Retina iPad Mini Unlikely to See Widespread Availability in 2013

[Chastepe]

Think twice.

I still cannot understand how some of you who are supposed to follow Apple's news for years believe that Apple is going to implement its latest technology without first making a ton of money. Apple = Baby Steps towards latest technology, they do not care to impress or to catch up with Samsung etc. because they have the brand and they know whatever they make is going to be a success. So when they split an upgrade into future product releases they make double the amount of money. It' s a simple strategy to make more money (of course when you know in advance that you can).

I am sure you have noticed how many times has Apple make you say "This feature/hardware upgrade is going to be definitely on the next release" and in the end it s not. A classic example was the USB 3.0 implementation. Another example might be the second screen feature which will be on Mavericks, I mean this feature should be available since Snow Leopard but this is Apple's method of doing business.

 

[lcmazza]

Disappointing to say the least. I wonder if the update to the mini was going to be minor, and given how the competition has leaped frogged them they needed to redesign it.

I think they (apple) has been introducing small updates, while the competition has been shooting for the moon. Apple needs to up its game.

If Apple could only add 2GB of RAM to the full size iPad, things would get a lot more competitive. 1 GB is pathetic for serious web browsing... The gray tabs reloading on Chrome, for instance, look pretty bad.

 

[cgk.emu]

I literally just sold my 3rd gen iPad two hours ago in order to get the iPad Mini 2 later this month.

How's that working out for you, what with selling based on rumors and all?

 

[Gix1k]

If no retina they should release nothing more than color updates and clearly state that. No BS minor updates to get peoples money then release a retina version months later and get more money from people.

 

[cyberslammer]

All I care about are two things:

1. Mac Mini refresh...HURRY UP.
2. iPad mini retina with 128gb of storage.

 

[macbd]

... Specifically, the sources are expecting Apple to wait until early next year for a full-fledged launch or make the iPad mini with Retina display available only in very limited quantities this year. ...

Why wait? This strategy seems to be working well for the 5s.

 

[gadget123]

I hope we don't see a repeat of 2012. Imagine a Ipad 5th gen with no finger print sensor and another released in March 2014 with finger print along side the retina mini and calling it Ipad 6th.

 

[goodcow]

This is what Steve was good for. He would of told his team to buckle down and make it happen. Next year would not have been good enough.

Then again Steve wouldn't have released a non-retina iPad mini in the first place.

Steve released the 1st gen. iPad with the unacceptable 256MB of RAM. That thing ran like a dog by the first OS upgrade.

 

[laflores]

Tomorrow: "Retina iPad mini will be introduced next month"...

 

[576316]

"Available to order October 22nd. Delivers January 2014."

 

[Scarpad]

Don't understand why Apple is having all these issues and their competition isn't, I'm sure the nexus 7 and the soon to be released Kindle will be in large supply this holiday season

 

[twoehr]

Lol at 8gb rumour. Good for browsing and ebooks only.

I don't get an 8GB model either. Wouldn't that be like the most expensive e-reader ever? Even B&N dumped the color nook.

I struggle with a 32GB Mini. The apps are just ballooning in size on the iPad. I assume an app that runs on an iPad and iPhone is the same size on each, and I've never had a space problem on my phone, but am constantly getting out of storage messages on the iPad, and i have far fewer apps, yet many in common. I think I'll want to buy a 128GB Mini when such a config becomes available.

 

[Rogifan]

This is what Steve was good for. He would of told his team to buckle down and make it happen. Next year would not have been good enough.

Then again Steve wouldn't have released a non-retina iPad mini in the first place.

Um did you forget your sarcasm tag. Or the fact that the first two generations of the iPad did not have a retina display?

 

[Fairchild]

I suspect coloured iPad minis this month with a processor and ram bump followed by retina version in the spring. A lot of people will settle for the iPad 5 which will be amazing and perhaps also buy a mini retina when they are released. Only the die hards will wait all the way to the spring to get what they "really" wanted.

 

[barkomatic]

I think its pathetic. Currently and for some time now, apple hasn´t sold the mac pro in any european stores. In scandinavia you can only buy the 4s iphone currently, and nobody knows when they will make the iphone 5s or 5c available. and, now most probable they will stop selling old ipads once the new one is released, but without any release date for most countries.

So that means that for scandinavians, we will not be able to buy an ipad, or a iphone or a mac pro for months before xmas (so most of what apple makes money on is unavailable in their stores)....that´s serious delivery problems....most companies got this in order before they release anything, or at least they have a release date we can rely on. It´s sad really.

Keep in mind that this story is based on a rumor supposedly from "sources inside Apple's supply chain". It may not even be correct and it wouldn't be the first time that "supply chain" sources were dead wrong.

 

[Sodner]

Glad I'm waiting on the new iPad 5 and not the mini. One night spent in line for a Apple launch a year is enough for me.

 

[technopimp]

I still cannot understand how some of you who are supposed to follow Apple's news for years believe that Apple is going to implement its latest technology without first making a ton of money. Apple = Baby Steps towards latest technology, they do not care to impress or to catch up with Samsung etc. because they have the brand and they know whatever they make is going to be a success. So when they split an upgrade into future product releases they make double the amount of money. It' s a simple strategy to make more money (of course when you know in advance that you can).

