Supply Chain Hints Suggest Retina iPad Mini Could Debut in Second Half of 2013

[Syk]

Why would Apple update the iPads once every two years, as you say?

Or did you mean to say semi-annual, which is twice every year?

biannual is twice a year or am I just misreading what you're trying to get at

 

[gnasher729]

biannual is twice a year or am I just misreading what you're trying to get at

Biannual is indeed twice a year. And biennial is every two years. Because these are very easily confused, "twice a year" or "every two years" is a lot clearer.

 

[Syk]

I own a Nexus 7. The difference in quality of apps is tremendous in Apple's favor. That's the truth.

I have a Nexus 7 also and it is nice but my freaking screen cracked and really I can't figure out how it happened. Did some reading online and found others have had problems with the screens also. It still works but it doesn't seem as rugged as my iphone4 or ipad2 has been.

As far as apps. They both share alot of apps but the apps on iOS do seem to be more polished.

I use Olive Tree Bible reader and on my iPad the app is very nice and well laid out. On my HP Touchpad running Android it's garbage and doesn't have the same nice features.

Google even seems to make their iOS android counter part nicer.

I think Android has come a long way and the tablets are nice but the apps do need a little bit more polishing I think.

 

[uncertain.nomad]

I don't know about you, 4K on iMac would be overkill for me. Seriously, I really don't understand the hype over so called Retina display on computers. It isn't like you are looking at your computer screen right in front of your eye, like tablet or phone.

A couple of weeks ago I would have argued the same way. But after having bought a Mac Book Pro Retina and being using it since the last couple of weeks I am utlery shocked at how bad "low-res" computer screen can look. If you take the average External Monitor with it's 100-110dpi it's grainy as hell (after having looked at a Retina screen). You notice it. All. The. Time. It's a bit less obvious on Notebook displays, as they are more into the 140dpi range but it's still so much nicer with a high density display. Trust me. Every artwork, every web site looks so much better. Moving a window form my retina screen to an external non-retina display is like pushing the window into digital stone age.

 

[Syk]

Biannual is indeed twice a year. And biennial is every two years. Because these are very easily confused, "twice a year" or "every two years" is a lot clearer.

I kept looking at what the person I quoted had quoted and was wondering what am I missing or misread

 

[mantan]

Your whole post is spot on, but this last part especially. People that seem to bitch on here about Apple updates (are probably secret Droid users) don't seem to realize that their one year old Apple product has so much second market value it's nuts! I usually sell my old Apple stuff when I get a new one and it's usually years old and I still get 30-70% of its value back.

Once I sold a 4 year old MacBook for $500, that I paid $1000 new for. Now you may say, wow, that's a 50% loss, but I say show me a PC that is worth anything after 4 years, let alone 50%!

I totally get the resale value. But for me it was a matter of principle. Sure my total out of pocket costs are lowered by the resale, but I'm giving Apple 2 full retail sales. I'm essentially encouraging them to parse out the least amount they can get away at the highest possible price.

 

[ctdonath]

I am beginning to wonder if Apple is splitting the product lines into "Standard" and "Retina""

Naw. Retina is still hard and expensive to do so they have to roll it thru the product line piecemeal.

 

[mantan]

In my opinion the Nexus 7 remains the best tablet you can buy at this time, regardless of price.

Tablets are a mix of size, comfort, display and performance, and I think the 7 is the best to hit shelves so far. Here's how I see the competition:

~Retina iPads would be second with their awesome displays, but simply weigh too much and are too awkward to handle for long periods of time.

~The Nexus 10 is nice, but I'd rather have iOS if I'm choosing between equal prices and great displays.

~The Mini iPad is ok, but not nearly as compelling. I prefer its 8" screen size, but the display quality is worse, so that you notice it if you come from a Nexus 7. The Nexus 7 is, in my opinion, quite a bit better to hold and handle. Nearly every review comments on this, and it's true--they just nailed the rounded back and soft-textured surface. People love to hold it--when you show it to friends they'll handle it all night (reminds me of the iPhone 3gs that way). The Mini is light, but too narrow and flat, so that you have to oddly pinch on the sides.

