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There will NOT be an iPad Mini

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it has to have a retina display? why? i don't understand that argument. if excluding it reduces the price and its as good as the first gen and second gen iPads it will happen if Apple thinks is worthwhile. and i definitely think they do think its worth entering into the smaller screen tablet market.
 
hitekalex said:
Not only that, but he knows with absolute 100% certainty what Apple will not be releasing. Haven't you heard - those Best Buy Geek Squad boys are well connected! :D
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That's right! I always contact Geek Squad before making a bet on what products Apple won't release.;)
You sir, OP, must be a Geek Squad agent.:D
 
poloponies said:
Why would you think that? It's a profitless market.
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maybe in terms of upfront money. but there is a reason that google is selling the nexus 7 at a loss or barely breaking even. its called mindshare. you get people hooked on your ecosystem. then they buys apps. apple gets a cut. they buy music. apple gets a cut. and then they're more likely to buy another iOS device because they have already invested in it.
 
PlaceofDis said:
and then they're more likely to buy another iOS device because they have already invested in it.
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That's a big one that's hard to calculate the value of, but I'm sure Apple has a small army of pencilnecks doing just that.
I'm sure stopping their competitors form getting a foothold in building up a decent ecosystem/userbase has some value to Apple. (I don't really like this, but that's kinda how it works)
 
There is No Market for the 10" iPad! (A Parody)

All Android, WebOS, and Windows tablets around 10" have failed for more than 10 years. Therefore, a 10" iPad will fail too.

10" is too big for a keyboard, you have to stretch to reach the inner keys. Nobody will be able to use it.

10" is too heavy, people won't be able to carry it around. Why bother when they have a smartphone that fits in their pocket and they always have with them?

Steve Jobs himself has said they won't make tablets:
  • "There are no plans to make a tablet. It turns out people want keyboards."
  • "We look at the tablet and we think it's going to fail."
10" is just one inch from a MacBook Air, which is a real computer. With recent improvements to OS X, an SSD boot drive, and decent sleep/hibernation modes, the Air is basically instant-on anyway.

All media is 16x9, so 4x3 is just a bag of fail.

Nobody would pay up to $829 for a tablet. That's how much laptops cost! Just get a Netbook instead. With a real OS like Windows, they are infinitely more useful.

Also, I work in the tablet industry (janitor at Nintendo) and I say so.
 
knucklehead said:
That's a big one that's hard to calculate the value of, but I'm sure Apple has a small army of pencilnecks doing just that.
I'm sure stopping their competitors form getting a foothold in building up a decent ecosystem/userbase has some value to Apple. (I don't really like this, but that's kinda how it works)
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its definitely hard. but it seemed to work with the iPods (cheaper, smaller minis and nanos) and i'm sure it will be a huge factor if they decide to come out with a smaller iPad. i know that with the amount of apps i've purchased for my iPad and iPhone that it would make it harder for me to switch since i'd have to reinvest in a new platform. its the reason why so many companies use windows still because they've already invested in them.
 
PlaceofDis said:
maybe in terms of upfront money. but there is a reason that google is selling the nexus 7 at a loss or barely breaking even. its called mindshare. you get people hooked on your ecosystem. then they buys apps. apple gets a cut. they buy music. apple gets a cut. and then they're more likely to buy another iOS device because they have already invested in it.
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The "make it up in software/content sales" is Amazon's model, not Apple's (flip back through this thread to see the "Apple makes money on content" theory debunked). It's unlikely that there are consumers who aren't aware of the iPad or iPhone. Apple's never been about selling loss leaders for "mindshare." It's silly to think that if you sell someone a fully-functional discounted device it will entice them to buy a more expensive version. Consumers deterred by a $499 iPad entry price point (or $399 for the iPad 2) aren't suddenly going to be buying $1,200 computers.
 
So I did an unofficial survey at work, asked 8 ladies and 2 guys what they thought of the possibility of an 8" ipad.

1 guy wants the 10" ipad
1 guy doesn't give to shakes about ANY ipads, tablets, computers or whatever
2 ladies are indicating they don't care (status!)
2 ladies said they would prefer a larger ipad
1 lady said if she were to buy a tablet, she would prefer one that fits better in her purse (so a smaller than IPAD sized tablet) but she doesn't care if it's apple or any other vendor
3 other ladies agreed with the purse comment, seems the purse is an important accessory to hide the tablet? (joke!)

