Phil Schiller Defends iPad Mini Pricing Decision

[Ryth]

Now the next generation iPad mini, that will be good.

Agreed.

I almost feel they were like "Hey we have all these left over A5 chips...lets use them up in something"...

Basically, Im just waiting for the Retina one...because after using the iPad 3 and iPhone 4, I can't go back to a normal display on these iOS devices.

 

[GorgonPhone]

No need to price it lower when they are going to sell more than they can make anyway

true and i am predicting we see these at 299 at best buy as soon as the holidays are over

 

[Eidorian]

This is not going to matter as much within the next week.

 

[lilo777]

More like "Forever ungrateful, Phil."
This price point is perfect. People have gotten greedy with the competition selling their products at cost. When you don't have a very compelling product such as the Kindle Fire, or the Nexus 7. Selling it at cost sometimes is the only way to attract buyers.

What's so compelling about Mini? Embarrassingly low resolution screen? Missing GPS? Outdated OS? Overpriced music/video content?

 

[latestmonkey]

While it won't, the best thing for apple consumers would be for the ipad mini to bomb at $329.

 

[phpmaven]

agreed. It is already out-dated with the technology inside as well.

Nonsense. I totally agree with Phil that they made the right pricing decision and I dont see how you can argue with his logic. Apple is never going to try and compete with companies that are selling their devices at or below cost. Sure, they could have decided to undercut everybody else and blow them all out of the water, but that's never been what they are about. If you want a cheap tablet, in more ways than one, go buy a competing product.

 

[Supra Mac]

Seems high... the ipad mini?

Philler Schiller response, "Oh good, I though you were going to ask me about the 13" retina."

 

[Want300]

At 299 people would bitch it wasn't 249.

At 249 people would bitch it wasn't 199.

At 199 people would bitch it wasn't 99.

At 99 people would bitch it wasn't free.

Amazon has an average product. Specs don't mean **** if you can't utilize it. Apple doesn't include the fastest hardware, but the apps that run on their products work great. People who buy based on specs don't know **** anyway. My $300 PC with core i3 runs *most* of the same apps and programs just as fast as someone who spent 1500 on their i7 PC. And very likely the people who have the i7 PC's don't use the 1% of apps that require a faster computer.

LOL +1, yes people will always complain. I know I am guilty from time to time.

I agree with you on all accounts. I have a 32 GB iPad 2 (so not the new iPad 2), and it works just fine. It runs all my apps without issue, I do not mind that it doesn't have a retina display because I haven't really used the new iPad.

My boss has an i7 PC with 16 GB of memory... This I consider a huge waste of money since his tasks on his computer involve email, skype, and microsoft office mainly. While... I am running AutoCAD, Excel, Outlook, and other engineering programs simultaneously on two screens everyday. Yet, I survive with 8 GB of memory without much issue.

 

[RMo]

If $329 was all the cheaper Apple wanted to get with their iPad line, why didn't they just lower the price of the aging iPad 2 by $70? It's absurd to me that $70 is all that separates the iPad 2 from the iPad Mini.

While I was hoping for a lower cost as well, I don't think a $70 difference is that bad--it doesn't have fewer features, it just has a smaller screen (and not even smaller in resolution, just smaller in size, since everyone's comparing it to the $399 iPad 2). Additionally, you get more, like better cameras, and full support of all iOS 6 features (most notably Siri).

Plus the iPod touch is $299, and they need some separation between the two products. While the iPod may also be a bit high, Apple has never been known for low-priced electronics. And remember when we all expected the original iPad to cost more in the first place?

 

[h1r0ll3r]

Apple is charging a premium price for a product stuffed with old technology.

Seriously, a dumb move by Apple. I agree that they shouldn't sell at cost (like Amazon and Google), but Apple had a unique opportunity to effectively close the door on its competitors and it chose not to.

Yeah. But I'm guessing that a lot of the people that will buy the iPad Mini aren't going to care, or even be aware of, the technology inside. All they'll see is "shiny new iPad, NOW MINI SIZED!"

Regardless of all the bitchin and whinin, these things will sell out just like every other Apple iDevice that's come out. Though, $299 seems a little more palatable from the consumer point of view. But, it's Apple after all, so their stuff will always be more.

 

[wolfpackfan]

Personally I have no problem with the price and plan on buying a 16GB black model on the 2nd. I would much rather pay a little more for a quality built product than get some cheap, plastic tablet that runs an OS that I don't even care about. Not sure what all the whining is about. If you don't like the mini, don't buy it. There are plenty of other tablets to choose from now.

 

[MacDann]

Too many choices (overlap) in the ecosystem between iPad, iPad mini, and iPod Touch. Unless you really know the different products or do some serious research on each, it's confusing.

Pricing is a disappointment. While they certainly should not sell at cost or as a loss leader, I believe a sub-$300 price would bring in a lot more new Apple customers.

MacDann

 

[iEvolution]

Your point?????

That its a better deal.

 

[lilo777]

At 299 people would bitch it wasn't 249.

At 249 people would bitch it wasn't 199.

At 199 people would bitch it wasn't 99.

At 99 people would bitch it wasn't free.

