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iOS 7 Beta Suggests Non-Retina A6-Powered iPad Mini in Development

I'm willing to pay as much as a regular iPad for a retina iPad mini. Until it happens, I'm happy with my iPad 4.
 
entatlrg said:
If Apple didn't plan to include a Retina display in the next iPad mini then it's best they stop the presses now and backtrack. Delay the mini launch if need be until they can include a Retina display. Google one-up'd Apple and Apple can solve the problem because they haven't launched the new mini yet. Who cares if they have inventory or packaging or whatever already made ... with a 150 BILLION in cash they can fix it.

Apple says they make the very best they can for the consumer ... they make great stuff and I'm a fan ... but ... their motto really should be we make the very best we can for the consumer SECOND to ensuring we have insanely high profit margins. If Apple isn't introducing a Retina display in the next iPad mini that's a good example of taking profit over pleasing the consumer.

And, that's a fine line to walk on Apple's behalf ... if they are going to cheap out by not including a Retina display in the mini they're going to loose lots of sales to the Nexus with the better display, (and price). Apple would of been wiser to focus less on profit margin per unit and instead go with a Retina display and enjoy the exploding sales because of it....
Click to expand...

There's more to screen quality than PPI.
 
Useless if Apple does this! The new Nexus 7 kills it, and even the rumoured specs of the next Kindle Fire HD's will destroy it. Apple seriously need to keep in the game, you can't shower your top end tablet with great high res screens and good power, then give your lower end model ancient res screens and low powered processing and expect to ride the name wave, not when the competition utterly bury Apple's device in specs for far less money.
 
Devilstower said:
And again, I don't think this means ANYTHING. A device that runs only iOS7 doesn't need a @2x hook. That's a holdover from 5 & 6 to bridge between retina and non-retina devices.

iOS7 handles things differently. A device that's only iOS7 and later shouldn't need this hook.

That's not to say that Apple is definitely putting out a retina mini or a non-retina mini. It's just that this information means nothing either way.

So... stand down until you get something that means something.
Click to expand...

You are absolutely wrong. Apple did not get rid of the @2x monikers in iOS 7, they only abstracted them so developers don't need to see them. The filenames this post speaks about would definitely have @2x in them if the device had a Retina display, as (still) does every other device with a Retina display.
 
Michael Goff said:
There's more to screen quality than PPI.
Click to expand...

That's just it, the new nexus 7's screen is not only top notch in PPI but has class leading contrast, brightness and view angles as well. And an excellent factory color calibration. Just face it, the iPad mini has one of the worst screens of the name brand tablet mini tablets.
 
I'm still holding out hope that it will be retina. It just seems crazy that they'd release it w/o a retina display. Too crazy for me to believe the rumors.

/fingers crossed
 
Tom359 said:
He says that apple does three things: thinness, battery life, retina screen. However, you can only have two of the three. You can't have retina and great batter life....as least not yet.
Click to expand...

I hear you and agree to a point, but remember the Sharp IGZO display gets retina resolution with a battery life comparable to a typical non retina LCD. So you do get your thinness, battery life, and retina screen.

In 2011, Apple threw a billion dollars at Sharp in order for them to improve their LCD factory. Prototype IGZO displays with an appropriate DPI were being made just prior to the iPad Mini's introduction, so there will be almost a year for Sharp to get from the prototype stage to production stage.

Unfortunately Sharp has been flirting with bankruptcy throughout 2012. So the iPad Mini 2 might be non-retina, not because the technology doesn't exist, but because the company with the technology is having financial problems and can't be trusted as a sole supplier.
 
Daws001 said:
I'm still holding out hope that it will be retina. It just seems crazy that they'd release it w/o a retina display. Too crazy for me to believe the rumors.

/fingers crossed
Click to expand...

Same reason they won't release a 5" iPhone. Apple thinks the fanbase will buy regardless. This time I'm not sure.
 
gmcalpin said:
What hints? I mean, as an illustrator who basically lives in Adobe Illustrator, I'd love for that to be true — it'd mean I actually have a marketable skill for the first time in my life — but I haven't seen much of it.

