Well, almost anything is better than owning a useless piece of consumer electronics. The argument is about whether this piece of consumer electronics is useless.
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Low Touchscreen Yields Reportedly Contributing to iPad Mini Pricing
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The bulk of iPad Mini panels come from LG and I wouldn't consider them "inferior" to Samsung.
Also, it sounds from reports that Samsung is the one that terminated the contract, not Apple.
A thicker iPad would have cost an additional $5 (so $334), since the iPad Mini's display is evidently $5 cheaper to manufacture than the thicker display used in the iPad 2.
The iPad Mini is looking more and more appealing. Damn you, Apple. Somehow, someway, I always say I'm not going to get it, then I get one.
Resistance is futile.
Aww.. Poor apple. I'm sorry I said the iPad mini was an overpriced smaller version of an iPad 2. This article makes it all better now.
No way. Tablets and phones (and anything portable, for that matter) benefit from being light and thin.
I would gladly pay another $30 extra to make it even thinner and lighter.
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HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
Best guess: I think "2" hangs around only until either a) the Mini proves itself as the hotly demanded iPad < $499 or b) an overstocked situation on the "2" resolves itself through holiday sales. If Apple sees the market accept the Mini as THE choice < $499, "2" will be quietly dropped from the lineup. If Mini struggles, "2" hangs around to appeal to the "I won't pay $499" crowd until- maybe- Mini Take 2.
How can you perfect the manufacturing process without shipping first?
Moreover, that is a non-issue for Apple. They don't have to eat the cost because the customer will. And then, on the next revision, they will bump the specs, keep the price the same, and increase the profit while deluding the customer into making a bargain. And make the 1st gen product look ancient.
So aseptically perfect.
Apple has always been about making their money from the hardware, not the software
The software is what keeps consumers buying the Apple hardware, on average. Want to run OS X in the most optimal way? Get a Mac, pay the 'Apple Tax' Okay with a less than perfect OS X experience, build a Hackintosh and save a few bucks
I am gonna be all over the iPad mini (16GB/LTE/Black), looking forward to getting a Skype account and using it as my new 'cellphone'
That is, until Apple wises up and makes my Dick Tracy watch. Think of a wristwatch that is actually an iPhone nano; just does cellphone calls, plays music & does FaceTime video chatting Okay, also displays Notifications/Reminders/whatnot NOT the full Notification, etc.; but if NOTIFIES you to check your iPad mini/iPad/MacBook/etc for the full details For the music & cellphone/FaceTime audio, it would feed to a BlueTooth headset, because no one really wants a cable draping from their wrist to their head
I think this is one of the reasons Apple crapped on the manufacturers who were making wristwatch bands for the last gen iPod nano, to clear the market for them to bring out a wristwatch cellphone/FaceTime device !
Hey, it could happen ! ;^p
The software is what keeps consumers buying the Apple hardware, on average. Want to run OS X in the most optimal way? Get a Mac, pay the 'Apple Tax' Okay with a less than perfect OS X experience, build a Hackintosh and save a few bucks
I am gonna be all over the iPad mini (16GB/LTE/Black), looking forward to getting a Skype account and using it as my new 'cellphone'
That is, until Apple wises up and makes my Dick Tracy watch. Think of a wristwatch that is actually an iPhone nano; just does cellphone calls, plays music & does FaceTime video chatting Okay, also displays Notifications/Reminders/whatnot NOT the full Notification, etc.; but if NOTIFIES you to check your iPad mini/iPad/MacBook/etc for the full details For the music & cellphone/FaceTime audio, it would feed to a BlueTooth headset, because no one really wants a cable draping from their wrist to their head
I think this is one of the reasons Apple crapped on the manufacturers who were making wristwatch bands for the last gen iPod nano, to clear the market for them to bring out a wristwatch cellphone/FaceTime device !
Hey, it could happen ! ;^p
It will be interesting to see. Not to mention, MBP`s also have the non-retina and retina versions available at the same time. We could also expect iPad mini price to go down once the retina version comes.
As much as they have been wrong, before the iPad 3 was announced, they said that it would be an interim release, with the iPad 4th Generation coming that Fall. Everyone ridiculed them and called BS. Looks like they were right.
