“Apple may be working on a new entry-level tablet scheduled to launch early next year,” Zach Epstein reports for BGR. “In a note to investors on Wednesday, Ticonderoga Securities analyst Brian White recounted numerous meetings with technology supply chain companies at a trade show in China this week.”
Epstein reports, “White’s meetings with Apple suppliers has turned up an interesting note… ‘Our research is pointing to the unveiling of a lower priced iPad in the first few months of 2012 that is aimed at expanding the company’s market potential by tapping into a more price sensitive consumer segment’ the analyst wrote. ‘Essentially, this ‘iPad mini’ will also fend off the recently announced Amazon Kindle Fire that addresses the low-end tablet market with a $199 price tag but could lead to bigger tablet ambitions from the online retailer in the future.’ White continued, noting that the ‘mini’ moniker refers to the tablet’s lower price and not necessarily a smaller screen size. ‘We believe this lower priced iPad could be priced in the mid-to-high-$200 range,’ White said. ‘We expect this will be followed by a much more powerful, feature rich standard-priced iPad 3 in 2Q12.'”
Read more in the full article here.
Yeah, apple is afraid of the kindle fire… Lol
Apple always does this, though. As the price of technology comes down, you get more for the same price. If they need to expand the offering, they keep the old version around as well for a lower price.
I can imagine an iPad 2 will still be offered after the iPad 3 goes on sale, only it will be $100 less.
People will claim that Apple is doing this to “fend off android competition” when in reality, it is simply the standard Apple way of extending its product line without undermining its value proposition.
This is pretty much what I suspect too – – except that particularly if the iPad3 goes Retina Display, the iPad2 discount may very well be by $200 (hits the $299 psychological price point) … and then the key answer will be if it is left in production, not unlike the iPhone 3GS.
-hh
And – in this 3 tear system…
iPhone 3gs/4/4s
there will be the…
iPad 1/2/3
plus the iPodTouch – there is no need for a new model or a 7 inch display.
I think you mean tier not tear, though the competition is shedding tears so I’ll give you credit for a clever pun. Kudos.
This could be true. The iPad 2 with less memory (8GBs?), will sell for less and the iPad 3 will sell at standard prices or even a small premium for the double resolution display.
However, this all does not come to “iPad mini”.
BGR is tabloid/yellow media, which invents the “news” half of the time.
Almost as much as they’re afraid of the zune
These analysts make up stories to create buzz. I guess he’s expecting a Nobel Prize for investigative reporting. He is an A.H.!
No they wooooonn’tt . . . .
A cheaper iPad would be the iPad 2 WiFi only carrying over when the iPad 3 comes out.
Fool me once shame on you. Fool me twice shame on me. Come to think of it…shame on all these so-called anal cysts. You baited me for the last time losers.
Kindle Fire might die, someday, but not sure if that will happen upon arrival. Though the verdict shall remain inconclusive until the after Christmas return line is exhausted.
W.r.t. Apple releasing a iPad mini, I wonder if that will happen right after they release their long overdue iNetbook. If anything, I expect Apple to someday release a Kindle competing iPad-X that may also sport e-ink as needed on the fly.
Yes – just like we saw an iPhone mini announced last week.
And now comes the FudMasters
Apple MAY be working on flying cars, replicators, fusion power, warp drive and transporters too but I wouldn’t count on it.
C’mon iJetPack!
phasers…I want to see phasers
if there was a 200 dollar iPad, that would just take sales away from the iPod touch.
Just like the Amazon Kindle Fire will do. Those who think this is competing with the iPad are wrong — it’s going to compete more with the iPad Touch. And it will do fairly well with many consumers. The 7″ screen is much more enjoyable for media consumption than the small iPod Touch screen, and 7″ is still relatively portable. For those who want something to fit in their pocket, however, this isn’t really an option. And for those who want something more fully functional, they’ll buy the iPad.
Right, because surely Amazon is also sporting a customised SoC (withing that non-profit margin) that delivers power to the resource happy games without draining the battery.
The Kindle Fire is less portable and less capable than an iPod Touch. Do you realize how lame it’s going to seem in comparison?
“What? You mean this big fancy 7 inch tablet actually does less than an iPod? And in exchange for its screen size, its sole advantage, I can’t even put it in my pocket?”
It won’t compete against anything Apple makes. But it will kick the snot out of other Android tablets, and cause Google to wail and gnash their teeth because their services have been removed from it.
My iPod touch has a 47″ screen with Airplay. Take that Kindle.
