iPad mini iPad mini = back to 512MB of RAM

[urkel]

It's so gross to see fellow consumers make excuses for why we SHOULD get lesser specs. Premium pricing for components two generations old and weve got the same people going around worrying about Apples profit margins.

I'm fine with non-retina but with the incredibly overpriced $100 tiers for 16->32->64MB and iPhone 5 cost breakdowns showing 1GB RAM @ $10 and A6 @ $17 then is this product being crippled for profit or for ensuring an upgrade need on the next generation?

Maybe all these Apple defenders should start worrying about what's best for the consumer for once.

 

[DJinTX]

It's so gross to see fellow consumers make excuses for why we SHOULD get lesser specs. Premium pricing for components two generations old and weve got the same people going around worrying about Apples profit margins.

I'm fine with non-retina but with the incredibly overpriced $100 tiers for 16->32->64MB and iPhone 5 cost breakdowns showing 1GB RAM @ $10 and A6 @ $17 then is this product being crippled for profit or for ensuring an upgrade need on the next generation?

Maybe all these Apple defenders should start worrying about what's best for the consumer for once.

Apple charges a huge premium for RAM, I'll agree there. This is how it has always been. I wish they would change this, but I'm not holding my breath. But in terms of processor choice, let me ask you this...

In my scenario, you are CEO of Apple and have ultimate influence over all matters of marketing and engineering, etc. You have the final word on everything. You are Steve Jobs II (don't get too exctied). Obviously in this role it is your goal is to make Apple hugely successful by balancing great products at the right prices to make customers obsessively happy (addicted), and make the company billions of dollars so that you can eventually use your evil wether machine to hold the world hostage for 1 Million Dollars.

So with all that said, you have come up with a design for the iPad mini, everyone will love it, and the only factor that has yet to be nailed down is what processor you use. So you have prototypes made with the A5, A5X, A6, and A6X to see how each performs and what the sweet spot is.

If in your testing you determined that some of the faster processors in the test produce way too much heat for such a thin device, but also that you were seeing very similar performance across the board, even with the A5, would you also not also opt for the least expensive chip and the one you have tons of sitting in warehouses waiting to be used? I mean if it delivers a good experience and makes people happy, isn't that really the most important factor in making the choice if it keeps both of your CEO goals in reach?

 

[klover]

The amount of misinformation being spread here about the Nexus 7 is pretty shocking, even for an Apple forum. The N7 is an amazing budget tablet with great performance.

I agree. While I dislike a few things about the N7 (namely the screen ratio which I initially thought I could tolerate), it is well-made, solid, and very fast. Browsing is faster than my iPad 3 and the UI is much improved with JB.

I grabbed a 16GB for $209 with a $50 coupon at Staples and couldn't imagine getting more for my dollar.

 

[MNealBarrett]

Even then it makes sense because retina graphics don't have to load so the RAM footprint should be smaller.

In theory, but often not in practice.

With some exceptions, app programmers tend to make one version of their apps, for all iOS models. This means a higher RAM footprint for a typical app compared to before retina hardware started coming out, even on something (like an iPad Mini) that does not have retina.

512MB is not enough, especially for $330.

 

[ThatsMeRight]

I'm one of the people who had RAM issues with my iPad 2. I'm wondering if the smaller screen will make a difference to the amount of memory the mini uses. In other words, will 512 be enough for it while it wasn't for the iPad 2?

Anyone have any clue?

Well, the thing is: the iPad mini might have 1 GB of RAM. It's only a rumour that the iPad mini has 512 MB of RAM.

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I don't see the issue with this.

iOS devices are extremely efficient when it comes to software and operating.

Apple tends to pairs various devices based on the CPU too recently, in case you haven't noticed.

A6 = 1Gb
A5 = 512Mb
A4 = 256Mb

False. There are A4 chips with both 256 MB RAM and 512 MB RAM. There are also A5 chips with both 512 MB RAM and 256 MB RAM.

So it's very well possible there's an A5 chip with 1 GB of RAM.

 

[T4R06]

stop whining, i bet most who commented here pre-ordered a Mini.

 

[Nautilus007]

What if it only had 256 ram it would ****

 

[irDigital0l]

What if it only had 256 ram it would ****

That cant be possible. A5 came with 512MB. A4 came with 256MB.

 

[CaneCollegeboy]

Since were talking about ram, any idea how much ram the ipad 4 will have? 1 GB or 1.5 GB of ram?

 

[MisterDisney]

People still think iOS devices and Android devices should be compared by hardware specs? Also, and I'm not going to bother looking for the number of times it may have been said, but, "back to 512MB?" Back from what? The last iPad mini?

 

[stevelam]

It's certainly not irrelevant when it comes to RAM. Wish I knew more about it when I started buying computers. It would have saved me a ton of money and aggravation. I'd be wary of anything less than 1GB in a tablet these days. You don't have to be a spec whore but you shouldn't be naive either.

