“Apple will introduce its 7.85-inch, $249, iBook-focused iPad mini at a special event on October 23,” Jonny Evans writes for Computerwolrd.
“The device will be aimed at smaller tablets such as the Kindle Fire,” Evans writes. “The launch should also see Apple ship the latest version of iTunes, this seems likely to offer new iBook-supporting features designed to boost iPad and iPad mini (iBook?) sales over the holiday period.”
“Apple has been expected to introduce the iPad mini at an aggressive price. Now it seems the device will cost from €249 in Europe [via: Mobile Geeks]. If the company stays in line with the cost of the existing iPad, this suggests you’ll be able to pick up an iPad mini at prices from $249 in the US,” Evans writes. “This will create a nightmare for competitors in the tablet space at the cost of a few lost iPod touch sales.”
Read more in the full article here.
Competition is such a great thing, isn’t it? (At least for Apple it is.)
This will likely be for the 8 GB model. The 16 GB model will be $349, 32 GB $449, and the 64 GB version $549 for the WiFi only versions. The anchor price will seem low, but the margin will be made on the larger capacity versions. Expect competitors to offer more capacity at lower prices, but the public won’t care, the $249 base price is all that is important.
You could always buy a small memory iPad mini or whatever. You’ve already got your music on your Mac and your iPhone.
I’d be very surprised if anybody outside of Apple truly knows the selling prices at this stage, but if the rumours say $249 and the actual price turns out to be higher, that will be another excuse to mark down the stock price.
However, pricing will be critical and if Apple actually do sell a mini iPad at that price, then that will pretty well bury the competition. Only Apple has the experience, know how, supply chain and distribution channel to produce a quality product at that sort of price and get them in volume onto the shelves so rapidly.
I think this could be a very important product for Apple as it could fill that gap between a full blown iPad and a Touch.
Age-wise, it could attract 10 yr olds upwards (or even younger!) as a realistic offer for their parents to buy and could indeed be THE device that schools take on board. With the popularity of education sites, such as Khan Academy, this product may well sell in their hundreds of millions.
It could also attract adults who don’t want the larger (and heavier) iPad but rather a more discreet device they can carry around and read books / watch a movie in the car/train/plane etc.
It could also be the product that takes the Apple share price into the $800 – $1,000 region.
Much will depend on the price and the features on the device.
My niece will be buying one for her 3 year old. It’s the only way she can get her iPad back.
heh.
$249 is the highest that Apple can really go on a device of this nature and still deliver a devestating blow to the 7inch tablet space. At $299 or higher the premium over a Kindle HD or the Nexus 7 would be too much of a barrier to make the mini a “no-brainer.” Many would probably still make the mini their choice but not enough for it to create the iPod effect in the tablet space that Apple would be looking for. $249 is a good price for Apple since it puts the product at a slight price premium that gives it the appearance of being an overall superior device, but doesn’t put it out of range for an impulse purchase or holiday gift. At $249 I can get both my kids one for Christmas. At $299 I cannot.
Of course if by some miracle the mini debuts at $199, then …. BOOM!!!!!!!!!
You nailed it!
+1 … agreed with the $199 BOOM part.
$249 for the 8 GB version is just good, but not exiting.
$349 for the 16 GB version would be ridiculous.
$100 fo just 8 GB more would really be a joke.
Tim, don’t do this!
Hopefully they will really update the iBooks Author. It was a great 1.0 release, but then nothing happened until now. Will iBooks Author be the new Pages 09?
Hopefully Apple learned its lesson from the old days when it put only 512KB or 1GB of DRAM in its computers (filling all available slots). With modern Apple mobile devices, you cannot even add more memory, so it would be a crime to start people out with too little.
An 8GB version would not be wise. It is easy to fill up 32GB, as my wife just found out when taking videos at my daughter’s swim meet last weekend. One-quarter of that space would be overly limiting. If the Mac mini is primarily intended to be a content consumption device, then it had better start with *at least* 16GB. I would prefer 32GB as the new memory floor for next-generation Apple iOS devices, but that is likely expecting too much. Apple makes a lot of profit on the 32GB and 64GB versions of iOS devices.
Oh boy! $249 is what I was hoping for. But not certain that Apple can do that. If they can release an iPad mini for $249 they will kick some serious ass! The competition will be singing the blues.
Of course Apple “can” do that, they have enough billions to absorb a smaller margin (heck, they could give away every single mini they make for the next year and barely blink). The question is will/would they. Historically, as we all know, they haven’t cared about market share per se. But in this market segment Apple is playing catch-up, assuming they’re not releasing anything radically different from the current iPad and touch.
Precisely my point. Obviously they can, but will they? Will they sacrifice margins to gain market share? Of course, everybody understands that. We’ll see soon.
NewsFLASH! Breaking News!
A fairy told Faux Newz that the New Apple iPad mini will be made by leprechauns at a special LEED Platinum certified factory on Atlantis and will be delivered to pre-order customers by Unicorns with logistics co-cordinated by a special contract with Santa Claus.
