“Never one to disappoint, Digitimes is out with a new report today with some more supply chain rumblings from the Far East on what to expect. In standard Digitimes fashion, take with six handfuls of salt and expect about 50% accuracy,” Evan Niu writes fro The Motley Fool. “The report claims that Apple will unveil an 8 GB iPad 2 entry-level model. This is where the plot thickens, because this speculation checks out with Apple’s practice of reducing storage on older models to tackle lower price points. It did this with the iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4 over the past two years.”
“Some type of iPad price cut seems inevitable, and this would be a killer move. Let’s say that Apple moves the current entry-level 16 GB iPad 2 down to the $399 spot once the new iPad 3 takes the $499 place. If Cupertino puts an 8 GB iPad 2 at either $299 or $349, that would aggressively target some would-be Amazon.com Kindle Fire buyers,” Niu writes. “It would also inevitably take a bite out of some Barnes & Noble Nook Tablet shoppers too, just as B&N introduced an 8 GB model of its Nook Tablet at $199 to directly take on the Kindle Fire.”
Niu writes, “If Apple were to go for the jugular with a $299 iPad 2, the Kindle Fire and Nook Tablet should be shaking in their plastic body casings. Such an aggressive pricing move would knock down the Fire and Nook just as they were gaining momentum, and potentially jump the gun on an official Google (Nasdaq: GOOG ) Nexus Android Tablet, which is rumored to begin production next month with a price potentially as low as $199.”
“In all likelihood, though, Apple may end up pricing the 8 GB iPad 2 at $399 and eliminate the 16 GB second-generation model like it has done with iPhones in the past — but a Fool can dream, can’t he?” Niu writes. “Just for the record, if we see a $299 iPad 2 next week, you heard it here first.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Nope, actually you heard it here first.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews readers too numerous to mention individually for the heads up.]
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Won’t these lowered prices cut into iPod Touch sales? I’m not saying it would hurt Apple, but I don’t want to see the $299 iPod Touch become irrelevant It just seems that all these lowered iPad price changes are overlapping other products which Apple doesn’t usually do. I’m not criticizing if Apple makes these changes since I’m sure they know what they’re doing. It just seems odd to me.
The sales of the iTouch are important as most the parts were once reflections of the iPhone. Now-a-days the iTouch has really replaced the iPod – as it has games and messaging and FaceTime. Beyond the obvious – the device is STILL a BEAUTIFUL size format. It is actually preferred to carry around (if I had one) then an iPad. Lastly – yeah – the price is the main focus fro the survival of this device. Agreed – lower it soon Apple. Bring down the PRICE.
Apple doesn’t make anything called “iTouch”.
Just as there’s no iClassic, iNano, or iShuffle.
Ever try jogging with an iPad strapped to your arm? Didn’t think so. There will always be a place for the iPod touch.
Tim Cook:
“…internally, Apple doesn’t worry about cannibalization or even think about it. The iPad team works on making their product the best. Same with the Mac team. Both teams think they can continue to grow,” he said.
“If this is cannibalization, it feels pretty good,” he quipped.
Apple should not give in to this under the iPad name. They should make a Fat iPod touch with SIRI and use it as a TV / game controller for the next generation AppleTV. Don’t dignify those pocket size mini tablets as a type of iPad killer. They are not.
A while back I found the kindle fire on sale for under $150… So I will admit to buying one.
My idea was to hack it, put full android on it and screw around with it. My sister got one for Christmas and she likes it.
Comparing the fire to the iPad 2… The ONLY thing the fire does “better” is the stand by battery life, and if I were to turn off all notifications/mail/etc on the iPad.. That may not even be a “win” for the fire.
I left a fully charged iPad 2 and the fire unplugged and untouched for 4 days….. Not by choice. When I got home I figured the fire would be dead, it had 99% charge still. The iPad was near 65%.
But I did have notifications that seemed to go on forever when I pulled the cover off the iPad.