You can't use SVG natively, so you're tied to raster images = resolution dependence, end of story.

Ditching images for text buttons and simplifying the icons (to be redone as SVG in a future version) are steps towards resolution independence, but it ain't happening in iOS7. No chance.
Click to expand...

Sorry, I mistyped. I mean that iOS7 brings us a step closer by implementing gestures and the redesigned UI which could be redone with vectors in the future. There is no pressing need for resolution independence until the next resolution bump or when a larger iPhone is in the works which won't be for at least a year or more.

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Michael Goff said:
If they do that, then the iPad will only have its size to get sales. It certainly wouldn't have a better screen. They would essentially be crippling their own market, eating their own sales. Right now, the iPad Mini is something that doesn't steal a huge amount of sales because the screen is better.
Click to expand...

Bumping up the Mini's resolution is inevitable and the only way they can do that is with pixel-doubling, hence the higher PPI than the larger iPad. But PPI being higher won't matter since technically you hold the larger iPad further away.

The Mini already eats into the larger iPad's sales. Going retina will of course probably do it even more, but you must be naive to think that Apple can keep the Mini with its low res screen and not lose sales to competitors. Apple doesn't operate in a bubble.

In the end, people will buy the form factor they prefer. While the Mini is the obvious choice for those who want portability, some actually do like a larger screen. It's like you're saying they should've come out with a 13" laptop because it'll erode the sales of the 15".

Sure it'll reduce margin, but I'm willing to bet the Mini's lower price point can make it up by volume of sales.

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ohbrilliance said:
Cack == poo. He's making a poo joke.
Click to expand...

Wow, thanks for clarifying that. My mind... blown. /sarcasm

Both of you should look up what a pun is. You can't just say "pun intended" at random. Pun =/ joke.
 
@2x...

Just remember, Apple is getting rid of the @2x and ~iPad string identifiers in xcode 5 and the iOS 7 SDK in favor of the Images.xcassets Assets Catalog. the lack of @2x does not mean anything anymore.
 
My first response to this was that I don't want to buy an iPad mini unless it goes retina - that would put it a year behind similar tablets in terms of resolution. But it also seems strange to put in only an A6 chip - so if I buy the new iPhone and ipad mini this year, my tablet processor will be a generation behind the one in my phone? It might be sufficient, but why would i want just good enough?

I came to the conclusion that I'd still want the mini even if it's not retina, but only if other improvements are made. I'd want the back camera to be at least 8MP, improved battery life (no higher resolution screen, more efficient processor and iOS7 should make this possible), panorama feature, possibly price-drops.
 
entatlrg said:
If Apple didn't plan to include a Retina display in the next iPad mini then it's best they stop the presses now and backtrack. Delay the mini launch if need be until they can include a Retina display. Google one-up'd Apple and Apple can solve the problem because they haven't launched the new mini yet. Who cares if they have inventory or packaging or whatever already made ... with a 150 BILLION in cash they can fix it.

Apple says they make the very best they can for the consumer ... they make great stuff and I'm a fan ... but ... their motto really should be we make the very best we can for the consumer SECOND to ensuring we have insanely high profit margins. If Apple isn't introducing a Retina display in the next iPad mini that's a good example of taking profit over pleasing the consumer.

And, that's a fine line to walk on Apple's behalf ... if they are going to cheap out by not including a Retina display in the mini they're going to loose lots of sales to the Nexus with the better display, (and price). Apple would of been wiser to focus less on profit margin per unit and instead go with a Retina display and enjoy the exploding sales because of it....
Click to expand...

This post is spot on. A company can be known for its world-leading innovation, or a company can be known for cynically maximizing its profits by releasing obsolete products to a consumer base that is heavily invested in its ecosystem. Either strategy is perfectly legitimate....but let's make sure we call a spade a spade.
 
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