Well, I think the internet is something to be restricted more than calling people. The internet is where sick depraved people live. With a phone... you can call people. Seriously. Which one could get your kid into worse trouble?
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No way in hell iPad Mini will be $250. Not Even $299. Try $350 or higher...
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Well, I think the internet is something to be restricted more than calling people. The internet is where sick depraved people live. With a phone... you can call people. Seriously. Which one could get your kid into worse trouble?
Many posts have conjectured the Mini starting with 16GB. Doesn't the Kindle Fire start with 8GB?
If Apple needs a low priced model to bring people in, having only 8GB would help. Every little bit would.
I think pricing is what's going to be the big attraction this holiday season, what with all the hard times in the US and around the world.
If Apple needs a low priced model to bring people in, having only 8GB would help. Every little bit would.
I think pricing is what's going to be the big attraction this holiday season, what with all the hard times in the US and around the world.
As someone who's been in through that phase, I think the game had shifted.
Both my kids received iPod Touches as multifunction device - games, watching movies/TV shows on trips, listening to music, etc. At $199 it provided a good entertainment value.
But once an iPad arrived in the house, I noticed the iPod use changed. Nobody wanted to watch video on their phone - they wanted the iPad. Same for games. The only 'plus' the iPod had was lots of storage space for music. If we are on a road trip now, everyone wants 'dibs' on the iPad.
If it's between a $299 32 gig iPod touch with retina and great camera or $299 iPad 16 gig iPad mini without retina and a crappy camera, I think the iPad mini provides a LOT more functionality that the old iPod Touch market covets.
BTW, the other issue that changed the game was introducing 'free on contract/$99' 8gig iPhones. I think those two items, along with a lot of 'hand me down' phones have significantly lowered the age of kids get their first iPhone. 3 years ago it was fairly unusual for a kid at our very middle class HS kid to have an iPhone. Now most of my daughter's classmates all have iPhones and a surprising number of my son's middle school classmates do as well. (BTW, my daughter is already saving her money in hopes there is a $299 iPad mini released this quarter. Her Touch is collecting dust.)
The 'gateway' to the Apple ecosystem is a lot shorter than it used to be.
Indeed, I am pretty sure there are some restrictions placed by the parents there too.
For a lot of parents it wasn't the phone.....it was the $30/month data charge and the 2 year contract. That turned a $200-$300 item to a $900+ item.
(Though the newer data plans and shared data have made it somewhat more cost effective to add a line.)
Amazon has a lot of streaming content making the 8GB device workable. Untether it from wireless and you're extremely limited. 8GB makes no sense for an iPad, mini or otherwise.
I'm not an Apple 'insider' but I know they monitor my posts and have been doing so for years. Why? I'm a human factors wonk with business experience. So while I've been mistaken about ONE Apple innovation 'going South' all my other prognostications have been spot on.
Apple has NEVER decided anything for me, not since my first review of the Macintosh 128K.
Apple cares deeply about it's demographics. How on earth do you think they managed to come up from behind and steal Microsoft's thunder.
The only problem with Apple is that they have become too comfy with their brand equity and that can be very dangerous.
If the iPad mini is to my spec, I will buy it. If it's not, I'll ridicule it.
Simple
Forget about the media. It's all about the Apps. 64Gb is not big enough to fit all my apps on my current iPad.
Some of you need to think outside the box. Apple needs to lower the pricing point enough to stop cheaper Android alternatives from taking more of a foothold. They aren't going to sacrifice profitability, but they will put pricing pressure on the 150-250 dollar range for sure.
They do not care if the iPod touch is 299 or 399 or whatever. This is about the tablet space. People do not buy iPod's to be iPad's, or vice versa. And if they need to cut the iPod touch price to make the SKU's make sense, they will do it.
It would be a big mistake for Apple to focus on making their own pricing lineup make "sense" while leaving no price pressure on Android tablets whatsoever. They will not do this.
They do not care if the iPod touch is 299 or 399 or whatever. This is about the tablet space. People do not buy iPod's to be iPad's, or vice versa. And if they need to cut the iPod touch price to make the SKU's make sense, they will do it.
It would be a big mistake for Apple to focus on making their own pricing lineup make "sense" while leaving no price pressure on Android tablets whatsoever. They will not do this.
In my opinion, the reason all these 7" tables are selling so well is because of the low price point ($199-$249). If Apple wants to play the Apple tax game with the 7" market they are going to fail. I'm sure they will sell some units, but they won't overtake the Nexus or Fire.
I'm waiting to buy a 7" to see Apples price, but if they want more than $300 I'm getting a Nexus. If they start a 7" tablet at $399 I think it's a bit crazy.
I'm waiting to buy a 7" to see Apples price, but if they want more than $300 I'm getting a Nexus. If they start a 7" tablet at $399 I think it's a bit crazy.
Cant see that happening as a full spec touch is $399, a base touch is $299. An Ipod classic is $250. Irrespective of its specs, I can see the entry being somewhere around $400, with the user being given choice between a full spec touch or ipad mini, while being $100 cheaper then an ipad.
From all my years buying Apple products, the one thing I have learned to accept, there is no such thing as a cheap apple product, the mini will be no exception.
Wrong. Full speced iPod touch 5th gen starts at 299$. Base model is now iPod touch 4th gen which starts at 199$. Quite a difference...
I agree with rkuo on this. Apple has dominated the tablet market for the past two years, but that market is changing and Apple will need to change with it if it wishes to remain a player.
I think there is a psycology around $100 that is important to consider. There will always be people who are willing to buy an Apple tablet at $299. But why buy at $299 when I can get two Google Nexus 7 tablets for just $100 more?
