“The iPad Mini appears to be trouncing the iPad in popularity based on estimates coming out of the Asia-based supply chain,” Brooke Crothers reports for CNET.
“Of the 19.5 million iPads sold in Apple’s second quarter (January to March), 12.5 million were iPad Minis, according to an estimate from Taipei-based Digitimes that cited sources,” Crothers reports. “Of course, only Apple (which does not break down iPad and iPad Mini sales) knows the real number, but this jibes with shipment trends that DisplaySearch was seeing in December.”
Crothers reports, “The popularity of the Mini comes despite having a relatively low-resolution non-Retina display and older silicon compared with the iPad 4. So, it appears that the Mini’s price, starting at $329, and its chic, lightweight design are driving demand.”
Read more in the full article here.
Related articles:
Ars Technica reviews Apple’s iPad mini: You’ll find yourself reaching for it over a full-sized iPad with Retina display – November 6, 2012
Gruber: Why Apple didn’t choose iPad mini size for original iPad – November 6, 2012
24 hours with Apple’s iPad mini: This is the real iPad – November 6, 2012
I own both and always reach for the mini.
The iPad Retina is preferable as a moving map in the airplane though. Lots of small details and little farther than arm’s length.
I own both as well but use the iPad apart 100% when at home. When I travel then I take the mini though. I may be a minority but I really like the full size iPad much better. The screen on the mini is just a tad small and seems blurry from non-retina display.
Seems weird that folks want a bigger phone and smaller ipad? Grass is always greener I guess. (I’m actually changing my opinion that a larger 5″ iPhone would help out a lot of the 40 folks who have troubled with small display)
It’s not weird at all. Due to an increase in mobile computing, a new, highly important concept is being recognised- the nexus where two key things intersect. The biggest screen possible matched with the highest level of portability. The tablet defines one end of rhe spectrum, the phone represents the other. Essentially, these two are meeting in the middle to give us the best of both worlds. Make the tablet smaller in order to optimize portability. Make the phone bigger in order to optimize functionality.
I’m a man and I don’t use those girly iPads.
When you open your man bag to hide your girly iPad, tear up your man card while you are at it.
There’s your problem right there. You needed a card to determine your gender.
Gender is a term of grammar. You mean sex, which is a term of biology.
No I meant gender. Particularly in terms of gender identity as opposed to genitalia which though enough for most of us might not be enough for someone who believes his choice of accessory can change his identity.
Grammarians might prefer that gender only have one meaning, but language is a living thing. If you must fight for language go after the folks who misuse “loose” or say “borrow me” something.
I sold my iPad 2 and bought a mini, made £50 profit and it’s the best device I have ever owned.
I bought a Book Book with the profit and it might as well be surgically attached to my hand.
Brilliant device, incredible service.
What’s a “Book Book”?
It’s a case that looks like a hardcover book on the outside.
That makes sense, we’re still in a RECESSION people!!
Don’t believe the BS the media and the government says that we’re out of it.
We’ve subreptitiously been taken over by war-loving , false-flag events loving globalists since the 90’s
Welcome to 1984
Take your meds.
Digitimes.
That’s all
Yep. “only Apple knows the real number” has not stopped digitimes yet.
I’m still waiting for an RD iPad Mini which might be a longer wait than expected from what I’m reading with screen supply issues. In the meantime my RD iPad 3 fills the bill. It will be interesting to see what my own preference will be when the time arrives. A good problem to have. My wife has the iPad 1 and I think she’ll really embrace the iPad Mini having to schlep it to work for a train ride downtown recreation. She used to have a Kindle, now gathering dust for some time.
I am hoping the articles which claim there is a supply strain on 7.9 inch retina displays is total crap.
Since there is no iPad mini sold yet, the yields to mass produce the screen do not yet have the demands from customers. The fact that iPhone and iPad are size options that clearly prove retina is capable of 7.5 inch or 4 inch – suggests why would it be hard to make a medium size screen. However the statement does allude to the idea Apple will make iPad mini retina available. So rejoice.
Everything you mentioned is based upon a rumor.
ol’ Steve was wrong about that one.
I wonder about that too. Did he know it would be a very popular form factor, however, the tech was not ready for prime time; wanted to encourage the larger tablet form factor first; or just swing and miss???
swing and miss i reckon. happens to the best. however he was arrogant about it with his ‘sand your fingers’ remark. i have an ipad and much prefer the minis i have doodled with. waiting (impatiently) for the retina.
read somewhere (I forget where) that Jobs had a hand in product designs 3-5 years out. It may be awhile before insiders open up about it, but I’m guessing he knew about it. They were probably waiting for screen/battery/chip developments to get to a point where the smaller form factor could work.
I think you hit it out of the park.