I like the App store, but the Google Play store is really just a carbon copy. Maybe if you're not running stock Android there are limitations I don't know about, but I've yet to have any issue finding apps. In fact, I've gotten into some games on the 7, which run nicely on it's 4 core Tegra 3. Heck, I even have some NES and SuperNES emulators running old Mario, Zelda, Punch-Out!, Metroid, and Tecmo SuperBowl--I don't think you can get those in the official App Store.

I do still prefer iOS to Android, but my eyes have been opened recently. Android 4.2 on the 7 is just as smooth--or smoother--than iOS, and the capacitive back, home, and app-switcher buttons are superior to iOS navigation. I hope Apple adopts it as it's FAR better than the iOS double tap to multitask. This isn't as important on phones, but on a tablet, I multitask on the 7 in a way that's simply not possible on iOS currently.

Build quality is much better for the Mini, as it appears to be a real issue for some with the Nexus, but no issues with mine after at about 4 months so far. And hardware-wise the Nexus has GPS on all models (unlike the WiFi-only models of the Mini)...useful for things like Yelp, weather apps, and mapping.

Price makes this even easier, I paid 260 (tax inc) for my 32gb Nexus 7, whereas the iPad mini would have been 340 or so for only 16gb.

~The Note 8, is interesting. It has what I think is the right sized screen, at 8", and a stylus. Haven't tried it out, but I'm curious even if it's not as attractively priced as the 7.

Finally...I would be interested in a retina Mini for my next tablet (probably not interested for another year). The size is right and retina would make the screen superior. I would especially like a little thicker case which perhaps Apple could convince Ive to allow rounded edges (probably wishful thinking).

The Mini was set to blow iPad out of the water. They just needed to make it 300 bucks with a retina screen and EVERY kid in the world would want one, every school district would put in orders. Sadly, Tim Cook wanted to hit a price point and maintain existing price-tiers so it had to be 330 and have a screen even 200 dollar Android tablets from a year earlier would best.

I really wanted to love the N7. Bought it when I saw the specs and price for the Mini after wanting a Mini for MONTHS.

It's a good little device, but some parts are maddening.

The form factor is perfect. And the gorilla glass/rubber backing makes it very comfortably to hold and gives it a feeling of 'indestructibility' that makes it easy to toss in a laptop or overnight bag without being worried about it breaking. It's EXCELLENT for watching movies.

And by and large, most apps you want are available. The downside is many of them are phone apps and don't look as good or work as well as their tablet counterparts.

And while I generally think Android gets a bad rap, I do get frustrated with the laginess, inaccurate keyboard/touchscreen and the constant 'Error - Wait/Report/Ignore' errors that crop up daily.

So, I'll probably end up getting a Retina Mini when it comes out...

 

[Syk]

I totally get the resale value. But for me it was a matter of principle. Sure my total out of pocket costs are lowered by the resale, but I'm giving Apple 2 full retail sales. I'm essentially encouraging them to parse out the least amount they can get away at the highest possible price.

It's an electronic device. Just about all of them come out with a spec bump product at least twice a year if not more. Computers, TV's, bluray players. Why wait a year to release a spec bump and be behind the curve.

Consoles are an exception though as they come out every couple of years

I think Apple felt they had to get into the market as it was clear that there was a clear market for a smaller tablet. I think it was pretty bad for them to just throw in an ipad2 chip and almost call it a day. I think they could have put the faster processor in. I can give them maybe a pass on the screens as they weren't ready and they needed to get a tablet to market but the processors where ready.

I don't have a problem with hardware bumps twice a year. It's to the point for now that specs are tapped out except small bumps. I'm wanting an iOS over haul and added features that way. That could be the yearly bump

----------

I really wanted to love the N7. Bought it when I saw the specs and price for the Mini after wanting a Mini for MONTHS.

It's a good little device, but some parts are maddening.