Amazon has an average product. Specs don't mean **** if you can't utilize it. Apple doesn't include the fastest hardware, but the apps that run on their products work great. People who buy based on specs don't know **** anyway. My $300 PC with core i3 runs *most* of the same apps and programs just as fast as someone who spent 1500 on their i7 PC. And very likely the people who have the i7 PC's don't use the 1% of apps that require a faster computer.

Please show us any examples of people "bitching" about high Nexus/Kindle prices, would you?

 

[Dorje Sylas]

Actually, the iPad mini is overpriced because the iPod touch is overpriced ($299)

Gotta kinda agree there. Apple's markup on storage is remaining absurd, especially considering it's the bottleneck preventing the Lighting supporting USB3 currently.

Although I will point out that the iPod Touch 5th gen only begins with 32 GB of storage instead of 16. If they weren't trying to sell off the really underpowered (has no GPU) iPod Touch 4th gen it wouldn't look as bad.

 

[Tingler]

Apple just priced it right. Why, you ask.
Think about it, people will rush to buy the iPad mini, as it is a new Apple device at a very low price compared to other iPads. Plus it is a very good built product compared to other competitors.

And when iPad Mini 2 comes out next year with Retina Display, they will keep that at $329 and 1st gen to a lower price of maybe $199 to $239.

iPad mini is a product with decent specs (for what it is/isn't). However, those specs are not worth the $329 price. And, while many will buy the device, I doubt sales will live up to Apple's expectations. Time will tell.

 

[osofast240sx]

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.

$30 x 5 million = a loss of $150 million.

Not going to happen

 

[dinglesurf]

As a consumer in Ireland my only gripe about the price is the conversion rate. $329 should be around €259. But somehow we are getting charged €10 more than in the states at €339 or roughly $449!!!!

 

[sc4rf4c3]

If it is a mini iPad 3, then I wouldn't have a problem with the price. I never had a problem with Apple pricing until now with the iPad mini. I love how people are saying that it has a bigger screen than the Nexus 7, of course it has because it is 7.9" compared to 7".

I remember when auto magazines compared the BMW Z4 to the Nissan 370Z. Most of them stated that the 370Z had a better build quality, better interior, better handling, better sounding engine, faster, and way cheaper than the Z4. But there are still suckers that will buy the Z4 because of the logo.

 

[Yixian]

Unfortunately, this is true. As much as we b1tch and moan, they will come back in January saying this was the "best selling iPad ever" (and it probably will be).

So, no reason for them to undercut themselves. More $$ for the shareholders, I guess.

This tbh, as unfair as the pricing is, it will still dominate the smaller tablet market... It will probably even become ubiquitous, but I wouldn't be surprised if the next gen cuts down to 299.

The bigger disappointment for me is the premium you pay for cellular. All that extra $$$ and nothing more than an antennae; not extra HD space, no SD slot, no anything.

 

[mjtomlin]

Phil Schiller says: "The iPad is far and away the most successful product in its category."

This to me says it all. I enjoy Apple products and really wish them the best. However, this comments speaks to arrogance. Their best explanation for the absurdly high price is 'we are popular', ie: we charge that much because we can.

Is this the beginning of the slope for Apple? We'll see.

Except it's not really a high price. Nexus and Fire are under-priced, because no one is willing to buy any other tablet for much more than that. Remember all the tablets that tried to compete with the iPad at or near the same price. They all failed miserably. The only tablet that did sell, was the Palm tablet fire-sale priced at $99.

And even at those low prices, most people aren't stupid enough to fall victim of an iPad-like experience (unless of course they absolutely hate all things Apple) and would rather have the real thing instead, as history has proven.

 

[Yixian]

As a consumer in Ireland my only gripe about the price is the conversion rate. $329 should be around €259. But somehow we are getting charged €10 more than in the states at €339 or roughly $449!!!!

Same for UK, will be getting a friend to send one over from the States, this was a bad conversion even for Apple.

 

[happydude]

to be fair, the entire market dropped based off rumors of bernanke eventually leaving the fed chair post. apple along with everyone else was hit. a one time drop that seemingly happened coincidentally with the rest of every major stock conglomerated into the whole DJI isn't enough to claim AAPL went down because of the mini.

just as when they release their iphone 5 numbers, their stock will go up, but the market as a whole today is rebounding.

long term vs. random ***** of the day.

$329 is pretty arrogant for a year and a half old processor. They're essentially ceding the entry level market to Google and Amazon.

Which is fine in the short term. But when those people who purchased the Fire or the Nexus 7 want to upgrade to a bigger tablet, will they dump all the apps they've bought for Android and start over with an iPad, or will they feel locked in? I think this question is what made AAPL decline so quickly when the price was announced. Time will tell if the pricing was an actual mistake (a la the original iPhone) or if Apple sells enough Minis to justify the higher cost (a la the original iPod Mini).

 

[lilo777]

As a consumer in Ireland my only gripe about the price is the conversion rate. $329 should be around €259. But somehow we are getting charged €10 more than in the states at €339 or roughly $449!!!!

This has nothing to do with conversion rate. Everything electronics costs more in Europe. The problem is that iPad Mini, while being technically inferior, costs much more than competition both in USA and Europe.

 

[nazaar]

I thought it was reasonably priced considering what you're getting and compared to the larger iPad and other tablet.

If you want a Kindle then get a Kindle or even Android.... Trying to compare the iPad and mini to a Kindle is like comparing a Porsche to Chrysler (IMO). The design and build is significantly higher quality.