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Tim Cook: iPad Mini Priced 'Aggressively'
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I'd pay what they ask if they gave it retina-class display rather than the crappy one they cheaped out on.
More to your question, I suppose 250...and they'd still make money on it. Forced to give up something, the aluminum of course. I'd much rather have a textured and lighter plastic for a pad.
Tim Cook quote:
"When we set out to build it, we didn't set out to build a small, cheap tablet. We set out to build a smaller iPad that offered the full iPad experience. <snip>
That's what we've done, the iPad mini has higher costs and gross margin is significantly below our corporate average. Height of the cost curve, but we want to make a large number and we're going to work to try to get down the cost curve and get more efficient with manufacturing as we've done with our other products."
Translated...
"Now that we've taken all this heat, we are working overtime to bring the price down."
Ah yes, the trials and tribulations of being Apple CEO.
Perhaps now is _not_ the time to buy... LOL
"When we set out to build it, we didn't set out to build a small, cheap tablet. We set out to build a smaller iPad that offered the full iPad experience. <snip>
That's what we've done, the iPad mini has higher costs and gross margin is significantly below our corporate average. Height of the cost curve, but we want to make a large number and we're going to work to try to get down the cost curve and get more efficient with manufacturing as we've done with our other products."
Translated...
"Now that we've taken all this heat, we are working overtime to bring the price down."
Ah yes, the trials and tribulations of being Apple CEO.
Perhaps now is _not_ the time to buy... LOL
It's selling because it's cheap.
And I'll agree that Macs are basically over-priced and useless fashion statements.
I've given Android a shot (as I wish it to be comparable to iOS) and it still sucks, even if it is better than it used to be.
I'm in for 3.
Glass and aluminum > plastic.
Proper color rendering > extra pixels on a crappy screen.
Smooth an consistent UI > specs.
Fanboy? Why yes, yes I am.
Glass and aluminum > plastic.
Proper color rendering > extra pixels on a crappy screen.
Smooth an consistent UI > specs.
Fanboy? Why yes, yes I am.
I wish the starting price would have been $449. Sure would make reading these forums a lot more interesting.
Lets go back a few years and remind ourselves of the overpriced piece of crap Steve Jobs released known as the iPod HiFi... a $350 dollar speaker that sounds like a tin can.
Here's a classic shot of Steve Jobs with his smug look knowing he's about to ripoff the consumer:
Fixed it for you. Important distinction. Price won't be going down for a long time.
Convince me to buy this now when you know darn well within less than a year they will roll out an iPad mini with retina.
How does Apple think people can afford to keep up with these constant updates? I know I can't. I'm still using my iphone 3GS!
How does Apple think people can afford to keep up with these constant updates? I know I can't. I'm still using my iphone 3GS!
They don't make double the profit, but I'm sure they hope to, one day.
Apple announced with the intro of the iPad mini that the App store paid $6.5B so far to devs ... over the life of the appstore. That means Apple got $3B, since inception, or avg $750M per *year* for all 400 million or so iOS devices sold since 2008... let's weigh it heavier for the later years.
Compare that to the total $45B (??? or so) annual profit they are making overall (it accounts for < 1.6% of profits).
iTunes isn't much different. iBooks and movies way less.
Apple uses its ecosystem to push hardware where most of it's profits comes from. But I'm sure that will slow change with more services (iCloud) coming since they hardware will one day commoditized like the PC market.
Another way to look at it is that you are paying a premium for their hardware to get access to their ecosystem... and there only one hardware vendor for that ecosystem.
(oh, i forgot, from $750M per year they still have run their service! who knows how much that costs? )
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Why do you need to update it? If what you have works for you then doesn't matter what they release.
Did you see that there is a mere $5 savings from the iPad 2 to iPad mini screen? How much do you pay for an iPad 2?
Funny how the fanboys are so concerned that Apple make a profit. (they aren't going to donate any of it to you)
Since they are already sitting on $billions in cash, I don't think anyone has to worry about that.
Especially when they sell the iPad Mini at $329
Bottom line... Apple is going to sell their products at whatever they feel they are worth - as should any other company. If consumers think it's too much, they won't buy it. Problem most iHaters have, is that people do buy Apple's products and in fact, most feel it was worth the money. (iPad satisfaction rates are above 90%.)
The only people who whine and complain about Apple are those that would do ANYTHING to avoid using Apple's products. How is their opinion relevant? It's not, but they are the most vocal about all things Apple.
The fact is, Android/Kindle tablets are priced extremely low because it's the only way they can get people to even consider buying them. This was made clear when the first Android tablets came out and were priced the same as the iPad - no one bought them. It took several $200 tablets to even make a dent in the tablet market and those are mostly SHIPPING numbers.
Making a smaller iPad at $329 is in no way going to hurt sales when they were so far ahead in sales with a much more expensive model. The only thing that will happen, is sales go up, because there are those who don't want a 10" tablet and would prefer something smaller - regardless of price. These are the people Apple is going after. Most people who buy tablets are buying a secondary device, it's a luxury not a necessity, therefor, price is not the deciding factor.
3GS is still a solid phone. The newer screens are quite a bit nicer but they don't sit in your hand as well, imho.
The 4 is probably best deal going now as it's free on contract in the US. Not much different than a 5 (5 is noticeably quicker, but really only matters for webpages and what's a couple extra seconds?...you still get the same rendering)
I'll save your quote for re-posting "after" the price decrease.
Shades of the sudden unannounced $200 price drop on the original iPhone.
I certainly hope you are right. I would definately use a few hundred $$ in iTunes credit. But, I don't think they'll ever do that again.
Don't think the question is IF they can put it in the Mini. I think it would have put the price even higher. Just look how much the Touch is and the screen is just 4". Just MHO.
iPod Touch Price
The iPad mini can't be cheaper because the iPod Touch is over priced @ $299. You can't sell a device with a larger screen for less money! The iPod Touch should be $199 and the iPad mini around $250
The iPad mini can't be cheaper because the iPod Touch is over priced @ $299. You can't sell a device with a larger screen for less money! The iPod Touch should be $199 and the iPad mini around $250
This just isn't true at all. I have an iPhone at the moment, have own two previous generations, have bought an iPad for a gift, used nano's since they came out...
And while I wouldn't call it whining, I certainly don't mind complaining about Apple.
The Lightning connector is the biggest raping I've taken from a company in a LONG time. Still pisses me off.