'iPad Mini' Pricing to Begin at Approximately $329

[pgiguere1]

Apple does NOT understand how to price a product that nobody needs.

That's so funny

Apple is the world's richest company and has by far the highest profit margins in its industry, yet you act like they don't know what they do.

I can assure you that Apple has studied every possibility, and they know better than you the perfect price point for optimal profitability. A business if after money, not market share.

 

[KojiH]

I'll have to agree with some of the other posters here.

I think the "low end" may be important in terms of the education market. Especially since Amazon is building in things such as WhisperSync into their Kindle line to allow school systems to more easily manage classrooms full of tablets.

When a parent/school system sees a Kindle Fire HD for $199 vs an iPad Mini for $329 I'm thinking that the price will be a big deciding factor. Who knows, they've had cheaper lower spec edu-only model Macs in the past, perhaps they will do the same for the tablets.

Perhaps Apple is happy to give up this market segment. But then why would they develop and release a mini tablet anyway? In my opinion if they just keep the "older model" at $399 each cycle I think it would still capture the same people who are willing to pay "extra" for a premium tablet experience.

A $249-$279 WiFi, 8-inch, A5 iPad Mini would have decimated the mini tablet competitors. $329 leaves a huge opening for the others to thrive. From experience with my friends and family who bought into the 7" Android mini tablets many are looking to upgrade now. But now they are only interested in upgrading within the same Android family because of the apps that they have already purchased. If Apple would've captured them at the lower end with a sub $300 tablet they would have had a clear upgrade path to the top and would have locked them into the Apple App store/iTunes ecosystem.

I currently have an iPad2 that I use much more than my iPhone5 and I was considering getting a smaller tablet just for "fun".

But at $329 I'll have to pass on the Mini.

I think a Nexus 7 may be in my future! Lets see what all of these Android guys are talking about!

 

[Jensend]

Compared to the updated Nexus 7:

Half the storage
lower resolution screen
$80 more

Pick any two, fine by me.

All three? Tough sell.

 

[CJK]

Too high...

... by at least $30 US. There's a psychological break at going from $299 to $300+, and if true, this is priced on the wrong side of that break. It's not hard to get people to decide to spend $30 or $50 (or even $100) more once they are looking at the base model of a product -- that's how upselling works in retail -- but if customers won't even look at your product in the first place because it's perceived as being priced far higher than competing products, you've lost a customer altogether.

 

[Mr.Habanos]

$329 vs. $299.....so what,

It's always interesting to see so many of you telling the worlds most valuable company how they should run it, and what their price points and profit margins should be! Its only $30,00 X how many millions of units they will sell! Lets be realistic, is 30 bucks really a show stopper for you guys? If it is, go mow a lawn or rake someones leaves and earn the extra $30.00. Just stop whining about it! Now let's sit back and read all of the whining reply's!

 

[camnchar]

High. I use the iPad all the time but only because the size hits a sweat spot.

Ewwwwww

 

[Navdakilla]

Wow. 330$ as the base? I knew we were expecting more than the 199$ that the nexus 7 and kindle fire. but 130$ more?!?! That's too high IMO to take over the sales of the other devices. It'll sell obviously, but people will still be buying the nexus/fire due to price alone.

I was honestly hoping for 250$ starting which would easily take all the sales from the nexus/fire.

 

[Westside guy]

I think people are reading too much into the guesswork "rumors" that are coming out now.

It's only a few days away - let's wait and see what Apple announces, and THEN decide whether the pricing makes sense or not. There's no point in wasting all this energy on righteous indignation when we don't really know ANYTHING.

 

[Rogifan]

I think we can be confident it will have a retina screen.

i hope so but the consensus here (and over at AI) seems to be retina screen impossible, out of the question. I don't completely understand that as Apple seems to be focusing on retina more and more. Wil be interesting to see how they pitch this if it doesn't have retina.

 

[kevink2]

If this is accurate, I don't think I'll be buying a couple as gifts. $460/each for 16GB 4G versions. They would have been gifts, if purchased, for people without smartphone plans.

 

[jaw04005]

$329 is just weird a starting point. The market is going to be pissed if they don't hit that $299 price point.

