Phil Schiller Defends iPad Mini Pricing Decision

[samcraig]

He has the right to be pissed. He paid a large sum for the supposed 'cutting-edge' product and a month later they release a 'better' product.

No - he paid that for a product that has been out for 7 months. Does he have a right to be pissed. I guess it all depends on when he bought it and whether or not he feels he has enjoyed it/has received value from it.

But there will always be new tech to follow old. If people always waited until the NEXT big thing - they wouldn't get to enjoy the current big thing.

 

[rendevouspoo]

Side by side comparison

 

[scat999999]

When has Apple ever cared about being the lowest price on the block? Why should they start now? Just because Jobs is gone?

 

[cwwilson]

If the iPad mini proves to be faster than the N7, I might look to trade mine in on one. I love the Nexus 7 but the screen is just a bit too small to be a proper tablet and there aren't as many tablet specific apps as I would like to see.

 

[techwhiz]

Android Features

Heinz or Hunt's?



You nailed it. Android has always been 2-3 years ahead. Particularly since the iPhone came out in 2007 and Android was still a year away from release (no doubt busily copying iPhone UI features).

Did Android get screen capture yet?

The best part about Android is the blessing of throwing your device in the trash whenever you want to upgrade to the latest OS version. Awesome!

Those Google guys, they really love you!

Screen capture? Really? More than a year.
Pull down notification along with copy/paste was on Android first.
Did iOS on Phones get BT Pan so you can tether your iPad?
I can tether mine with BT Pan and not pay fees to my Android phone...
Oh, you can, but you must JailBreak.

Anyway, back to the real discussion.
Android has come out with features before iOS. Neither is always ahead or behind.

 

[Anuba]

He has the right to be pissed. He paid a large sum for the supposed 'cutting-edge' product and a month later they release a 'better' product.

Cutting edge? A hi-tech product is cutting edge for like 3 nanoseconds after its release, hence the term edge... it's razor thin. If you buy it 6 months after its release, you KNOW that you're not buying a smoking hot product, it's barely lukewarm at that point. I too bought an "iPad 3" a month ago and I'm not pissed at all. I knew I was very late to the party.

 

[SchneiderMan]

Side by side comparison

Image

You are missing some valuable key differences. The software/user experience, construction, brand support and ecosystem.

Screen capture? Really? More than a year.
Pull down notification along with copy/paste was on Android first.
Did iOS on Phones get BT Pan so you can tether your iPad?
I can tether mine with BT Pan and not pay fees to my Android phone...
Oh, you can, but you must JailBreak.

Anyway, back to the real discussion.
Android has come out with features before iOS. Neither is always ahead or behind.

Let me just say that copy and paste is much easier to use in iOS. It took a while, but Apple did it right from the start.

 

[AppleScruff1]

The difference here is that an iPad is a completely non-essential item. If you don't like the price, you can completely avoid purchasing it. This is not the case with the items you mentioned.

The companies I named are in business to make a profit. Same thing. I've never heard anyone here bragging about how much money their power company made. Or how well their favorite grocery store was doing. But if it's the almighty Apple it's great to get fleeced.

 

[samcraig]

You are missing some valuable key differences. The software/user experience, construction, brand support and ecosystem.

Software and user experience are subjective as is the enjoyment of the ecosystem.

I'm pretty sure both the Nexus and iPad have good quality builds - just from different materials.

Apple has great customer service. Hands down.

But Apple stores aren't as ubiquitous as staples, gamestop, and other places that sell the nexus. So for actually finding/buying one nexus probably has an edge.

 

[madhatter61]

Nexus 7 - higher ppi, NFC, more RAM, quadcore, GPS, $100 less expensive...

Sounds like you should go buy the Nexus ... not try to convince the world that Android driven devices are better ... for some perhaps ... but not even in the same world with 100 million iPads sold to date.

Phil showed an interesting actual screen size comparison with iPad mini vs 7" competitor screens driven by Android. I wouldn't want your device with all the fancy specs that are meaningless unless the software is optimized to enhance performance ... which Apple certainly is.

I don't like the malware that is rampant on Android devices, either.

 

[MacSince1990]

Was going to buy this anyways as money is not a problem for me

Cool story. Wanna buy me a house?

Nexus 7 - higher ppi, NFC, more RAM, quadcore, GPS, $100 less expensive...

And you need a higher-res display, yes? No? You just like the bigger numbers?

'' for RAM

Have you seen how the A6 stacks up against its quad-core competition?

GPS? *facepalm* You can download free GPS apps.

 

[McGiord]

The typed the price with an iPhone 5, originally it was $239.

Missing GPS, no retina? Meh

 

[techwhiz]

Copy/Paste

You are missing some valuable key differences. The software/user experience, construction, brand support and ecosystem.



Let me just say that copy and paste is much easier to use in iOS. It took a while, but Apple did it right from the start.

Since I use both devices I can't really see how one is superior over the other.
They both work, although there are some places in my iPad that won't let me copy/paste where my Android phone will let me.

I'm not bashing but the real discussion is if $329 was too much and my argument is that feature for feature with the Nexus 7 bump due next week that the iPad doesn't hold the value proposition because we will compare to what will be announced next week.

$199 (16GB Nexus 7) vs $329 iPad mini -> 65% premium
$250 (32GB nexus 7) vs $429 iPad mini -> 72% premium

The mini might be worth a 50% premium but not 65-70%.
YMMV.

 

[Jimeny]

The price is fair. It's the lowest entry price for a new iPad.

Apple doesn't race to the bottom on price. They're in business to make money. (And some pretty amazing products.)

Racing to the bottom would have been the same price as competitors... the mini is considerably more expensive than that.

I presume you're a happy shareholder?

