512GB model!