 

[Thunderbird]

How can there be prices for a device that "is never going to happen"?

 

[Lesser Evets]

$329 is just weird a starting point. The market is going to be pissed if they don't hit that $299 price point.

Why? Are you related to the market? Do you live with the entire market? What's this about?

The market won't care. The market will see "iPad" and "$329" and go "WOW, DAS BEZZER DEN FIVE HUNNERT!" and will buy. I only have to point to every iDevice made for reference on market reaction; there have been non-existent "market is pissed" moments across the last decade relating to iDevices.

 

[HiRez]

Wow, really hope this is wrong. Isn't the whole point of a "mini" iPad to expand market share and not cede ground to Amazon, Google, etc? If it's that much higher than the competition, that's going to be rough and there's going to be a whole lot of people looking for cheap tablets who are not even going to consider one at that point. If it's more expensive but somewhat competitive, Apple can tout its advantages, but this is not even in the same realm.

Plus, the $130 extra for cellular connection and $100 extra for memory have always been scams. You can get away with that for a product costing over $500, but at these lower price points it becomes much more obviously a blatant ripoff.

Not happy about this if true, for one thing I can already tell my AAPL stock is going to get hammered over it (even more than it has been recently).

 

[HiRez]

... by at least $30 US. There's a psychological break at going from $299 to $300+

That 99¢/$99 dollar thing is one of the oldest marketing tricks in the book, and for good reason: because it works. I've got no problem with breaking that model when necessary, but you're putting up a big psychological barrier for a lot of people for that extra $30. Apple can clearly make this "mini" iPad for well under $300 (most estimates have put the bill of materials at under $200), so I don't understand this at all.

 

[Aluminum213]

Yeah but then the tech journalists will just proclaim how the iPad Mini screen sucks and is way overpriced, when you consider the Nexus 7 and Kindle Fire HD have 216 ppi.
I think we can be confident it will have a retina screen.

if they're asking for $329 for the base model, it better have retina

 

[gto55]

329$: at least: 16gb, A6, HD screen

 

[apolloa]

i hope so but the consensus here (and over at AI) seems to be retina screen impossible, out of the question. I don't completely understand that as Apple seems to be focusing on retina more and more. Wil be interesting to see how they pitch this if it doesn't have retina.

If Apple did sell a 1024x768 device for $330 then I don't know, I suspect many will still buy it because of the brand and the apps. But it will be poor value.

 

[pugnaciousp]

Well this kind of makes sense. The iPod touch is $200. No way they would price the iPad mini at $250.

 

[Aluminum213]

Well this kind of makes sense. The iPod touch is $200. No way they would price the iPad mini at $250.

the latest ipod touch is $300

 

[KojiH]

Now that I look at the AppleStore online, I think they are actually just going after people who walk into their stores to buy a new iPod Touch at $299 and then right next to it see the new iPad Mini for "only" $30 more...

In my opinion, I don't necessarily think that the two devices serve the same purpose but for parents shopping for their teenager's birthday/christmas present it may be an easy upsell...

I still think they would be better off in the long run by trying to snag some of the Kindle crowd at the ground level to lock them into iOS and the iTunes stores. Because once you start building up an investement in one system it's that much harder to get them to "switch"...

 

[Lancer]

I was hoping for a better price but if they start at 16Gb with Retina then I might buy one, I can link it to my iPhone when out if I need data.

 

[keeponwaitin]

Considering last gen discount of $100, then the good news is next year model update will make the upcoming mini at $229.

 

[krravi]

Once the price crosses the $350.00 line, it's not a mini anymore nor is it a competition to the other 7" tables out there.

Guess I will have to start looking at Nexus and others...

 

[WilliamLondon]

These prices would suggest (not promise) a high resolution screen, which is central to competing in the 7" tablet market when your product is differentiated *not* on price (meaning they don't compete against Amazon, Google and B&N on price but on other product attributes), and that is the device I want very much and I will happily pay these prices if that is what it has.

I am now very optimistic about this product, perhaps I don't have to worry about how to root a Nook HD (which is the alternative product monopolising my interest of late).