The fairy also said the reason Apple has stealthily rescheduled and repeatedly said nothing about said iPad mini is because they are so damn good at keeping secrets.
Here’s a question for other MDN readers/posters. I bought the first Amazon Kindle e-reader. I sold it when the iPad was first released because I found the UI on the Kindle to be incredibly confusing and obtuse. I like to read and I have no issues with reading on the 3rd gen iPad unless I’m outdoors, which I try to be as often as I can. The iPad sucks outdoors. The new Kindle Paperwhite looks like a device that could make all other e-readers obsolete IMHO. Has anyone here anything to say from hands-on experience about the Paperwhite? I don’t think I could live without my iPad, but I am not convinced that it’s the greatest e-reader. That having been said, I have quite a few books that I’ve bought from the iBookstore in anticipation of being able to read them on the iPad, so I will need to read them there or buy them again for the Paperwhite. I find myself wondering if Apple might address the shortcomings (in my mind) of the iPad as an e-reader. Anyone have any thoughts? I am not enamored of the idea of buying all of my books from Amazon, as I already buy enough stuff from them and I like giving some of my money to Apple. Quite a quandary, huh? I feel like the 3 members of the panel on the SNL skit when confronted by the Chinese factory workers.
iPad Nano?
I know a few people have mentioned pricing bumping up against the iPod Touch… here’s how I envision this being worked out:
iPod Touch (4th gen, 16gb) $199
iPad Mini (16gb) $249
iPod Touch (5th gen, 32gb) $299
iPad Mini (32gb) $349
iPod Touch (5th gen, 64gb) $399
iPad Mini (64gb) $449
There… problem solved!
iPod Touch starts at $299. Are you suggesting the will drop the price of a one month old product? They will have to issue refunds to all that have bought it. Does not seem likely.
Oh the new touch starts at 32 GB. Still it’s will be a weird overlap on these 2 products. The Mini will kill sales of the touch.
I don’t think the iPad mini will necessarily impact iPod touch sales as much as you think. They’re two significantly different products. The iPod touch is “pocketable”, so you can run, cycle, hike, trail climb, etc. with it. The iPad mini will be more portable than the iPad, but you still can’t throw it in a jeans, coat, or vest pocket the way you can a touch.
Agreed that should be the price to make an impact, but they just released the iPod touch starting at $299. Either the leave the touch to die or the Mini will be priced at a point that will not steal sales from Kindle Fire users ($349 and up).
The iPad mini at 8 GB for $249 will not conflict with the iPod touch pricing. I see two very different markets. Few read books, or watch (with an regularity) movies on an iPod touch. Most still use it primarily for music and games. The iPad mini will have a book and video focus. Further, a 16 GB iPod touch can be had for $199, and a 32 GB for $299. With a starting point of $249 for an 8 GB version, the 16 GB version of the iPad mini will be at least $299 and more likely $329 of $349. The lines are clearly differentiated by focus and price.
8 GB for a content delivery device? The touch does not even go in that territory. The new Kindle Fire with 16 GB at $199 easily will garner that market if that is Apple’s plan. You see a different market but I still see the Mini cannibalizing touch sales. They essentially do the exact same thing only the consumer will want the bigger screen for a similar price. In this case Apple need to match the competitions price point. I not sure that will happen since they commited to the new gen touch this year, with a higher price then the Fire HD.
By your logic, nobody would ever have any reason to pay the premium to buy a MacBook Air. Think about it: People have different priorities and different applications for their toys and tools. The iPad mini will not cannibalize iPod touch sales as much as you think.
Or the iPad. Apple has proven people will pay a premium for a quality product. The only reason this product exists (probably against Jobs wishes) is to compete with lower cost e-readers. The iPad already exists. Either the iPad mini will be heavily gimped (maybe less powerful then the Touch) but excellent for ebooks and video content to meet that price point or in a weird middle ground that does not make much sense.
You missed my point. I wasn’t comparing the MacBook Air to competitors; I was comparing it to the MacBook Pro.
Your notion was that nobody would purchase an iPod touch any longer because the larger-screen iPad mini would be a no-brainer. Using the same logic, nobody would ever buy a 13″ MacBook Air for $1200 when for the same or a few hundred more, they could get a “better” MacBook Pro. But, just as in the iPod touch/iPad mini example, the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro computers have different design goals and therefore mostly different buyers with differing priorities.
My point is that people will pay more for what is seemingly less (smaller screen) to get something else (portability).
We’ll see…
Okay got you. You may be right, we will see.
Interesting they just got rid of their third form factor in laptops with the 17″ MB Pro. Yet have gained 3 in the iPad space (iPad, iPad Mini, Touch).
8GB for an iPad Mini, that will probably aimed for textbooks and books, may be too little space. Those textbooks they were showing up with rich features were coming in close to 1gb each.
Agreed! Maybe they will push iCloud as a solution to that limitation.