Yeah, they only make $141 of profit on the 16GB model, and $241 and $341 on each successive model. I feel so bad for them.
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iPad mini Who's Waiting for Mini w/Retina?
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Yeah, they only make $141 of profit on the 16GB model, and $241 and $341 on each successive model. I feel so bad for them.
What's the deal breaker for me is the A5 chip which is a 2 year old technology. It would have been better with the A6.
I could get hit by a bus tomorrow and never gotten to own a Mini... Bought mine on release day!
If you spend your whole life waiting for the newer version of a gadget to come out you'll end up never getting anything. Don't forget Apple stuff keeps it value very well so it's easy to get most of your money back when you upgrade to the latest iPad.
Besides, the screen on the current iPad mini is great anyway, Retina or not.
I'll wait. I saw it in a store and realised very soon that I wouldn't tolerate a non-Retina screen anymore. I hope that they will upgrade it also to A6. Meanwhile this iPad 4 gen. will be my device.
Not the point, at all. What I'm pointing out is, the margins aren't where they want them to be on the so-called 2 year old hardware. Not to mention the other design and engineering challenges they would face by making it a retina display. So I think it's unrealistic to expect a retina version, in the near future.
And the screen is just fine, for what it is.
You must not know economics...
$188 is the parts to build
Add Labor
Add R&D
Add Package Design
Add Packaging construction
Add Marketing
Their profits are probably more along the lines of $80-100 for the 16gb unit. But also don't forget they only make that much when you buy DIRECTLY from Apple...
I bought mine from Best Buy... my $329 Mini probably cost $285-299 for Best Buy, so Apple sees another 30-50 dollar hit, making a sum profit of about $50-70 per 16gb Mini.
Of course you won't understand this though because you're too busy ZOMFG-ing
It's not an obsessive waiting cycle; it's a logical frugality towards a product that is missing a key feature. It's as if a car were sold with brakes of cheese - sure, it'll work, but everything you do would be unpleasant. Now, on top of that, imagine if the next model of that car would be sold with ceramic brakes. Why wouldn't you wait?
False analogy. This is like a car being sold with in a slightly different shade of silver to the one you want and you waiting until next year as a result. The lack of Retina display doesn't detract from the actual function of the tablet at all.
Brakes of cheese wouldn't stop the car... it's more like coming standard with TURBO, which is fine and dandy until you realize how much friggin' gas it uses.
You could die tomorrow and never have owned one at all...
1) Turbochargers improve gas mileage by improving the efficiency of fuel combustion.
2) Brakes of cheese was an exaggeration, but not by much. I consider a Retina display to be absolutely crucial to the functionality of a tablet - much like brakes are to a car. So my analogy works pretty damn well, at least for me.
If it's an exaggeration then how does it work?
Also you ignored my economics issue... Apple does NOT make 141 per unit sold.
- Labor is classified as a variable resource under "parts to build."
- Package design would cost about $0.01.
- Package cost? Really? I can buy USB chargers and iPhone cases for 1 cent online. Paper boxes, especially on plants with long term elasticity of supply, wouldn't be very expensive.
- Apple already has reserved advertising schedules. Apple merely changes the content of these adverts.
- R&D is what's lacking here. Apple just put a "new" display with 2 year old iPad 2 internals into a new body.
So all of your points are either cheap one time costs, or negligible variable costs. And yes, I "know economics." Derp.
I'm waiting for the Retina model. I have an iPhone 5 and an iPad 2 that work quite well. No need for me to upgrade the iPad until I have a compelling reason, and for me, it's the small form factor AND a Retina display.
Really? So all the non-retina tablets out there are crippled functionality wise?
For me, yes. I am graced with 20/20 vision, and spend most of my tablet time reading course notes and briefs. I hate seeing large, chunky pixels made blurry by excessive antialiasing.
If iPad comes with A6 next year, wouldn't you say "omfg, A6, A7 is here already"?
We went through this already here. I bought iPad 2 when many were throwing hissy fits for not having Retina. It was a great purchase and served me very well. If people want a smaller tablet, mini is a great choice.
1) No, because the A6 would not be ridiculously out of date.
2) I don't recall the iPad 2 being criticized for lack of Retina. Besides, different circumstances. When the iPad 2 came out, the only Apple product with Retina was the iPhone. Now, competing tablets have much higher PPIs, and all of Apple's product lines (Mac, iPad, iPhone) have Retina devices. It's indubitably outdated.
Everyone was dissing the iPad 2 for not having a Retina display here on MR. A lot of those people when went ahead and bought them anyway
Are you high or uneducated?
Do know how much the paper box industry makes?
Look it up, "you really need to gets some of them learnin' done."