Clearly you still don't know anything about ram or tablets.

 

[faiz23]

It amazes me to see the replies and how ridiculous some of the assumptions or facts are. Why do you guys post if you have no clue about chipset, ram, memory and which configuration comes with how much ram. Wow just wow man you make your self look oh so stoopid. Please google your smart reply before you post and make your self look like you have 3.14 brain cells.

 

[kas23]

There also just isn't any significant cost saving associated with for Apple associated with using a lower amount of RAM.

Sure there is. If Apple makes $2 by placing in 512 MB instead of 1 GB of RAM and they sell 20 million iPad Minis, then they just saved themselves $40 million. There's not a corporation on this planet that would scoff at that. Apple becoming the richest company on this planet was not an accident. They are extremely aggressive in minimizing their costs.

Plus, there no point in putting more RAM in their products when the average iDevice owner could not tell you how much RAM is in their device if you asked them.

 

[Angus9541]

Kind of surprised by this but apparently the screen isn't the only retro component (see chart):

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2012/10/apple-joins-the-fray-a-survey-of-the-7-inch-tablet-scene/

Who gives a crap if it works and works well, sure people arnt gonna struggle facebooking and playing angry birds.

 

[nharrietha]

Not sure if I'm going to pick up a Mini to use along with my iPad 2, or pick up a 4th generation iPad. I might just hold out again because of the speculation of a March 2013 release for a retina mini, and oh boy, I'd be pissed if I bought one and they updated that fast.

 

[MisterDisney]

March 2013? I'd be shocked if one came out by March 2014.

 

[jclardy]

This is precisely why I started this thread - I occasionaly use my Mom's Scrabble machine (I mean iPad 1) and when browsing, it's just terrible with the reloads, checkerboards, etc.

iPad 1 has 256MB of RAM, just for reference.

iPad 3/4 needs 1GB for retina display. Display buffers are 4x the size, uncompressed graphics (which is what they become when an app is loaded) require 4x the memory. You don't actually need 4x the RAM though as display graphics are not the only thing loaded into RAM. Application code/data stay the same.

 

[kappaknight]

You're missing part of the argument. It's not that the Mini will be an unusable piece of crap. It's that if current-gen Apple devices are running A6 chips with 1GB of RAM, then so should the Mini. The only thing "mini" about it should be the screen.

There's no way this would happen. The mini is an entry point device when compared to the iPad 4. They wouldn't put top of the line chips in an entry device just like they wouldn't put a quad-core CPU in the entry Mac mini.

As a manufacturer, you have to shave costs somewhere and differentiate between your products.

 

[TallManNY]

Sure there is. If Apple makes $2 by placing in 512 MB instead of 1 GB of RAM and they sell 20 million iPad Minis, then they just saved themselves $40 million. There's not a corporation on this planet that would scoff at that. Apple becoming the richest company on this planet was not an accident. They are extremely aggressive in minimizing their costs.

Plus, there no point in putting more RAM in their products when the average iDevice owner could not tell you how much RAM is in their device if you asked them.

You may be right. However, if Apple were to increase their performance, then get better reviews and word of mount, Apple might sell more. How much do you think Apple's good reviews and word of mount are worth?

In your example, what if Apple spends $2 more for extra ram but sells 1% more? 1% is a very small difference. So if they spend $2 more per iPad Mini that would be $40 million more. But I'm going to suggest that they sell just 1% more iPads and that means 200,000 ipad minis at $329, so that is an additional $65 million. Much more than your $40 million. And I only hand to increase sales by 1% on this little issue.

Of course there are other calculations to do. But seriously there is no reason to skimp on these devices.

 

[as0016]

You may be right. However, if Apple were to increase their performance, then get better reviews and word of mount, Apple might sell more. How much do you think Apple's good reviews and word of mount are worth?

In your example, what if Apple spends $2 more for extra ram but sells 1% more? 1% is a very small difference. So if they spend $2 more per iPad Mini that would be $40 million more. But I'm going to suggest that they sell just 1% more iPads and that means 200,000 ipad minis at $329, so that is an additional $65 million. Much more than your $40 million. And I only hand to increase sales by 1% on this little issue.

Of course there are other calculations to do. But seriously there is no reason to skimp on these devices.

Apple isn't exactly the type of company that needs to rely on word of mouth referrals at this point. A boatload of people will buy it over the other 7" tablets because of the cache associated with the apple brand and the styling, another boatload will buy it over the other devices because they're firmly entrenched in the ios ecosystem and want a small tablet, and some will buy it simply because it suits what they were looking for and apple has some value to them for other reasons (for example - I only buy iphones because of the ease of dealing with problems...if i had some other brand i'd have to mail it back in and then wait to get one back, and they may not be the easiest to deal with - samsung warranty issues come to mind - so the convenience of being able to walk into one of the 5 apple stores near me to deal with a problem is huge).