There you have it, 4 people thought an ipad mini sized tablet would be more attractive to them. That's 4 potential Amazon, Google or Apple customers, out of 10. There is a market.

Loaf
 
poloponies said:
The "make it up in software/content sales" is Amazon's model, not Apple's (flip back through this thread to see the "Apple makes money on content" theory debunked). It's unlikely that there are consumers who aren't aware of the iPad or iPhone. Apple's never been about selling loss leaders for "mindshare." It's silly to think that if you sell someone a fully-functional discounted device it will entice them to buy a more expensive version. Consumers deterred by a $499 iPad entry price point (or $399 for the iPad 2) aren't suddenly going to be buying $1,200 computers.
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Aware of iPad and iPhone isn't the same thing as USING them. I'm not the only one who started off with an iPod (nano in my case) and ended up fully appled-up. Lots of people are deterred by price tags not because they can't afford, but because they aren't convinced they need them. It's easier to convince someone to spend $200 or so, and also easier to convince them to spend $200 on something for their kid than $400.

I also don't think for a minute Apple plans to not make a profit on miniPads if it introduces them. It might not be as big a profit as they make on iPhones or MacBook Pros or (goodness knows) RAM and hard drive upgrades, but it will be a solid profit, one that many in consumer electronics would kill to be able to have.
 
PlaceofDis said:
its definitely hard. but it seemed to work with the iPods (cheaper, smaller minis and nanos) and i'm sure it will be a huge factor if they decide to come out with a smaller iPad. i know that with the amount of apps i've purchased for my iPad and iPhone that it would make it harder for me to switch since i'd have to reinvest in a new platform. its the reason why so many companies use windows still because they've already invested in them.
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Yeah - I'm there too with the investment in apps. Plus the appeal of the simplicity of having everything work together as easily as possible tends to keep your customers repeat customers. I think Apple would like to get as many as possible into their ecosystem before the other guys do - along with delaying/preventing the other guys form developing an appealing ecosystem as long as possible. iPad 2 shrunk to mini seems a good move for that -- and they don't need to sell it with cut margins either.
 
Did someone just seriously cite their watercooler blabber (4 out of 10 people) as evidence there's a market? This forum is an endless joke.
 
Put me in a camp that agrees with the OP.
With Tim Cook in charge, nothing would surprise me, but it seems un-apple like.

As stated, there is no successful 7" market.

Creating a 7" tablet would only legitimize the Fire and Nexus.

Apple does not aim for the bottom, ie cheap devices. It's easier to aim high and have technology get cheaper over time.

It's not easy developing apps optimized to specific sizes. Adding yet another size to the mix complicates the app development scene unneseccarily.
 
Crazy Badger said:
I'd like to bet an iPad mini that Apple will release an iPad mini (although it might not be called this!) Please contact me once released and I will let you know where to get it delivered ;)
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The bet is $100 and a 30 day ban from this place. Bet is that Apple won't release an iPad Mini in 2012. Cut off is 11:59 am Dec. 31. Unless they are shipping an iPad Mini before this time... announcements and rumours don't count. It must be shipping.

Anyone can PM me to accept the bet. Nobody has though.

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Carouser said:
Did someone just seriously cite their watercooler blabber (4 out of 10 people) as evidence there's a market? This forum is an endless joke.
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This.

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dmelgar said:
Put me in a camp that agrees with the OP.
With Tim Cook in charge, nothing would surprise me, but it seems un-apple like.

As stated, there is no successful 7" market.

Creating a 7" tablet would only legitimize the Fire and Nexus.

Apple does not aim for the bottom, ie cheap devices. It's easier to aim high and have technology get cheaper over time.

It's not easy developing apps optimized to specific sizes. Adding yet another size to the mix complicates the app development scene unneseccarily.
Click to expand...

This.
 
dmelgar said:
Put me in a camp that agrees with the OP.
With Tim Cook in charge, nothing would surprise me, but it seems un-apple like.
Click to expand...