1. "the $188 figure is just the Bill of Materials (BOM)--the total cost of all the parts inside. It does not include labor for assembly, or shipping, or any other costs except the BOM."
2. & 3. Box designers/graphic designers make a BOATLOAD of money. Go ahead and google how much a box designer and a graphic artist makes. Then Multiply it by at very least .5 because nobody would charge Apple the "average" price. Not to mention that no packaging company would charge a company like Apple any less than top dollar, especially with their elaborate package designs. Every time Apple changes the shape of a box they need to spend a fair bit of money for a packaging engineer to even design a box. (newsflash iPad Mini is a new box design)
4. I used to work for a company that did Apple's commercials... the Justin Long ones and the iPad Nano being ones I recall, it's not a "set supply" it was billed, and billed VERY highly for every time they used our services and by the HOUR. Is there a marketing budget of the company? Yes... is that money they could save by NOT making a commercial? YES!
5. You really are completely uneducated in the matter if you think $0 R&D went into an iPad Mini. The design alone probably went through 50 mock ups (Paying Jony Ive, paying the mock up builders, paying for parts) and that's just for the way it looks. Then you need to custom build a motherboard that works for the smaller size that is also thinner. Pay someone to put it all together, pay someone else to install the software, pay a QC team to test out what works and what doesn't, etc.
Somebody really needs a lesson in life, economics and reasonable thought.
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1) A5 at 32nm isn't ridiculously out of date. It's still more than enough to power iOS with good efficiency and its GPU is more than competitive enough. Don't forget Apple's flagship iPhone came out with A5 just a year ago and the 32nm version didn't appear until this year.
iPad 2's competing 10.1" tablet all had higher PPIs and all 7 inch tablets had higher PPIs than iPad 2 as well. The situation hasn't changed all that much except that iPads have Retinas.
You don't recall the disappointments? Let me help you jog your memory by digging up some old threads. It'll sound VERY familiar.
From March 2011
Ipad 2 no retina display...... really ?
April 2011
Was saving for an iPad 2, but after discovering Refurb iPad 1...
Feb 2011
iPad 2 in Production: Thinner, Lighter, Faster, No Retina Display
and so on... we've gone through the exactly the same routine before. If a mini fits your routine, it's an awesome device despite the lack of Retina just like iPad 2 was. I have both 2 and 3, and often prefer 2 because it's slightly lighter and longer lasting, that's because 2 doesn't have Retina.
Perhaps if Apple rolled out the Mini at a lower price point, many here would not be as critical of the display. Certain groups of consumers are now hooked on the perceived quality of retina displays and it can be a double edged sword for Apple, mostly a success story though.
Many may have feel "cheated", having to pay a premium for something that's lacking that consumers simply expect to have been included, and been the new 'wave' that Apple's been promoting.
Aside from the form factor difference, many consumers were expecting the display of the Mini to be on the same level as the regular iPad, they were not ready to equate the smaller form factor Mini to being an inferior product to the iPad. Difference in size, but not difference in quality.
Personally I'm not ready to pay the premium Apple is asking for the Mini as there's still an uncomfortable gap between price vs value.
Many may have feel "cheated", having to pay a premium for something that's lacking that consumers simply expect to have been included, and been the new 'wave' that Apple's been promoting.
Aside from the form factor difference, many consumers were expecting the display of the Mini to be on the same level as the regular iPad, they were not ready to equate the smaller form factor Mini to being an inferior product to the iPad. Difference in size, but not difference in quality.
Personally I'm not ready to pay the premium Apple is asking for the Mini as there's still an uncomfortable gap between price vs value.
I don't feel like I'm paying a premium for my Mini. I'm just not paying bottom dollar. But I get the thinnest and lightest tablet on the market. I get a fantastic build quality, amazing battery life and the best multimedia player today.
If you want the Retina Display then get the iPad 4, it's a great iPad too.
This has always been the marketing strategy of Apple anyway.
Lower entry level products that have lower specs and a slightly lower price point that is still a fair amount higher than the competition ($999 13" White Macbook vs $699 equivalent Windows PC).
You want premium get the premium product (13" Macbook Pro $1299).
I don't get how people rehash the same complaint for a decade and still can't seem to comprehend it.
Umm yes it does. It's basically impossible to read scientific papers PDFs in portrait mode with that low resolution without zooming.
The smart money is on the upcoming mini with retina...
Apple needs to curtail the low-res model ASAP.
Lol. You again and you're in depth wisdom...
A. It's definitely not outdated.
B. Apple holds value. Even to take a hundred dollar hit, that's less than a ten bucks a month. Not a problem. It's a very convenient device. Especially if you're vested at all into the Apple Eco-system.
That's showing them! You're not buying one for yourself...but two for the kids
Embellish much? Good lord...