 

[xofruitcake]

It's so gross to see fellow consumers make excuses for why we SHOULD get lesser specs. Premium pricing for components two generations old and weve got the same people going around worrying about Apples profit margins.

I'm fine with non-retina but with the incredibly overpriced $100 tiers for 16->32->64MB and iPhone 5 cost breakdowns showing 1GB RAM @ $10 and A6 @ $17 then is this product being crippled for profit or for ensuring an upgrade need on the next generation?

Maybe all these Apple defenders should start worrying about what's best for the consumer for once.

And you forget the difference in ecosystems and user experience. When someone buy a computing device like PC, smartphone, and tablet, software define what you can do with the device. The time we spent in learning how to use the devices is part of our investment. The soft mechandise like movie or music that they purchased already is also part of the decision. All their previous investment + what they can do in the future with the device all play a part of the decision process.

Do you know why Nexus is selling at such a low price? That is because not enough people are buying Android tablet. Lack of Android tablet app ecosystem is the problem. So Google has to selling Nexus 7 at a loss. You can look up the tear down analysis on Nexus 7 that is float in the internet and add into the development cost, marketing cost and distribution cost. Once you add up all the cost, you will find out that Google is losing money on every Nexus that they sell. Is there any reason a company has to sell something at a loss if their client is willing to pay more?

Individual are making their decision base on what is best to spend their money. You decide spec is the most important thing. But other base their decision on different parameter. Just because you cannot comprehend their decision process does not make you right.

 

[macingman]

I'm curious why people think a retina screen is possible on this device, even in the future. That would be the same resolution as the full-sized model, and doesn't seem feasible given the a) the size constraints, b) the cost/price limitations and c) that it may pull people away from spending another $170 for a retina screen full-size iPad. What Apple did was genius - the iPad mini's screen is 163 ppi, making it sharper than the iPad 2 that has 132ppi, yet certainly much less than the full-sized iPad's 264ppi retina screen.

How is it "genius"? All they did was shrink the same amount of pixels to a smaller screen creating a higher ppi. Any idiot could do that.

 

[rabidz7]

I would get it if it was ipad 3s aka tweaked new ipad in a 8 inch screen.

 

[reputationZed]

I believe what makes a screen "Retina" is the pixel density, not the resolution, which I believe you're confusing here.

For example, people complain that the iPad 3 isn't as smooth as the 2 because of the "retina graphics," when in actuality, it's the doubled resolution on the 3 that requires more processing power (which is separate from PPI). And on that note, I would argue that it's more the GPU's fault than it is the CPU's or RAM's.

People are sort of forgetting the point anyway. It's pretty much a fact that webpages have to frequently reload when using any iProduct with 512MB of RAM or less. It's annoying. Apple really should've thrown in a 1GB chip with the Mini; if nothing else, then to at least provide a certain degree of "future-proofing."

What was the original slogan for the iPad? Something about "the best way to browse the web"?

I'm not an Apple hater. I love my 4S, I've been having wet dreams about the 5, and my wife has an iPad 3 which I use all the time (and also love). I just think this was a crappy move on Apple's part, putting their leftovers in different packaging and calling it "new."

And what's with the people hating on the Nexus 7? That's a sweet little device. Frankly, I think Google Now is awesome...some definite potential there. Now that I'm completely underwhelmed by the Mini, I'll most likely be picking one up.

How is resolution separate from PPI if the screen size remains constant. If you increase the resolution of a 10" screen you also increase the PPI

 

[kas23]

You may be right. However, if Apple were to increase their performance, then get better reviews and word of mount, Apple might sell more. How much do you think Apple's good reviews and word of mount are worth?

In your example, what if Apple spends $2 more for extra ram but sells 1% more? 1% is a very small difference. So if they spend $2 more per iPad Mini that would be $40 million more. But I'm going to suggest that they sell just 1% more iPads and that means 200,000 ipad minis at $329, so that is an additional $65 million. Much more than your $40 million. And I only hand to increase sales by 1% on this little issue.

Of course there are other calculations to do. But seriously there is no reason to skimp on these devices.

You make very good points. Skimping on RAM could very well bite them in the end. But I'm sure the Apple hype machine could endure it. They weathered the storm when iPads and iPhones only had 512 MB of RAM, I'm sure they could do it again. Besides, they're currently selling iPads and iPhones with 512 MB of RAM without any ill effects. I don't see word of mouth hurting the iPad 2 or iPhone 4/4S sales.

In the end, I have a sinking suspicion that these decisions are not engineering decisions, but rather accounting decisions. Accounting decides what the absolute costs of these products should be and the engineers are told to build the best product they can under budgetary constraints. I really can't see iPhone/iPad designers willingly skimp on components.