My guess is that this is the end of the line for the iPad Mini. With the overwhelming success of the 2 devices on either side of the Mini in the lineup (iPad Air/2 and the iPhone 6 Plus), its just a matter of time.
Is it still smart to buy an iPad mini 2? Seems like the best value.
sidenote- I was weirded out by Tim's closure to the keynote. Showing off his watch, and just talking about how everything is amazing and they control hardware and software. I feel like I'm in ground hog day.
I highly doubt it. Not everyone prefers to carry an iPhone 6+ or an iPhone for that matter. However many people may prefer the smaller iPad for reading and such. Tim Cook even mentioned that it has 100% customer satisfaction rating during his Keynote today.My guess is that this is the end of the line for the iPad Mini. With the overwhelming success of the 2 devices on either side of the Mini in the lineup (iPad Air/2 and the iPhone 6 Plus), its just a matter of time.
It's like people completely forget that the first iPad mini came with outdated internals and a horrible display. Then, it got a huge upgrade beyond what anyone expected. And now it's slightly underwhelming again, though nowhere near so as the original was.
I highly doubt it. Not everyone prefers to carry an iPhone 6+ or an iPhone for that matter. However many people may prefer the smaller iPad for reading and such. Tim Cook even mentioned that it has 100% customer satisfaction rating during his Keynote today.
I think the iPad mini is here to stay. It just may not get updated every year...it may be more on a two year upgrade cycle.
Is it still smart to buy an iPad mini 2? Seems like the best value.
If you want the smaller form factor iPad and don't care about touch id or gold color, than yeah.
My guess is that this is the end of the line for the iPad Mini. With the overwhelming success of the 2 devices on either side of the Mini in the lineup (iPad Air/2 and the iPhone 6 Plus), its just a matter of time.
That's a good point, like a tick tock upgrade scheme.
It's a marketing strategy -- show people options that are less attractive than the one they really want you to take.
In this case, they barely touch the iPad Mini this revision, with the hope that many people will upgrade to the Air 2 for more features/functionality. They're also able to continue using older parts for the new Mini 3, increasing its revenue margins (which were somewhat low from what I had heard).
You can already tell it's working -- some folks will hold true to the mantra of "no upgrade, no purchase", but others are saying "well, crap, I guess I have to get the Air 2 now".
I think that may be partially it, but they probably also are slowly diminishing the profile of the iPad mini. The Air sells better and is higher margin and the 6 Plus also sells better and is higher margin. Between these two devices, you really need a good reason to buy the mini 3 instead. I think Apple realizes this.
Seriously, let's just say it. Look at the facts.
No Change
- A7 processor, no A8
- Presumably still 1GB of RAM.
- No mention of display improvements (especially color gamut).
- No form factor or weight improvements.
I think most people don't know the difference between A5 A6 A7 etc etc. It's just a shiny new iPad Mini with the touch id and a new color!
Very true. People on forums like this are in the minority. Most people just see a new iPad Mini, and probably never had the mini 2. Most people don't upgrade just because there is a new model out there. They upgrade when what they have is broken.
Alot of people also assume that 3 is better than 2 so they buy that.
It is better.
Sorry, but Schiller basically blew over the Mini 3. Hit it just hard enough to make the snub obvious. It’s dead, Jim.
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Or anything larger than 32GB storage.
I was surprised by the lack of love apple sent its way. It doesn't make sense to not upgrade the processor. I think they could have improved the resolution and DPI so that it fits nicely inline with the iPhone 6 plus, or provide some other improvements.
Its just odd what they're doing with the iPad line. They're now selling too many models that have too much overlap.