“I am a big believer that the iPad in its current form can suffice for many mass market consumers as a notebook replacement. I do not believe the same is true of of a smaller iPad,” Ben Bajarin writes for TechPinions.
“These two different sized iPads will also offer different software experiences. I do not believe that we will simply see scaled up iPhone apps or scaled down versions of current iPad apps on an iPad mini,” Bajarin writes. “This product will shine with custom applications and experiences built for the new screen size.”
Bajarin writes, “The BIG opportunity I see for the iPad Mini is to cater to how families or communities use these devices as shared screens in a communal environment. I’ve articulated this before, the concept of a shared screen versus a personal screen, and I think the 7-8″ tablet may represent the perfect form factor for a shared device… These experiences can exist of course on larger tablets but I have a hunch that the smaller tablet form factor will encourage the shift away from the sentiment that the device is mine to the device is ours.”
Read more in the full article here.
I think Apple should put out a stylus as an accesory then… Game over.
Gee, you forgot to mention a keyboard, 3 USB ports, an HDMI port, memory card slot, 4 cameras, an IR port and don’t forget the toaster functionality from the heat it generates.
Make sure you’re around on October 23rd. I’m taking you out for lunch at this little restaurant that makes a good crow soup.
It has to have a Centronics port, how would all of us out there with 20 year old PC legacy dongles and printers ever connect them!
(I am only half joking) Afriend wanted to junk his old legacy PeeCeee and replace it with a Mac, This only thing holding him back (for more than 5 years) was the (centronics) dongle for a piece of software he had. He told me he went to best buy (last time 4 years ago) and they told him he had to get another PC because Mac’s were’t PC compatible and didn’t have centronics (parallel) ports…. (and so he bought another 4 years ago)
So this time I called the company, they have had USB dongles (for over 10 years) and would exchange it free.
So often times it happens, that we live our lives in chains, and we never even know we have the key .
No, bluejay didn’t. A quality, fine-point stylus would be a perfect addition. SJ was right about stylus-based OS; they’re clunky and a royal PITA to use.
However, there are many apps where a stylus would be incredibly handy for fine detail work, like doing masks in photo apps, drawing and editing lines in vector graphics, editing waveforms in audio apps, sketching and painting in art apps, and for writing and note-taking. Just because YOU have no vision, no ability to see the advantages of what a stylus offers for detailed work, doesn’t mean that many, many others don’t.
Go to Things Remembered, they have a stylus they advertise for the iPad.
I disagree. I suspect a smaller iPad will tend to become an even more personal device.
Yeah, he had me til that point.
Yup. An iPad mini is supremely placed as a gaming platform and home automation device (iRemote).
Yep. If the iPad mini turns out to be what I think it is, and the price I think they’re shooting for ($250), I’ll have one on day one, and it will be my new favorite whole-house remote control with iRule running on it.
At the $250-300 price point, I can justify having a couple of them. At $500, I just kept hanging on to my original iPad, which still works fine.
Can’t wait.
What is he smokin?
For a device to be communal (ours rather than mine) The iPad is about the smallest you could go for viewing content. iPhone is too small, iPad mini too small.
My wife and I have a iPad 3. She synced it to her MBP. That iPad is hers now (she beat me to it actually). I’m getting the 200mm version for me.
In my house, the iPad has become the “our” device while I expect the iPad mini to be “mine”.
I’ll stay with the devices as MINE, until someone else pays for it. Then I can call it OURS.
Lol, you took my response.
Yours or mine…..Either way the Mini succeeds.
As an investor in AAPL, I saw young people as the main market in the holiday season, then I read about the huge data centre going into Hong Kong and the plans to expand the number of Apple Stores in China. I realized THE big market for the iPad mini is likely China.
The big opportunity for an iPad mini is in education.
Where, for them to be put to the most effective use, they will be used in a one-to-one ratio with students… not as shared devices.
Advantages of the Mini; in-car entertainment and navigation, (dash mounted), ebook reader, (perfect pocketable paperback book size), gaming, back-country navigation, with small-scale, contour maps installed. Much easier to read than on an iPhone, easier to plot and edit routes. Via one app, I can install British Ordnance Survey, American Geo Survey, French, Finnish… and many other contour maps onto the device, making it a perfect navigation tool. Cloud-based mapping sucks.
If I can find the funds, an iPad Mini will be ordered as soon as possible, to go with my iPad (3) and my iP5. I can see so many uses for it, it’ll be with me all the time.
My wife and I will be being buying 4-5 if the price is right. We held off on the iPhone 5’s just the fact that there’s a huge possibility that the iPad mini is def coming this time. I’m a father of 5 beautiful kids. These will be their gifts from Santa if all our wishes come true 🙂