“Gene Munster with Piper Jaffray believes that Apple’s rumored smaller iPad would be priced at $299 with 16 gigabytes of storage, given the company’s $199 8-gigabyte iPod touch, and its $399 16-gigabyte iPad 2,” Neil Hughes reports for AppleInsider.
“Sandwiched right in the middle of those two existing products, he sees a smaller iPad cannibalizing 10 percent of existing iPad sales, but also taking away 30 percent of total Android tablet sales in the December quarter,” Hughes reports. “‘We believe this implies that Apple could sell 4-6 million smaller iPads in the December quarter, assuming a holiday launch,’ Munster wrote in a note to investors on Monday. ‘If the launch occurs in (the fourth quarter), we believe the smaller iPad would add about 1% to revenue and (earnings per share) in December.'”
Hughes reports, “Munster expects that Apple will introduce its smaller iPad at the same event that it will unveil its next-generation iPhone. He also expects that Apple will refresh its Apple TV set-top box, which he admitted “could make for a crowded event.'”
Read more in the full article here.
There will never ever be an iPad Mini!!!!
It goes against everything Apple. Nice try media 😉
Yes they will!
Bahahaha… Wow was I wrong LOL…
Press reports say that Amazon sold 5 million Kindle Fires during last year’s Christmas season, so these forecasts are not big numbers …
iPod touch price reduced to $149.
7″ iPod touch HD/XL whatever $199.
Though more like touch stays at $149 and 7″ iPod comes in at $249 for 8gb.
Would be nice to see apple leverage it’s supply chain advantages to hit the lower prices and deliver a killing blow.
I see lots of reasons for apple to not do a 7″ iPad; hard to see the negatives to a 7″ iPod touch, however.
I can give you one; 7″ is way too big for a 640X960 resolution.
If there was to be such a creature (super-sized iPod touch) it would need be under 6″ more likely around 5″.
And to bring it out at $200 (the current price of the touch) it would need to be a plastic piece of crap (like the android tablets) and apple is not going there. I would think $300 would be an absolute minimum for a quality metal cased mini tablet.
Poor Gene, appears he’s not writing about the Apple TV so much.
I see lots of reasons for a 7″. It is the IDEAL with the retina display to fit in a coat pocket, doctors/nurses pocket, warehouse manager, stock control personnel, and lots more that have not been mentioned. The problem with the iPad in it it current size is that it has to be held or has to have a shoulder strap pouch to carry it around.
There are millions of personnel who need information control devices that need to be carried throughout the day. Full iPads require either a place to “set it down” or to be “held” the whole time. Coat size pockets are already there.
The “coat pocket” market seems to me to be a niche in the overall consumer tablet demand. Wearing a coat or jacket may be de rigueur in some professions, but the percentage of the overall population is still fairly low. The iPad mini smacks of MBA suits in a room running after every market rather than innovating to create new ones.
The iPad mini is a tweener – too small for a tablet and too big for a phone or ipod. I do not see it having an advantage over either that is not better served by the other.
Of Course the coat pocket market is a niche market, but if the niche market is 50 million world wide, then all of the other side markets seperate from that will justify its creation. It is obvious that you haven’t been in many different hospitals and met and watched doctors as they carry around notes and pads and pass them off to nurses or hang them on the ends of beds. Me, I have been in hospitals in many countries and this need/market is far more prevelant and untapped. I have also been in warehouses and watched the note pads and clip boards carried around set down, forgotten and then looked for.
Yammer about its small size but there are already niche electronic pads already out there that size that are not doing the job simply because they are one horse wonders. These one horse wonders cost twice to three times the iPad.
The doctor, nurse, warehouse control niche alone would be a 50 million+ market world wide.
Apple could easily sell that many during the launch week, irrespective of the time of year.. If they can build enough, they could sell 10 million plus over the Christmas period.
However, that depends on the exact price and specification. More importantly, it depends on Apple actually deciding to do it.
A 7.85″ iPad mini would be a logical companion to the new Apple developed iOS 6 mapping application for in-car dashboard installation. You could use an iPad mini for rolling maps when on a hike or bike ride which would be easier to read than the tiny 3.5″ iPhone screen yet be man portable enough to be able to be slipped into a rucksack or backpack.
It would also make an ideal game controller with airplay to Apple TV for output to an LCD TV screen, not to mention act as a remote control for Apple TV when viewing online movies or selecting channels to watch.
$299 would be a sweet spot for education purchases. Apple will be able to leverage off existing supply lines for the A5X processor, flash memory, logic board and Gorilla glass for the iPhone 3GS so the production cost as seen by Apple could be significantly lower than competitors due to the larger production runs based off iPhone and iPad shared parts.
This IS very Ballmer-esque!
$149 and they’ll move up to 8 million.
Add a zero.
If you sell a Porsche at Yugo pricing, you’ll be seeing more than single-digit millions sold.
+1
Holy crap batman if Apple priced a mini tablet at $149 they would be able to easily sell 80 million (not 8 million) in the “december” or “holiday” quarter (& BTW the Christians called, if you aren’t going to call it by it’s real name, they want their holiday back) But I digress…
The problem with such a scenario is they couldn’t possibly make them that fast ( well… and the fact that they would likely be loosing ~$100 on every one they sold. Think about it; Google and Amazon are loosing money selling 7″ plastic-piece-of-crap tablets for $200)