 

[techwhiz]

Rampant Malware

Sounds like you should go buy the Nexus ... not try to convince the world that Android driven devices are better ... for some perhaps ... but not even in the same world with 100 million iPads sold to date.

Phil showed an interesting actual screen size comparison with iPad mini vs 7" competitor screens driven by Android. I wouldn't want your device with all the fancy specs that are meaningless unless the software is optimized to enhance performance ... which Apple certainly is.

I don't like the malware that is rampant on Android devices, either.

Rampant malware????
Never had that experience. if you go downloading apps from unknown sources, yes... But you can get the same thing ii you jailbreak an iOS device so the argument is specious at best.

Look, I happen to own both.
I actually like *BOTH*.
Neither is actually better, they are just different.
Given by the fact that my six year old is fully capable of operating and navigating either with ease.

 

[rendevouspoo]

You are missing some valuable key differences. The software/user experience, construction, brand support and ecosystem.

Software/User experience: How, specifically, is it better than the other.
Construction: How is it better than the N7. It has been getting glowing reviews. The rubber-material backing really is a good thing.
Brand support: Again, how is it better? Be specific, please
Ecosystem: What the does this term even mean? It's thrown around more than the word apple around here. You can tie the N7 with anything just as good as an iPad.

 

[Ant.honey]

The price would be fine if it was Retina and had the A6 chip. Right now I just feel cheated. I want the iPad, but smaller and lighter. Why dumb it down and give me only the smallest of price reductions from the current iPad, let alone being priced much higher than the competition?

It's already been said, but the minute someone has to "defend" the pricing, the price is out of line. Nobody would be bitching if it was the current iPad only smaller. As it is, it's last years model but no retina, only smaller. **** that.

 

[flux73]

I'm still a little baffled. I mean it's essentially a 7.9" iPad2...so why can't the iPad2 run Siri but the iPad Mini can?

No one ever said the iPad 2 CAN'T run Siri. Apple simply doesn't want it to, for the same reasons you wouldn't want it to if you were running a business.

----------

I don't find $329 to be "overpriced" for what it is. However, from a marketing perspective, it seems a bit silly not to let go of $30 in order to be at the psychological price point of "under $300".
I'll probably get one for the kids anyway, so they leave my iPad 3 alone.

If you sell a million units, that'll be a $30 million difference to Apple - not so small then.

 

[samcraig]

Ecosystem: What the does this term even mean? It's thrown around more than the word apple around here. You can tie the N7 with anything just as good as an iPad.

People like to throw around # of apps from one market vs the other.

My response is this - it doesn't matter if one has 1 million and another 5 million when it's almost always the case that the apps one mostly uses are available on both platforms.

I have iOS devices and also a Skyrocket - Almost every single app I actually use is available for both. A few apps that I use a few times a year might not be. But so be it. Not do or die. And there are a lot of Apps for the Skyrocket that aren't available (nor could they function) on the iOS platform because of limits.

Both Android and the iOS ecosystem - for most people - are just fine and "equal."

 

[bloggerblog]

If Jobs was still around he would have pushed them to sell it for $299.
Why the odd number!

 

[kdarling]

Side by side comparison

Image

That chart is missing that the Nexus also comes with GPS.

We have to spend another $260 over the Nexus, to get the iPad Mini cellular version to get GPS on it.

 

[Eidorian]

That chart is missing that the Nexus also comes with GPS.

We have to spend another $260 over the Nexus, to get the iPad Mini cellular version to get GPS on it.

GPS is a big deal killer for me. Why is it so hard for Apple? Or do they really want to sell that cellular modem? The premium covers the price of the hardware they might make a few bucks for the upgrade but it is nothing compared to the base hardware's margin.

I would pick up an iPod Touch, but...no GPS!

 

[techwhiz]

iPad Mini has no GPS

Cool story. Wanna buy me a house?



And you need a higher-res display, yes? No? You just like the bigger numbers?

'' for RAM

Have you seen how the A6 stacks up against its quad-core competition?

GPS? *facepalm* You can download free GPS apps.

There is no GPS chip in an iPad mini.
You can download all the apps in the world and that won't change.
The iPad mini will never be a decent GPS unit. The Nexus 7 with offline maps can be.

 

[dampfnudel]

If they put in an A6 CPU, Retina display and maybe start at 32 GB, than $329 isn't so bad, but an A5 and non-Retina display just isn't worth it. Who wants to use a 2 year old CPU? You know all the new games probably won't run on it well for much longer and probably iOS7 or 8 will run slow too, thats if your even lucky to get iOS 7 and 8.

I'm sure next year's iPad mini (maybe 6-8 months from now) will get a retina display, I'm just curious if it will get an A6, A6X or A7. Apple may decide to thwart the current criticism of last year's specs in the 1st gen by bypassing the A6 and upgrading the 2nd gen iPad mini to the A7 family, along with the next iPhone and iPad 5.

At the premium price Apple is charging for the iPad mini, especially if you get the highest capacity where you'll pay close to $550 with tax included, it's a little disconcerting that some games that will come out in the next few months won't run as well on the outdated A5 & 512mb of RAM.

 

[msimpson]

I'm not sure if these comments are serious, or just some trolls posting all kind of ********, but EVERY spec in the iPad mini is far superior to the Kindle HD or any other product in that category.

99% of the comments here are from trolls.

Or people who think they know everything, but are clueless. Really just trolls who have some self-inflated sense of importance. The ones who think Apple really cares that they are going to buy a Kindle instead of an iPad because the price of the iPad is too much.

100M iPads sold already. Millions more iPad minis will be sold and happily used by consumers. A few thousand whiners and trolls on forums who hate Apple. Do you think Apple will change the price for them?