Not necessarily. The iPod touch is all about portability. The iPad is about functionality. A 7″ iPad tweener minus the back camera, targeted at the price sensitive and the people who like paperback books might now be a bad thing.
It’d be pretty hard to shove that thing in your pocket.
Steve Ballmer’s pockets, maybe.
All things considered, the Kindle is a great product for what it was made for…to read books. I noticed many Mac users have a kindle. Hell my wife is going to buy one to read and share books with her sister. We all have iPads but they suck when trying to read when you are sitting outside in the bright light. That is ok, I love my iPad for everything else.
If Apple made a kindle-like screen for reading in a dumbed down ‘reading’ tablet, I would think Amazon could get wiped out but until then, Kindle will thrive and probably grow.
Give credit where credit is due.
To me, I can’t stand the kindle screen.
I had my uncles for a weekend, I read on it for about an hour… And went back to the iPad.
As for outside, when I’m outside I’m around outdooorsy stuff… Bikes, lawn mower, weed eater, fly pole, boat, guns, cigars…
iPad or kindle would be nowhere in sight. Wait, at night with a good cigar I do have my iPad.
Makes sense and sounds like something Apple would do.
” fend off” kindle???
Kindle is a reader. Kindle doesn’t come close to, never mnd compete with iPad by any stretch of the imagination.
Apple already has an iPad mini. It is called the iPod touch… next…
Smart – yes I think you are right.
And to add to that… as Apple prepares for the iPad3
the original iPad will be reduced in price – so they don’t require a new device.
(similar marketing idea as the iPhone 3gs)
Apple likes the Kindle Fire, I think. There will always be customers who are (initially) unwilling to risk $500 or more to buy an iPad, because it’s something new and unfamiliar. But the HP TouchPad fire sale showed that many of them are willing to take the “leap” at a lower price, even if the product is significantly inferior.
Apple is not losing customers in the near term, because those customers would not have purchased an iPad in the first place. However, in the longer term, Kindle Fire will train them to be tablet users. Once they are comfortable with using a tablet, they will want to upgrade hardware at some point. At that point, they WILL consider paying more to get an iPad. Kindle Fire is training future generations of iPad customers, who would not exist if the low-cost Kindle Fire did not exist.
Amazon is not stupid either. Amazon will make its content-selling services fully accessible to iOS users. Since the purpose of Kindle Fire is to profit from selling content (not from selling hardware), Amazon loses nothing if a Kindle Fire user later buys an iPad and continues to use Amazon’s services. It may even improve profits, because Amazon actually loses profit on every Kindle Fire sold. So, Amazon ALSO benefits from having created a larger base of tablet users.
Why a “iPad mini”? Why not a “Fat iPod touch”? Apple made it’s self very clear about the minimum size of the iPad but not the maximum size of an iPod touch.
Bollocks…. How many hairbrain theories have we heard about in the past? Apple making cheaper ripoffs? This crap theory goes around with every device that Apple makes. U see Ferrari making a Toyota Corolla competitor?
iPad Reader, that’s what they need
This will not happen, at least not until they can get an affordable retina display in a size that would fill a 6-7″ iPad.
Unless Apple wants California to fall off the end of the US, witch would happen when Steve creates a massive earthquake from spinning in his grave.
They have one already… the iPod Touch… geez!
There will not be a iPad mini, what the fuck!! It’s like the rumors about iPhone mini…there is no iPhone mini nor there will be an iPad mini. At the most the iPad 1 will drop price drastically, like it happened with iPhone 3GS. For good sake, people will never understand.
Probably iPhone 5 migth have a 4inch screen, but iPad reducing the size of the screen? Neve, it will never happen. Apple didn’t spend all that time testing screen sizes, and bad mouthing all thoses small sizes screens, just too make an iPad mini.
There is one, and only one, reason Apple would do this. To dry up the supply chain to limit the amount of production that Amazon could do. Not really worth their time though. And while on the subject of Amazon, if I ever see Jeff Bezos wearing Steve’s uniform again I’m going to go postal… well probably not, but good god man, come up with your own look. Clown. Oh wait. Bozo.
…and in other news, a team of Grizzly Bear scientists are working on a way to create a smaller, less powerful bear to help them fend off kittens.
If they make a 7″ model they should call it the iPad mini
Amazon’s got to sell a lot of content to break even as they’re selling the Fire at a loss.
Fire fire at Amazon! Ooppz…Kindle is gone!