The form factor is perfect. And the gorilla glass/rubber backing makes it very comfortably to hold and gives it a feeling of 'indestructibility' that makes it easy to toss in a laptop or overnight bag without being worried about it breaking. It's EXCELLENT for watching movies.

And by and large, most apps you want are available. The downside is many of them are phone apps and don't look as good or work as well as their tablet counterparts.

And while I generally think Android gets a bad rap, I do get frustrated with the laginess, inaccurate keyboard/touchscreen and the constant 'Error - Wait/Report/Ignore' errors that crop up daily.

So, I'll probably end up getting a Retina Mini when it comes out...

Nexus 7 doesn't have Gorilla glass Mine cracked. I found out later from reading that it seems to be common and happened from people being careful. Definitely not tossing it around

 

[SoldOnApple]

Consoles are an exception though as they come out every couple of years

This is actually a pretty big problem. You have your 1080p projector, your 1080p Blu Ray collection and are shooting your videos on your iPhone at 1080p... but the consoles of today (barring the WiiU) don't even output 1080p for games. On a big screen, consoles look like standard definition. They are just something closer to 720p/560p and upscaled to 1080p. They have texture pop, they can't render things properly right in front of you and such. It's actually a big problem, being stuck on six year old hardware, especially as it was sold on the promise that it was the new HD generation. It would be great if consoles released the same as iOS devices do, and each copy of the game is a release that contains optimised versions for the previous six iterations of the console (instead of just one six year old console, or millions of potential combinations of hardware with PC games).

 

[Syk]

This is actually a pretty big problem. You have your 1080p projector, your 1080p Blu Ray collection and are shooting your videos on your iPhone at 1080p... but the consoles of today (barring the WiiU) don't even output 1080p for games. On a big screen, consoles look like standard definition. They are just something closer to 720p/560p and upscaled to 1080p. They have texture pop, they can't render things properly right in front of you and such. It's actually a big problem, being stuck on six year old hardware, especially as it was sold on the promise that it was the new HD generation. It would be great if consoles released the same as iOS devices do, and each copy of the game is a release that contains optimised versions for the previous six iterations of the console (instead of just one six year old console, or millions of potential combinations of hardware with PC games).

Consoles cost about $350 then another $50 for an additional joystick, toss in those $60 games. That adds up and I doubt people are going to be updating every year and then the system winds up not being backward compatible so you can't play your old games. It would also probably be a developers nightmare

 

[iBug2]

I don't know about you, 4K on iMac would be overkill for me. Seriously, I really don't understand the hype over so called Retina display on computers. It isn't like you are looking at your computer screen right in front of your eye, like tablet or phone.

You don't need to look at your computer screen from that close to notice the pixels. They are so low density, we can easily discern them from a normal viewing distance. They don't have to get as dense as an iPhone obviously, nobody needs a 300 ppi iMac. But they can easily go to 200 ppi and become Retina for their distance. That's 4 times as many pixels as they have today. So a retina iMac would be an instant buy for me. After buying my iPad 3, my 30" cinema display started looking like crap, and after buying my rMBP, it's even worse. I usually do all my text reading on my laptop instead of my Mac Pro. Text is infinitely better on a retina screen. There's just no discussion about it. It's worlds apart.

 

[AppleScruff1]

I really wanted to love the N7. Bought it when I saw the specs and price for the Mini after wanting a Mini for MONTHS.

It's a good little device, but some parts are maddening.

The form factor is perfect. And the gorilla glass/rubber backing makes it very comfortably to hold and gives it a feeling of 'indestructibility' that makes it easy to toss in a laptop or overnight bag without being worried about it breaking. It's EXCELLENT for watching movies.

And by and large, most apps you want are available. The downside is many of them are phone apps and don't look as good or work as well as their tablet counterparts.

And while I generally think Android gets a bad rap, I do get frustrated with the laginess, inaccurate keyboard/touchscreen and the constant 'Error - Wait/Report/Ignore' errors that crop up daily.

So, I'll probably end up getting a Retina Mini when it comes out...