At the time, other companies were releasing 7″ tablets, and 16×9 tablets. He was right about both of those being the wrong form factor. The tech also wasn’t there to make the mini as light as it is. He probably needed a bit of convincing at first, but I’m sure if he were around, he’d be gloating over how it took Apple to get it right…
eh, 7.9″ is close enough to 7″…he was still wrong, he went on about how you’d have to chisel your fingertips to use the smaller form. Even Lord Steve-o could be wrong.
lol, just not very goddamn often.
Actually it is closer to 8″
Steve wasn’t wrong, the Mini’s screen area is much larger than a 7″ tablet.
The day Steve went on the rant against 7″ tabs I posted here that it was a short matter of time before he ate crow on that claim. Sure the rant was probably just trash talking the competition, but a smaller ipad was only obvious.
Yes, it was obvious long ago the iPad mini out sold iPad.
It also should be a beta test for Apple to prove a less expensive phone is needed.
And still, the complication of the product line is in need of clarification. Apple offers 3 screen sized devices:
9.5 inches, a LARGE screen retina; seen on iPad
7.9 inches, a MEDIUM screen not retina yet; on iPad mini
4.0 inches, a SMALL screen retina; iPhone & iPod touch
Again categories for Apple devices could be better organized as:
iPhone in Large, Medium, Small / 32, 64, 128 Gb
iPad in Large, Medium, Small / 32, 64, 128 Gb
The difference becomes obvious one category has cellular phone carrier services while the other does not. Apple avoids convergence with the category yet provides clear options. Plus, Apple reins as Worlds largest phone – even with it’s medium offer at 7.9.
I keep my iPad at home. It goes well in every room of the house. At times it goes with me outside – example vacations – where iPad mini is the daily device for doing Keynotes, Vector drawing, setting type, Pages and PDFs and some Garageband are welcoming on a screen with more REAL-ESTATE. And iPhone just doesn’t cut it for those things.
If Apple makes the iPad mini with retina and cellular telephone capabilities it will be a clear winner.
Samsungs 6.3 inch Phablet will be the device that is truly TROUNCED by iPad mini.
The Retina iPad is 9.7 in
Apple rains (it’s wet)
Apple reins (a horse?)
Apple reigns is probably what the author meant. But can we be sure?
They all sound the same, but they mean different things.
Personally, I await the iHorse which will replace the horseless carriage.
Only idiots could not have seen this happening.
I bought a wifi Mini to replace my first gen iPad. Its size and weight were fantastic for white coat pockets. Speedy wifi too. I did miss having a cellular connection, not to mention the bigger screen was too good to give up. So currently I have a Retina iPad full size again. But for cost conscious folks, the Mini just rocks. And crushes all the copy cats handily.
Gee, anyone else remember MDN ripping people who wanted a smaller tablet than the original iPad?
I sure do.
There is a difference in being wrong after the fact and being right for the times.
The big iPads sure gave the competition a huge headache.
Guess they didn’t iCal it.
If the iPad Mini is “trouncing” the iPad, what is it doing to Android tablets?
with Apple tablets now falling under a 40% market share, NOT GOOD ENOUGH. and yes, i say this with the upmost affection for Apple. The last thing we want to see is a long slow decline in iOS market share, accompanied by an exodus of 3rd party developers to inferior, fragmented platforms. It happened before to the Mac before, for those who care to remember.
Sure, you say, profits are great today. But the reason Apple stock got slaughtered for 8 months is because Cook hasn’t done squat to show that Apple can retain enough market share in the future to maintain the rate of increase in those profits. Instead of delivering new hardware or sales campaigns to combat the competition, Cook is playing stock price games.
Where’s the family of iPhones that Cook may or may not have stuck somewhere up his long, slow pipeline?
Android makers may currently not make any money with their copycat OS. But the exact same could be said for Microsoft’s Windows when it started to undercut Apple’s prices on the way to a >90% PC market share (which Cook seems uninterested in clawing back, despite the perfect opportunity that MS gave Cook by rolling out the completely hideous Windows 8). Apple’s international Mac presence is slim at best in many areas, but Cook has bungled the retail expansion. New Mac models would bring new customers into stores, but Cook screwed up the iMac introduction and doesn’t seem very interested in pushing retina displays across the entire Mac range, nor making competitive bids for educational, institutional, or enterprise contracts. And power users are still waiting for that new Mac Pro. Clearly Cook’s one-track mind is currently focused on appeasing Wall Street instead of managing Apple’s business for maximum benefit to the Apple community OR long-term prosperity of Apple investors outside of Goldman Sachs and those “investors” who are gifted millions of dollars worth of shares by the board just because the real leader and co-founder of the company made the mistake of believing that diligent effort was equivalent to decisive leadership. Cook indeed is acting more and more like Apple’s Ballmer (except Ballmer updates products more often).
And to think there were those who said it wouldn’t come.
Your posts really cover the topic well. Would like to subscribe to future posts.