Few people who move down market will be willing to come back to Apple. Once people get comfortable with Android tablets, it won't be long before they start looking at Android phones.
The people at Apple are really smart. But the more I think about it, the more I think Apple needs to come in at a starting point of $249 to remain viable in the tablet market.
Then it will fail. Yes, Apple will sell some iPad Minis and I will probably be one of the buyers. But they won't be able to compete in the 7" tablet market if they are above $249 in price.
The iPod Touch and iPod Classic are obsolete technologies. Yes, Apple still sells both. But there are businesses that still sell pagers and buggy whips also.
If they are serious about capturing younger users and the education market, then the price point is everything.
Here, the base iPad 3 is £399 ($640). They just aren't getting a decent foothold in the education market in secondary schools at all at the moment, despite lots of teachers having bought their own device to bring into school. At the last conference I attended, I only spotted one teacher without an iPad when we were taking notes - she joked about how left out she felt.
I've got my network manager to install some Apple TVs around school, so teachers can use their iOS devices with their whiteboards. I do have some money to buy a number of devices, but it has to come in at £250 or below to make it viable for schools to buy them in larger numbers/'class sets' of 30.
Here, the base iPad 3 is £399 ($640). They just aren't getting a decent foothold in the education market in secondary schools at all at the moment, despite lots of teachers having bought their own device to bring into school. At the last conference I attended, I only spotted one teacher without an iPad when we were taking notes - she joked about how left out she felt.
I've got my network manager to install some Apple TVs around school, so teachers can use their iOS devices with their whiteboards. I do have some money to buy a number of devices, but it has to come in at £250 or below to make it viable for schools to buy them in larger numbers/'class sets' of 30.
I'll give you that the iPod classic is obsolete; it also hasn't been updated in, oh what is it, at least three years? The iPod touch, on the other hand, just received a significant update. I don't think you can paint the classic and touch with the same stroke like that.
Very true. I also think there is a mythology around iTunes and the App store that Apple has to be VERY careful to protect.
A lot of people post about the Apple 'ecosystem' and deeply they are entrenched in it. For music this makes sense. A lot of people invested hundreds/thousands of dollars in their music collection and worry about not being able to use it. (This ignores the fact that DRM free iTunes purchases can be transferred - but the myth is pervasive.)
But when it comes to a tablet, a lot of the most popular items are the same regardless of platform. If you want to surf the net, watch YouTube, check your personal email, use bankings apps, social media apps or use netflix, Hulu or other video consumption devices.....there isn't an inherent advantage to using iTunes.
If Apple expects customers to pay double the price for a device, they run a real risk of people trying an alternate solution. And maybe be pretty darn satisfied with what they find.
Apple dodged a bullet when the original Kindle came out half baked. But the devices coming out now are much improved. The Nexus is a very nice little tablet and is only going to get better. Samsung and Amazon are putting out improved items as well.
It's one thing to speculate on whether the iPad mini exists or what the feature set/cost will likely be, quite another to speculate on Apple's success in its introduction.
It's a safe bet that Apple will not try to compete with $200 devices by releasing a $400 device. That doesn't mean they won't release a smaller iPad with a focused market strategy.
Fighting in the gutter in a profitless zone is not a winning business plan (see, for example, the $399 computer and netbook wars). Releasing something at a reduced spec just to hit a competing price point is not how Apple does business.
Apple's true Goal:
Kill the Kindle Fire and other similar devices. $199-$250 does that (based on specs of course). They don't need to make a boat load off of it, and really the R&D has already been done. Their entry costs are less.
Coachingguy
Kill the Kindle Fire and other similar devices. $199-$250 does that (based on specs of course). They don't need to make a boat load off of it, and really the R&D has already been done. Their entry costs are less.
Coachingguy
I take it you never listen to Apple earning conference call where management review their quarterly performance? Apple is in the business of making money. The worst gross margin product they make now is Ipad3 and it is in the 30%+ range while Iphone is in the 60+% range. When you run a business, you have to make your line of product make sense to your customers, otherwise one part of the product will just gathering dust on the shelf while the other part of product line sell a lot but make very little money.. Overall, add up to a lousy business plan... I don't think Apple management is that dumb..
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And what will Apple do as an encore next year? once you lower the price point, you cannot bring it back up. It is easy to say kill the Kindle Fire and Nexus 7, but the same price cutting action will also kill all future tablet profit..Why should Apple do that?
You can't compare the 8GB Nexus 7 to a 8GB iPad mini. The Nexus 7 has USB On The Go which allows you to connect a microSD card (via usb adaptor) or usb drive to instantly expand your storage. Plus, 6GB doesn't leave much space for apps, movies, tv shows, games, etc.
but maybe, just maybe - the threat of downstream competition will let Apple settle for 20%-25% profits instead of 30%-60%.
As a consumer, that's the absolute best thing that could happen. True legitimate compition results in more innovation and lower prices.
I agree it's a slippery slope. They can't price it as a loss leader. There are a lot of 'casual' tablet customers who don't care about Retina, 64 gig or the chipset. If it's too good, it'll canabalize the more profitable end of the spectrum.
The trick for Apple is to find the sweet spot that maximizes sales, still has a bit of profit and leaves users wanting a more profitable part of the product lineup. (Like when they started selling the 'free on contract iPhones. They essentially discounted it $200 since it was fully subsidized by the carrier. The specs were a meager 8gig that were quickly outgrown by most users who I'd bet anything will buy a 16/32 gig device at the end of their contract.)
That will most likely be a device with technical specs that dissapoint the hardcore tech crowd.....but will still be enough for mom to buy one for little Kaitlyn or Connor's Christmas present.