How bad is the laginess? Is it frequent or constant? I have only played with a Nexus 7 for a few minutes.

 

[ChrisTX]

I don't see the problem with a non retina release next month as long as they up the processor. Computers that are pretty much the same model get spec bumps at least twice a year. Technology is always moving buy now and enjoy. April to Sept/Oct is a long way off to wait. I can see waiting a month if you know something is about to come out but 6 months is quite a stretch.

I see nothing wrong with two a year releases. It keeps them on the forefront with the competition.

If you bought the base model I'm sure you could sell it for $225-250 before the retina release and apply that toward a new one.

Initially I was upgrading yearly with the full size iPads. I've owned 3 of the 4 full size iPads. I always buy the full size, and cellular models. But now there's not enough reason to upgrade quite as often. I'll keep my third gen retina iPad for another year probably.

 

[Eidorian]

How bad is the laginess? Is it frequent or constant? I have only played with a Nexus 7 for a few minutes.

I only notice it when loading huge pages in Chrome. Otherwise when you hit the Application sorter button it is near instant to swap between running applications.

 

[SpectatorHere]

I own a Nexus 7. The difference in quality of apps is tremendous in Apple's favor. That's the truth.

iPhone 5/Nexus 7 owner, and I think you're way over-stating it. While I agree that--in general--iOS has more mature/polished apps, it isn't a tremendous difference. I have a metric crap ton of apps on both and I've been very pleasantly surprised at the quality and selection of Android apps.

At this point, with Android enjoying a larger userbase, I would be surprised if any major developer wouldn't put resources into both. Apple's users tend to spend and shop more, so they'd be dumb not to go after them, but I don't think they neglect Android like they might have a couple years ago. To compare some big name apps...ESPN Scorecenter, Netflix, Yelp, Huffington Post, Weatherbug, Twitter, Google Maps (naturally)...all pretty much the same. I can't think of any app that isn't.

----------

How bad is the laginess? Is it frequent or constant? I have only played with a Nexus 7 for a few minutes.

I don't have any lag. Nor do I have any issues with inaccurate touches or failing to pick up a touch.

Hardware quality is the one area where the Nexus 7 is clearly inferior to Apple products. They wanted it cheap, so the materials are not as nice. I've been lucky and haven't had a single issue, but I think when you hear people speak of lag, or touch issues it's most likely faulty hardware as I haven't seen it.

My iPhone 5 is far less accurate picking up touches...it pretty routinely misses things (especially near the top and edges).

 

[AppleScruff1]

I only notice it when loading huge pages in Chrome. Otherwise when you hit the Application sorter button it is near instant to swap between running applications.

iPhone 5/Nexus 7 owner, and I think you're way over-stating it. While I agree that--in general--iOS has more mature/polished apps, it isn't a tremendous difference. I have a metric crap ton of apps on both and I've been very pleasantly surprised at the quality and selection of Android apps.

At this point, with Android enjoying a larger userbase, I would be surprised if any major developer wouldn't put resources into both. Apple's users tend to spend and shop more, so they'd be dumb not to go after them, but I don't think they neglect Android like they might have a couple years ago. To compare some big name apps...ESPN Scorecenter, Netflix, Yelp, Huffington Post, Weatherbug, Twitter, Google Maps (naturally)...all pretty much the same. I can't think of any app that isn't.

----------



I don't have any lag. Nor do I have any issues with inaccurate touches or failing to pick up a touch.

Hardware quality is the one area where the Nexus 7 is clearly inferior to Apple products. They wanted it cheap, so the materials are not as nice. I've been lucky and haven't had a single issue, but I think when you hear people speak of lag, or touch issues it's most likely faulty hardware as I haven't seen it.

My iPhone 5 is far less accurate picking up touches...it pretty routinely misses things (especially near the top and edges).

One thing I find annoying about the iPads and iPhones is how slippery they are. They slide in your hand very easily, and sometimes that's not such a good thing.