I tossed a PDF on the fire… Let’s just say the iPad handles it 1000% better than the fire. On the fire in the carousel, the PDF showed up as a generic page with a little writing on it, the iPad shows the PDF as it should, as a book.
I downloaded a free book from amazon, it looked fine.
I tried angry birds, since it’s free with ads.. It works on the fire. Smaller screen but it works.
Fast browser? In a word?… No.
Oh and I turned on the flash!!!!! I can watch flash on the fire since the iPad can’t!!!!!!!
Well… Not really. Aetv.com said I was running safari on a Mac and need to install flash…
And a little heads up, when you register the fire… Amazon automatically signs you up for a 30 trial of prime. No choice, they just tell you that you are now a prime member and if you don’t cancel you will be charged $80.
That’s BS to do that without a choice IMO.
The os is a bit clunky but it works. Slow though..
If apple does drop the 8gb iPad 2 to $299, the fire has NO prayer of survival. All stores that sell the fire and the iPad (Walmart, best buy etc) all they have to do is put the 8gb iPad 2 right next to the fire. Let the consumer touch both… They will see the iPad is better than the fire. And even a $100 more… Is still a better value than the fire.
Haven’t hacked the fire yet, but IMO I’d give it a better rating than most all of the iPad wanna bees. Worth $200 for a cheap iPad knockoff Not really.
At $100 or so? At least the hardware is decent, and the amazon prime content is “ok” (it is free.. Just not great. If you are already a prime member it’s free anyway) but the os needs work.
I read this and I am so happy you shared this with us.
I had considered getting one of these fro my mother as she loves to read. I WILL NOT BOTHER. Thanks again.
Get her a cheapo e-ink Kindle. Better battery life, less clunky than the fire.
I have a fire as well but you DO not have to call and cancel the trial of prime before it ends. It cancels by itself after the 1st 30 days and they DO NOT charge you. I know this because i did not do anything at all and I was not charged anything. Since ive had the fire now since jan 15th I have to say that I love this thing! Is it perfect for everyone? no. Is it perfect for me? YES! HELL YES! . I actually prefer it over an Ipad. And yes I’ve used ipad’s before many times. My fire is not rooted but I do sideload alot of my apps. I even play GTA3 on it 🙂 which looks great on it btw.
Nope. Apple does not need to “compete” with Kindle Fire. Kindle Fire is Apple’s friend.
People who buy a Kindle Fire would NOT have bought an iPad as their first tablet computer. And people who want an iPad, are still going to buy an iPad. So, in the near term, Kindle Fire does not hurt Apple.
In the long term, people who buy a Kindle Fire now (as their first tablet computer) will want something better to replace it at some point. That something better will be an iPad.
Kindle Fire is helping to more rapidly expand the tablet market than iPad can do on its own. But the overall tablet market is (and will continue to be) dominated by Apple. Therefore, Kindle Fire helps Apple by creating more potential iPad customers.
I can see Apple continuing the iPad 2 at $399. But Apple is NOT going to compete directly with Amazon for potential Kindle Fire customers. That would be stupid.
Why do you persist in rebroadcasting Digitimes bogus dribble? There is no reason to believe Apple has made a single iPad 3 since December and every reason to believe Foxconn has been making only iPad 3s since then.
I meant no making of iPad 2s of course.
I don’t know. The assumption is that the iPad is the promised land and the Amazon Fire is what everyone else settles for. One is forgetting Amazon Prime Accounts. Amazon Prime offers subscribers thousands of TV shows and movies, as well as free two day shipping for free. That is attractive, and what makes it more attractive is that the iPad does NOT play Amazon Prime content. Oh that’s right, Apple hates Flash, so no Flash no access to Amazon content. No soup for you!
So, I asked my wife… Honey what would you rather have… Your small, dysfunctional Amazon Fire, or my larger wonderful iPad?
She responds, keep your iPad, I will stick with the Fire.
