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iPad mini Why is the Mini 3 is so disappointingly similar to the Mini 2?

Am I the only one who is happy about the iPad Mini not being upgraded? For me, it simply means that I get another year out of my Mini 2 without worrying about wanting to upgrade 😀

The Mini Retina (2) is an awesome piece of engineering. I use it to run my business all day and then I take it home to use for personal stuff. The hardware is more than what is needed to run my apps, unlike the original Mini which was too slow so I was forced to upgrade when the Retina came out.

I don't care about the fingerprint thing or the gold color, so I am happy with the Mini 2.

Instead of comparing it to the iPad Air and saying you want an upgrade, look at it alone and tell me what you need upgraded and for what reason?
 
I *don't* think it's because Apple is trying to differentiate the mini from the Air or that Apple is "greedy", etc.

(Well, Apple is greedy in the normal sense of a for-profit company. But they aren't short-sighted.)

The screen size is all the differentiation from the Air that is needed and they've never been afraid to have a "full" product line. (consider laptops and iPods, back in the day).

My guess is that they had a more ambitious update planned but that it fell apart for some technical reason. And what we ended up with was their "Plan B" -- an update they could achieve in a minimal amount of time.

For example, perhaps they planned the "real" mini update around the A8 and screen with a lower power-draw than they were actually able to achieve in the end.

At some point they'd have to make a decision: do we release a better update with crappy battery life or do we release a minimal update with good battery life? Neither option is good, but they'd have to make the choice.

We'll probably get a good idea if this was a strategic decision by Apple to take the mini down-market or just a temporary technical bind on the next update. If I'm right, then the mini will substantially "catch-up" to the Air.
 
iSee said:
I *don't* think it's because Apple is trying to differentiate the mini from the Air or that Apple is "greedy", etc.

(Well, Apple is greedy in the normal sense of a for-profit company. But they aren't short-sighted.)

The screen size is all the differentiation from the Air that is needed and they've never been afraid to have a "full" product line. (consider laptops and iPods, back in the day).

My guess is that they had a more ambitious update planned but that it fell apart for some technical reason. And what we ended up with was their "Plan B" -- an update they could achieve in a minimal amount of time.

For example, perhaps they planned the "real" mini update around the A8 and screen with a lower power-draw than they were actually able to achieve in the end.

At some point they'd have to make a decision: do we release a better update with crappy battery life or do we release a minimal update with good battery life? Neither option is good, but they'd have to make the choice.

We'll probably get a good idea if this was a strategic decision by Apple to take the mini down-market or just a temporary technical bind on the next update. If I'm right, then the mini will substantially "catch-up" to the Air.
Click to expand...

I really think they are going to do what they did with the ipad 3/4. Release the mini 4 early next year like many rumors suggest. I honestly cannot see them selling a lot of mini 3's at the $399 price point when a near identical ipad mini 2 sells at $299.
 
mattopotamus said:
I really think they are going to do what they did with the ipad 3/4. Release the mini 4 early next year like many rumors suggest. I honestly cannot see them selling a lot of mini 3's at the $399 price point when a near identical ipad mini 2 sells at $299.
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I think all you get for the extra $100 is the fingerprint sensor. I'm really not sure why Apple kept the Mini 2 in their line-up being that it's so similar to the Mini 3.
 
Max(IT) said:
Not very happy about the choice, but I think the mini 3 is a good upgrade for the original iPad mini.
Click to expand...

In that case, the mini 2 is an even better upgrade, seeing as how it's $100 less to upgrade, for the same display and CPU as the 3.
 
Handle said:
Am I the only one who is happy about the iPad Mini not being upgraded? For me, it simply means that I get another year out of my Mini 2 without worrying about wanting to upgrade 😀

The Mini Retina (2) is an awesome piece of engineering. I use it to run my business all day and then I take it home to use for personal stuff. The hardware is more than what is needed to run my apps, unlike the original Mini which was too slow so I was forced to upgrade when the Retina came out.

I don't care about the fingerprint thing or the gold color, so I am happy with the Mini 2.

Instead of comparing it to the iPad Air and saying you want an upgrade, look at it alone and tell me what you need upgraded and for what reason?
Click to expand...

I think Apple has been meaning to upgrade the iPad mini, but Apple chose to focus on the higher profit and more popular full-sized iPad first. Whether Apple did this because it only can focus on so much at once, or because it wants to force potential customers to buy the higher profit device: I don't know. Either way, Apple will get around to focusing on updating the iPad mini with a thinner design and A8 chip in the spring. I think spreading out the release schedule could also result in increased sales.
 
Last year possibly Apple was *testing* the masses (us) which model do you want to go for ? which size ? with the same specs.