 

[Eidorian]

One thing I find annoying about the iPads and iPhones is how slippery they are. They slide in your hand very easily, and sometimes that's not such a good thing.

Oh no, the Nexus 7 is sticky in your fingers. It feels really nice that it is not going to slip out of your hands. I have a nice leather case for it and I start to miss touching the tablet directly. I still feel more comfortable keeping it in the the case though.

The Chrome browser might as well be the desktop one short of a mouse/keyboard.

 

[Syk]

Initially I was upgrading yearly with the full size iPads. I've owned 3 of the 4 full size iPads. I always buy the full size, and cellular models. But now there's not enough reason to upgrade quite as often. I'll keep my third gen retina iPad for another year probably.

Yeah hardware is pretty tapped out. I think honestly it's getting to the point where you wouldn't want to upgrade every year. I'm hoping they over haul iOS and the UI this time.

As stated I have an iPad2. The current mini at it's current price I can't justify but if they release in April a mini with 1g ram and latest processor even without retina I'd buy it. I don't have any problem with the ipad2 screen. I actually think it may be easier on the eyes than my laptop.

I think I want a cellular model. The only thing is verizon or at&t. My iphone is on att. I know I could wifi share but I think I want the gps and for a few other reasons plus you don't have to have buy data if you don't want

 

[92jlee]

Nexus 7 already beats the Mini. The Mini really needs an update to bring it up to par. Course even being overpriced and under speced it still sells because of the little on it. Build quality is great, but take away the skin you don't have much left to justify the price.

I know I'll be hated on for saying that, but it's the truth, not my opinion.

Its good to finally see someone on this forum that has a real brain over an iBrain! They have their work cut out to better the nexus 7.

 

[ohbrilliance]

One thing I dont understand is...

People say the iPad Mini is better than the Nexus 7 because it has a larger screen.

But people want the iPhone to stay 4'' or even back to 3.5''.

This may be quite the revelation: Different viewpoints without a crowd of users does not make a contradiction.

 

[mantan]

How bad is the laginess? Is it frequent or constant? I have only played with a Nexus 7 for a few minutes.

It's enough to notice. There is a lack of smoothness is scrolling/rotating that you see in Apple products. And some apps just seem to have trouble running smoothly. For example, I use the Good For Enterprise app to access my work email. At least 30% of the time it will hang and give me a 'Wait/Report/Ignore' warning.

I hate saying that as it's almost a lazy cliche to call Android laggy....but for all of the praises I'd heard about Jelly Bean and the N7, it didn't match up.

For $199 I can overlook it....

 

[ChrisTX]

Yeah hardware is pretty tapped out. I think honestly it's getting to the point where you wouldn't want to upgrade every year. I'm hoping they over haul iOS and the UI this time.

As stated I have an iPad2. The current mini at it's current price I can't justify but if they release in April a mini with 1g ram and latest processor even without retina I'd buy it. I don't have any problem with the ipad2 screen. I actually think it may be easier on the eyes than my laptop.

I think I want a cellular model. The only thing is verizon or at&t. My iphone is on att. I know I could wifi share but I think I want the gps and for a few other reasons plus you don't have to have buy data if you don't want

I have been fortunate enough to always have a buyer lined up for my previous iPads due to such high demand. However the retina display drove me the the third gen iPad. Even the rumors of the redesign don't seem like there's enough reason to upgrade just yet.

As far as buying a cellular iPad over a wifi only. There are a few questions you need to ask yourself first. How often are you around wifi? And do I really NEED cellular connectivity when I always have my smartphone with me? You pay more up front, but the fact that you can cancel your iPad data plan each month if you desire is a plus for me. I don't use it on my iPad all the time, but I like knowing it's there if I do need it.

 

[cgc]

I'd take a new iPad Mini with an upgraded CPU. Not a fan of the A5 they put in the Mini...the screen could get better but it's the CPU I'm interested in. I really only plan to use it for Accordance 10 and some ebook readers which I use on my Mac and want to use on the road.

 

[SONiC5]

I hope IGZO is a go by then.