There is no question in my mind that the iPad is the superior product. Anyone who has used these two devices side-by-side will tell you that the iPad is 10 times more responsive and enjoyable to navigate than the Amazon Fire…. BUT!!!
Apple likes to dictate what content and code is allowed on their devices. My wife has this crazy notion that she should be able to install any app on the device she has paid for, and does not need the folks in Cupertino telling her what to do. The Federal government is building a Nanny State. We don’t need Apple following closely behind.
For that reason alone, the Amazon Fire will persevere. Yes, it is not elegant, but it does give you access to the Amazon Prime content. So you say who cares? … I think a lot of people do.
I love Apple products. I am a huge customer as well as a stock holder. BUT I worry about the incremental restrictiveness of content, and the controlling nature that seems to be increasing with each release of the
Mac OSX, oh I mean OSX.
Those in Redmond seem to be clueless as to the potential that lies before them, but with Steve Balmer at the helm, who in the world would be surprised.
Nice write up, I personally never bought a fire, I have the iPad 2 64 AT&T model and love it.
But just to add, I am a Amazon Prime user, have been for 2 years and Amazon Prime TV and Movies are a real disappointment, compared to Netflix, It’s very unpredictable and even for free with the Amazon Prime account it fails to make the grade.
If you shop and get allot of packages in the mail it’s a great gimic, but as a service is leaves much to be desired.
Also Apple and Steve’s choice for not using Flash is Clear, It a buggy unfinished product, it has nothing to do with anything else other then it’s second rate, and as you see now, Flash days are numbers and dead, and to boot, over 93% of the sites don’t function with flash and a tablet, crashes slow response time and just a plain crappy user experience.
And to Finnish, in over a year not one of the Android Tablet makers are using Flash as a reson to buy, so many flaws in logic.
I’ll take Apple pristine user experience ove a buggy android flash on anyway, and have sine the release of all Apples mobile devices from the first iPhone to the Apple TV 2 to the iPad 1-2 and soon 3.
100 billion in the bank can’t be wrong!
Steve Ballmer screwed the pooch with the one remaining nut left in his body.
Apple will eventually get around to producing a streaming service of their own. Studios and production companies are more willing to deal with Amazon first for some reason? (probably to “show” Apple.) But eventually, they’ll come around to licensing their content to Apple as well. A lot of people don’t realize it, but iTunes is a much larger library than what Amazon offers (hell, iTunes’ music library alone is larger than all the content Amazon offers).
“For that reason alone, the Amazon Fire will persevere”
Don’t kid yourself, it has only gotten as far as it has because of its price. There have been many tablets before the Fire that were much more “open” and they all failed, because first and foremost, their price. Secondly, all that Prime content costs $80 a year, it doesn’t come with the Kindle, it is an extra charge. I can get NetFlix or Hulu on my iPad for the same price. True, it doesn’t come with free two day shipping, but so what?
“and the controlling nature that seems to be increasing with each release”
I’m not even sure what you mean by this? Are you referring to the AppStore? An ADDITIONAL feature that doesn’t even need to be used?
Let us know what your wife says about installing any app when she installs her first malware that steals her Amazon login and credit card info.
RE: “She responds, keep your iPad, I will stick with the Fire.”
I find it quite nice to see a guy who goes out of his way to marry someone with retardation. I didn’t know that was even legal… Kudos to you!
“as well as free two day shipping for free.” i think it would be a better deal if they charged for the free two day shipping but then gave the customer an extra shipping day and even offered a guarantee that the two day shipping will always take three days.
One thing is curious. When user is unable to watch content they bought in iTunes Store on a n on-Apple device, Apple is blamed for restricting that content to Apple-only devices (this is no longer the case for purchased songs, but rented shows and movies are still imited to Apple hardware). On the other hand, when it is impossible to watch Amazon’s content on Apple’s devices, suddenly this is also Apple’s fault???
Amazon already has an iOS app for their Kindle content. Nothing prevents them from developing an app for their prime video content as well. Obviously, by excluding Apple’s iOS hardware, Amazon hopes to force users to buy the Fire for mobile access to that Prime content. Apparently, it is working with iPad And Fire Buye‘s wife.