I am sure you have noticed how many times has Apple make you say "This feature/hardware upgrade is going to be definitely on the next release" and in the end it s not. A classic example was the USB 3.0 implementation. Another example might be the second screen feature which will be on Mavericks, I mean this feature should be available since Snow Leopard but this is Apple's method of doing business.

You've pretty much hit all of those points right on the head. As (sometimes) disappointing and frustrating as it can be for the hard-core techies or enthusiasts to eagerly await a new product announcement only to find about 40% of what they thought "should" be included, it's in Apple's best interest to plod somewhat slowly forward.

They know a lot of people are going to buy whatever new iThing they put out every year no matter what, so there's not a ton of incentive to make the 2013 iWhatever the end-all-be-all in terms of technology. The Mini was (if I'm not mistaken) about their best selling iPad ever, and it was basically an iPad 2 but smaller. They knew they'd sell millions even without the added cost and difficulty of a Retina display. If the mini 2 DOESN'T have a Retina display, they'll still sell tons of them...AND will sell tons even to the same people when the 3 or whatever comes out with a new display.

It's a fine line between leveraging their brand juggernaut and milking money out of their loyal supporters. At the end of the day, no one is forcing any of us to buy the new iWhatever, but it might be nice once in a while for them to throw us a bone since they're effectively just printing money at this point.

I'd personally like to see a shift to US manufacturing for as much as possible without impacting their prices, as again there's a fine line between building shareholder wealth and voracious greed.

 

[D.T.]

Yep. Not only would the mini be the same resolution, but it would be higher PPI. Like I said before, if the retina mini happens, as well as the purported 'fat trimmed' iPad 5th generation, then the gap between those two models becomes alot smaller.

I think they'll just position the rMini as the smaller iPad vs. the "budget" iPad, and if there needs to be less parity, maybe add TouchID to the larger product, and an A7 variant (vs. the Mini, that would get the A6X).

Apple also tends to promote the size of the device relating to the distance you hold it, so a PPI difference between the 7.9 and 9.7 (324 v. 264) would just figure into their ~magical~ retina formula

I almost picked up a Mini in the last couple of months, and even very recently with some great used deals around, but the difference after using the iPad 3/4 for some time is just too great. I hand-me-downed my iPad 4 to my little one (well, it's "shared" ), but I'm definitely a rMini buyer when released.

 

[Gemütlichkeit]

This is bad news. I was so pumped to get an iPad mini retina this month.

 

[M-O]

I'd rather have the A7 than retina. We'll probably get neither...

 

[syd430]

Um did you forget your sarcasm tag. Or the fact that the first two generations of the iPad did not have a retina display?

I meant doing what Tim did, i.e releasing a non-retina iPad in 2012 after already introducing the iPad 3.

 

[SILen(e]

Don't understand why Apple is having all these issues and their competition isn't, I'm sure the nexus 7 and the soon to be released Kindle will be in large supply this holiday season

They are only in "large supply" because Google and Amazon never state what "large supply" or "great sales" mean!

Nobody outside Amazon really knows how many Kindles or Kindle Fires they sold and with the Nexus devices, it is very similar.

The only numbers we have for the (old) Nexus 7 are 500.000 to 1 Million a month.

The Nexus 10 is as far as we know selling a lot worse.

And these are the numbers for the BEST cheap Android tablet.

Apple sold 14 million iPads in the last quarter - and that was a very slow quarter.

 

[Rogifan]

Disappointing to say the least. I wonder if the update to the mini was going to be minor, and given how the competition has leaped frogged them they needed to redesign it.

I think they (apple) has been introducing small updates, while the competition has been shooting for the moon. Apple needs to up its game.

How has the competition leap frogged them? The new Nexus 7 is basically just a better version of the 1st gen. There aren't any revolutions happening in the tablet space. Having said that, not having a retina mini available for the holiday season would be a huge disappointment IMO. Considering we've seen leaks of the full size iPad in mini form factor I don't get why a retina mini is so challenging.

 

[Small White Car]

This is what Steve was good for. He would of told his team to buckle down and make it happen. Next year would not have been good enough.

Then again Steve wouldn't have released a non-retina iPad mini in the first place.

You mean the same Steve that didn't put 3G in the first iPhone when everyone said that was too late?

The same Steve that didn't put 4G into the next two iPhones even though everyone said that was too late?

Or the same Steve that made the first 2 iPads without retina displays even as they were putting them into iPhones?


I don't know where the idea that Steve was some sort of ultra-new-tech-pushing-god came from, but it's pretty ridiculous.

 

[Gemütlichkeit]

I struggle with a 32GB Mini. The apps are just ballooning in size on the iPad. I assume an app that runs on an iPad and iPhone is the same size on each, and I've never had a space problem on my phone, but am constantly getting out of storage messages on the iPad, and i have far fewer apps, yet many in common. I think I'll want to buy a 128GB Mini when such a config becomes available.

If I'm ever getting a tablet (mini would be my first one) I'd want to be able to store my entire music collection/games and the current TV show I'm watching. My 32gb iphone can't hold that right now so the 64gb Mini would be the only option for me.

This is what Steve was good for. He would of told his team to buckle down and make it happen. Next year would not have been good enough.

Then again Steve wouldn't have released a non-retina iPad mini in the first place.

Let's move on from speculating what Steve Jobs would have done.