The masses answered the AIR (the mini is great but for less people, i'm in)

This year they had to invert the route, substantially differentiate, divide, separate

Top became the Air, massive and clear upgrade-update, people get the point
Mini had to stay where it is, for 12 months -PUT ON HOLD- to let Air3 gain margin, from the next releases, all will be back to normal, Air3 gets nice upgrade, Mini4 restarts the decent upgrade but keeping distance from the Air3.

however i dont really mind, i'm super happy with the miniR -not 3-
 
New Apple said:
Last year possibly Apple was *testing* the masses (us) which model do you want to go for ? which size ? with the same specs.

The masses answered the AIR (the mini is great but for less people, i'm in)

This year they had to invert the route, substantially differentiate, divide, separate

Top became the Air, massive and clear upgrade-update, people get the point
Mini had to stay where it is, for 12 months -PUT ON HOLD- to let Air3 gain margin, from the next releases, all will be back to normal, Air3 gets nice upgrade, Mini4 restarts the decent upgrade but keeping distance from the Air3.

however i dont really mind, i'm super happy with the miniR -not 3-
Click to expand...

Owning both a mini 2 and iPad air 2, I see no point in them keeping the mini lineup. The air to is so light and then it actually feels like a mini with a bigger screen.
 
mattopotamus said:
Owning both a mini 2 and iPad air 2, I see no point in them keeping the mini lineup. The air to is so light and then it actually feels like a mini with a bigger screen.
Click to expand...

i feel uncomfortable to keep 'hands up' the ipad big size
i feel comfortable enough with the screen estate of the mini on bed or sofa.

if i'd have used the ipad (whatever) on a stand or on a table, i'd defenetly go for the bigger choice (even bigger than the Air, Pro etc)

but hands up, my body prefers the mini (and im not weak, i do carry dslr + lenses+tripod+bag etc)
 
Lots of people bought the Mini 2 instead of the larger iPad because it had the same internals, the size wasn't that much smaller and it was 100quid cheaper. So they kept the Mini 3 with the A7 chip to attract people to the bigger iPad with the super fast internals that they'll pay more for.

They kept the 16GB model (which is criminal IMO) instead of making the 32GB model the base, because they know 16GB isn't enough any more and you'll have to get the 64GB one. Obviously that bigger leap fools people into thinking they're getting a better deal, in reality they would have been happy paying 100 less for the 32GB model.
 
Wrathwitch said:
My opinion is that they are looking at killing the mini line all together when they release the new ipad pro. The iPhone 6 plus is now a profitable in between the larger ipad air now and I will wager that they plan to phase it out in the future. Face it they totally ignored any substantial upgrade to the mini and added a new colour and touch id. It feels almost like what they did with Apple TV.
Click to expand...

Nooooooo. Apple can't dis my favorite idevice. Even though there are times where I pick up my ip6 instead of the mini, there is too much of a difference just in viewing area alone for Apple to get rid of the mini all together.
I'm hoping they want to keep it one step behind the iPad Air for what ever reason.
There are too many of us that use the iPad Retina Mini 2 as their main consumption device for Apple to get rid if it... I mean, why would they put touch id on it if they weren't going to keep it around. They had to have a substantial upgrade from the Mini 1 to the mini 2 because the Mini 1 had such bad graphics. it was almost impossible to read white text on a black background, and several of my most visited sites are created with those colors.
I owned a Mini 1 and LOVED it, but when they brought out the retina screen, that put it in the big boys league. They may have put all of their resources into making the Air 3 since it is the money maker, but the Mini 2 sold well and has a loyal following. I can't see them getting rid of it. Noooooo 😱
 
ron7624 said:
Nooooooo. Apple can't dis my favorite idevice. Even though there are times where I pick up my ip6 instead of the mini, there is too much of a difference just in viewing area alone for Apple to get rid of the mini all together.
I'm hoping they want to keep it one step behind the iPad Air for what ever reason.
There are too many of us that use the iPad Retina Mini 2 as their main consumption device for Apple to get rid if it... I mean, why would they put touch id on it if they weren't going to keep it around. They had to have a substantial upgrade from the Mini 1 to the mini 2 because the Mini 1 had such bad graphics. it was almost impossible to read white text on a black background, and several of my most visited sites are created with those colors.
I owned a Mini 1 and LOVED it, but when they brought out the retina screen, that put it in the big boys league. They may have put all of their resources into making the Air 3 since it is the money maker, but the Mini 2 sold well and has a loyal following. I can't see them getting rid of it. Noooooo 😱
Click to expand...

I think that they just wanted to cannibalize more parts so they put out the mini 3. But I am not an expert on predicting these things.
 
I hope they dont stop producing the iPad mini 3. Been wanting one since march. Waiting for the price to go down.
 
Count Blah said:
Meh, it doesn't work half the time on my 5s. So for me, it's really not worth it.
Click to expand...

I think you are very unlucky about Apple's devices, since yours seem to be always different from the majority.
TouchID is working on 90% of the times on my iDevices.
 
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