Amazon Prime is about the only way Amazon can hope to make any money on those Fires.
actually, you CAN watch prime “content” on an iPad. I use the “content” term loosely though.. cause it is very weak.
there are ways without, jail breaking, to view the prime content on an iPad. you seem to be in the camp that Flash is awesome. maybe you should look into the future of flash in the mobile market. as in, adobe ALREADY killed it.
Apple was correct, Adobe admitted defeat.
HTML 5 smokes Flash, Adobe even has started pandering to HTML 5 instead of Flash in recent updates to their programs. Flash is on it’s way out, so go ahead and praise it.
Flash exploits, battery drain issues, performance. Apple has always been correct in supporting HTML 5.
flash has been around since 1995… HTML 5 easily replaces it.
Apple dictates the content in iOS, yes. and there is VERY GOOD REASON for it. you don’t see virus and malware on the iOS platform. you DO in the android world. how many exploited apps have been removed from the official android market? google has even backed down from their anti-apple stance in their market, and have adopted a similar process of vetting apps now.
in the app store, very few have been removed due to exploits etc.
Prime for $80 a year is ONLY worth it IF you order a lot from amazon.. or care to watch 15 year old tv and movies.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again… If Apple wanted to compete with the Kindle (and other ‘tweener tablets), they’ll make a bigger iPod touch. Apple would be more interested in making a better product from the iPod and pricing it $249 – $299, than try and cheapen the iPad brand.
It’s not in Apple’s M.O. to make cheap crap; they usually do something else to fill a gap. They didn’t make a cheaper, smaller laptop to compete with netbooks, they made a high quality tablet; the iPad.
However, I’d be willing to wager that they will in fact keep the iPad 2 around for a cheaper price (I don’t think they’ll downgrade the memory to 8GB though, they’ll leave it at 16GB).
an 8G cut price iPad 2? duh. heard it here first? bull.
only question is whether it’s $299 or $349. i’d bet Apple goes for the kill with $299.
I will wager it will have a $349 or $379 price point.
an iPad with microSD expansion slot could cannibalize every existing iPad and iPad-Clones.
The question is: is that a mission impossible for Apple’s out-of-this-world-engineers?
SD card slots on mobile devices are a bag of hurt. They are a bag of hurt on ANY device; in order to avoid data corruption, the volume must be properly dismounted before user pulls out the card. NO average user ever does this; they just yank out that card, be it from their digital camera, laptop or Android phone. If you are running apps stored on that SD card, this is a total mess (apps become unavailable, but icons still stay on the screen, or are changed to some generic app icon; when the card is re-inserted, it takes minutes for it to be properly mounted and all app icons to get re-linked to the actual files on the card).
There is a reason why Apple iOS devices will NEVER have card slots for app and data storage: the handling of removable volumes is a massive pain and will remain that. The only exception to this seems to be the iPhoto / iMovie, which will handle mounting/dismounting of cards in the card kit and allow user to import media (images/video) only. This is an acceptable compromise and as far as Apple seems to be willing to go with respect to removable media on iOS.
Yeah right. The real reason Apple doesn’t include microSD card slots is because it would hurt sales of their more expensive models. A 32 GB microSD card can be had for $30 — a helluva lot cheaper than Apple charges to bump up memory levels between the iPads.
p.s. I’ve never ever corrupted the microSD in my phone. Well over a year now. No need to remove it either. It’s more convenient to just leave it in the phone and transfer stuff to it wirelessly (small transfers) or use the phone cable (large transfers).
You are one lucky guy. I have lost data TWICE on my SD cards, because my daughter pulled the card out with the iPhoto still open and card still mounted. Some people have a hard time remembering how to unmount a volume from their device (even the concept itself is so completely abstract and unintuitive).