Cook's been at Apple for well over a decade and has been both acting and de facto CEO. He's not some wild card.
 
It's amazing the stuff people say on here. "Apple will release a Mini because it's cheap and people will buy it." My god, this is the opposite of everything Apple does. They never do something because it's cheap: they do things that aren't speculative and that are useful to people. And when they do it, it's public knowledge now that their mantra is to be the best they can be in the market.

If any of you tweener proponents were in charge of Apple I'd jump ship right away.

1. You must create custom UIs for Apps for tweeners. This is fragmentation: yet another screen size for developers to have to deal with.
2. Tweeners have no reason to live: they're worse at pretty much everything compared to a smartphone and a full-sized tablet. Diehard geeks and some readers that's it. It's not a real market.

By the way, Amazon makes hardly any profit at all. Their annual reports for the past several years have their profits at under 1.5%. This is a company that could go into the red at any time.

And Apple should launch a 7" to compete with the Fire? The Fire is dead in the water: sales have dropped off the map.

It's incredible that people think Apple should do something in the tablet market when they own the tablet market. And when I mean own it, it's essentially iPod to MP3 dominance. You're asking to fix something that isn't broken. Spend a bunch of money and time on a product; fragment their OS; struggle to do a Retina screen; all on a product that has no market.

And why does Apple offer the iPad 2 in a non-Retina screen? Because it's not a new model. It's an old model, just like buying refurbished first Gen MacBook Airs will get you the same hardware used 3 years ago. A Mini would be a brand new product for Apple. They would never, ever, go backwards. All new mobile products from Apple will sport Retina screens. It's just dumb to not understand this.
 
poloponies said:
Cook's been at Apple for well over a decade and has been both acting and de facto CEO. He's not some wild card.
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I never expected AAPL to give out a dividend. Seems that a revolutionary company like Apple would have come up with some bold new idea, some other way to spend the hard earned money rather than throw it away as a dividend, as if apple were as innovative as Coca-Cola.
I doubt this would have happened if Steve was still around.
 
Freudling - I do actually agree with most of what you say. I doubt the 7.85" iPad is coming and yes it would compromise the UI to bring one out (which is a concept a lot of people have trouble with).

Your attitude is really hostile though. You could do with toning that down a bit.
 
dancj said:
Freudling - I do actually agree with most of what you say. I doubt the 7.85" iPad is coming and yes it would compromise the UI to bring one out (which is a concept a lot of people have trouble with).

Your attitude is really hostile though. You could do with toning that down a bit.
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Ok - I'll try with you since freudling has avoided presenting a solid example of how the UI would fall outside of Apples UI guidelines. Could you provide some insight here?

I'm genuinely curious on this issue, and am open to any thoughtful discussion on it.

I suppose part of it would be good to start with what you mean by "compromise". I don't consider it much of a dispute that there is some degree of compromise involved -- just that the compromise doesn't balance out in some way against the compromise that the current iPad size makes in portable utility (and for some, cost) vs. the proposed mini.
 
I am not saying there will or will not be an iPad mini but there are definitely people who want them. I used to carry my iPad around but I had to get such a big awkward bag to be able to do so...now I just leave it at home.

When the iPad 3 came out, I was not able to justify upgrading...I wasn't going to rip someone off by selling for more than a refurbished iPad 2 and the upgrade isn't worth $150 to me.

However, I would in a second buy an iPad mini assuming it would fit in my moderately sized purse and keep that for carrying around and keep my regular iPad at home where it stays now.

A lot of people don't have iPhones because they can't afford them and don't want to sign up for contracts. Instead they buy crappy android phones for $200 and use virgin or boost or whatever other prepaid carrier they have. A lot of these people would prefer a more affordable iPad with a month to month data plan option.

Personally, I couldn't stomach the iPhone bill over my $35 a month plan and refused to get one for myself even though I wanted one very badly. But what my scenario also shows is that an iPad mini could prevent people from getting iPhones. In this sense it can make sense to go backwards...release an iPad mini without a retina display and with only 3G. The people who want retina and 4G will still go with the iPhone/ regular iPad but it opens up room for people who can't afford that route.
 
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