To me it seems the 4th Gen iPad is a REPLACEMENT for the 3rd Gen iPad.
The iPad2 is simply the lesser model in a few aspects. and thus cheaper to still make and hang onto.
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
Yes, and didn't they say in the presentation that the 15" is fastest selling or something similar? I wonder if the laptop market has already voted in the retina 15" over the non-retina 15"? Whether yes or no, the 13" retina is probably going to put a lot of heat on the 13" non-retina... even at the high price.
I won't be surprised to see the non-retinas dropped... but probably not until late 2013. Price still dominates for many buyers. If Apple will ever bring retina-screen stuff down toward non-retina price points, it's (probably) over for the latter.
LG's LCD is the world best. LG is also the #1 LCD supplier. They have most of IPS technologies. Samesung makes AMOLED but it has very serious defects; burn-in, low brightness, pentile, and color calibration issues.
Then Apple would be accused of lacking novelty. Anyway, they are being accused right now
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If they can pack a Haswell quad core into a 13in retina next year, I will choose it over the 15in (at the student price)
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If they can pack a Haswell quad core into a 13in retina next year, I will choose it over the 15in (at the student price)
They should be able to sell the iPad mini for less. It's using the old technology from the iPad 2 after all. Does not sound very appealing especially when in Spain it is 326 euros for the 16gb model!
All of a sudden android devices seem more appealing.
All of a sudden android devices seem more appealing.
So I presume you're on MacRumors looking for the next rumor about another useless piece of consumer electronics!
I'd take 1% of that thank you very much...would buy me a few iPad Minis!
Seems like you totally misunderstood the article.
Supplies are constrained. Meaning they just can't make them any faster.
So they're probably all going to sell out, even at a relatively high price. Pricing it lower wouldn't sell any more units since the limitation is production - lower price would sell the same units just less profit.
It makes sense for them, although the problem is longer term when supply catches up to demand. They need to decide whether to lower prices and sell more (and annoying early buyers) or keep the price up at the expense of market share. Although if sales hold up for a few months, they could up the specs (retina?) as a justification for keeping the price up.
What I really don't get is why they didn't just make the base model 32 gigs since storage is dirt cheap anyway, at least it would be more of a justification for a higher price.
PLUS, if they expect there will be shortages at this price, pricing it lower would just mean even bigger shortages (and the bad press that comes with it). It's supply and demand, when supply is lower than demand you can make the price a bit on the high side and bring it down later.
I've been wondering if another reason they priced it at $329 is because next year, when the iPad Mini 2 comes out, the iPad Mini 1G will be dropped down to $229. This would certainly be similar to the current iPad and iPhone model.
Others have commented on this, but I think Apple's full-size lineup make sense. Yeah, it would always be nice if either unit was cheaper, but:
a) Both the CEO and CFO seemed to take a lot of questions on the last two quarterly calls about margins. Tim (and Steve before him) did not want to play this game of selling hardware at manufacturing cost (something other players seem more willing to do). When Apple introduced the pricing of the original iPad, lots of people were surprised and competitors caught off-guard. Perhaps the play for market share in the short term has worked enough warrant some higher markups.
b) I would assume most people would argue the fourth generation iPad (base) is still a good value compared to other things out there. A lot of the complaining comes from a $399 iPad 2, $329 iPad mini, $100 to step up from 16GB to 32GB of storage, etc . . . Maybe Apple was willing to play the lower margin game with the iPad (full size) base models, but not with anything else. So far (iPad mini is untested), that seems to work for customers (growing number) and shareholders (this last month, they have taken a dip, but is anyone will to really bet that the stock will continue downward for long)?
c) I think people who are cost sensitive ($100 is still a lot to certain folks if they consider this a "toy"), who are not very demanding of certain features (Retina, A6X, Siri, better camera, etc), who want the bigger screen, could easily find an iPad 2 at $399 a very good deal. With tax and a smart cover (depending on where you live), it still comes in under $500. For many, that just feels significantly lower than around $600. And if Apple can make higher margins on it, exactly who is it hurting?
Bold assumption, my friend. And having an interest in new gadgets is still compatible with much higher priorities.