The other reason is likely consistency of experience. There are all kinds of SD(HC) cards out there: the $30 ones (like the one you mention), where the transfer speed is barely what the card rating specifies, and likely often unreliable, and the $90 ones, where the performance is much faster and much more consistent. Cheap people will clearly always go for the cheap cards. While this works reasonably well in a digital camera (and even in a digital camcorder), it creates problems when used in a device that does frequent I/O.
Apple’s price difference between iPads isn’t any greater than the price of a good quality SDHC card. Cheapo cards are good enough for cheapo users (and I’m sure they put them into their Android devices). Most Apple users will know the difference and tend to get cards of decent quality. The price no longer being an issue, about the only possible benefit of having a SD(HC) card slot would be the marginal flexibility (adding a 128GB SDXC card). Considering that bag of hurt (mounting/unmounting volume), Apple correctly decided that it is not worth it by a long shot.
SD slot?… an SD slot?….
lmfao.
there is no need for a SD slot, of any variant. very few people would want one.
for those VERY few that think they need one… there is one company out there that makes one for the iPad/iphone that plugs into the 30 pin slot. it isn’t cheap.. cause they do NOT sell many of them.
I’ve often thought that what Apple ought to offer was an 8 GB iPad with an SD card slot.
Those wanting minimal capacity get to buy a cheap iPad and those wanting more can add what they need. It also would appeal to students, photographers and people wanting second iPads.
I’ll predict an iPad 2 reduced to any price point below what is currently available. If it happens you heard it from me first.
This article is just plain flawed. A lower priced iPad won’t necessarily compete with the Kindle Fire. As people on this site have been saying for a long time now, the Kindle Fire is really more of a competitor for the iPod Touch, not the iPad. I believe this is true for two reasons: 1) form factor, and 2) capabilities. I believe the form factor is the most important. Hence, a cheaper iPad won’t take that many sales from the Kindle Fire. I bought a Kindle Fire for Christmas, along with an iPad 2 and an HTC View. My favorite is the View, as it is fully functional like the iPad2 (i.e., dual cameras, bluetooth, Android market, etc.) but has the form factor of the Kindle Fire. My point is: Apple’s real opportunity to compete with the Kindle Fire is to put out a smaller form factor iPad at a competitive price point. Once they do this, they’ll take a very large bite out of Amazon’s tablet sales.
Don’t kid yourself; your experience may well be a rather rare exception.
Vast majority of people who bought Kindle Fire over the holidays wanted to by a tablet, but couldn’t afford an iPad. They settled for a smaller screen because it cost them so much less than the real thing. For them, Fire is the ONLY mobile media device; they don’t have a full-size tablet, nor the small-size media player (such as the iPod touch). For them Fire is the tablet, and screen size is the compromise.
Apple has absolutely no need to compete with the Fire on screen size. That is definitely NOT the primary selling factor for the general market (with of course a few exceptions, such as your self). It is the price, and if Apple approaches Fire’s price by even $50, it will likely reduce the number of Fires sold.
I’m sure you’re right for many people. But I don’t believe I’m in the minority as much as you think. I know several other people who have passed on the iPad due to its size. I have a coworker (an Apple guy btw) who just bout a 7″ Samsung tablet. The driver for him was 100% form factor. He would have much preferred an iPad, but it’s simply too big to slip into his jacket pocket.
In reality, there are both types of people buying Fires, those who don’t want spend the current price of the iPad even though they prefer the larger form factor, and those who actually prefer the smaller form factor. Under Tim Cook, I believe Apple will go after both segments, first with a less expensive iPad 2 at the time they release the iPad HD/3 (next week), second with 7″-8″ form factor iPod or iPad later this fall. The fall is the fastest that Apple is able to get the 7″ machine ready, since Tim didn’t make that decision until after SJ passed. I love Steve, and would certainly prefer him over Tim as CEO, but he did occasionally have blind spots and then defend them stubbornly. Cook may not be as visionary as Steve was, but I think he will push more aggressively in this area (as well as in the enterprise).