“Will Apple lowball the iPad Mini? That’s a crucial question for competitors staring down the barrel of a smaller Apple tablet, an analyst told CNET,” Brooke Crothers reports for CNET
“The answer comes down to whether Apple wants to ‘crush the opposition’ or just maintain dominance, said Rhoda Alexander, an analyst at IHS iSuppli,” Crothers reports. “‘And the price point would be how they do that,’ she said.”
Crothers reports, “While a $299 price tag “would sit in a more comfortable place as far as a profit,” Alexander believes Apple could go as low as $249 for an entry level model. At the high end, $349 is price Alexander often hears. That model would come with 4G LTE… [Google’s] Wi-Fi-only Nexus 7 is a tougher sell on international markets, particularly Asia, where [cellular connectivity] is necessary, according to Alexander. In contrast, a smaller, cheaper iPad with 3G/4G capability in Asia would be an extremely attractive product, she said.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: When and if people see the difference in screen space between a 7-inch 16:9 Fragmandroid POS vs. a 7.85-inch 4:3 iPad, even a $100 premium would be seen as a tremendous bargain.
Market share is stupid, go for profit, as Apple currently does in the mobile phone market.
Perhaps if you are selling a stand alone product. However, Apple has an ecosystem of complementary devices and services and more users/credit card imprints in that ecosystem is the goal.
$349 for a Retina Display 7.85″ iPad wouldn’t be too shabby. $299 a deal clincher.
If the can sell the LTE version for $350 they will sell like hotcakes. It would be the perfect portable computer.
Put dialer software on it and charge 349.
Sales of the original ipad are about to nosedive. Sad but true.
Hmm.
• Cannibalize the iPad 10″.
• Make meagre or no profit in order to compete with no profit competitors.
• Decrease the functionality of the iPad on a smaller screen.
LET’S DO IT BABY! YEAH! 😯
I think the mini will completely take the K-12 education market, but I can’t see me giving up my full size iPad for a mini.
Apple has already “crushed the opposition.”
MDN’s take makes a great point: A 4:3 7.85″ iPad would have 40% more screen area than the typical 16:9 7″ tablet competition–a huge difference.
Whatever.
Just let me buy the darn thing already.
‘Crush the opposition’ in a no-profit market niche.
Whoopee wow. zzzzzz 😯
Exactly. Apple is the new Dell – spearheading a race to the bottom with razor (razour?) -thin margins. 🙂
Yeah. More of that obtuse John Browett marketing-moron self-destructive BizThink. I’m not pleased with where this is going.
Read “the innovators delimma” and you’ll understand why Apple needs to make a smaller iPad, and why they need to price it low.