“TNW reported first that Apple’s event [on OCtober 23rd] would focus on educational content—specifically iBooks. We have also independently heard that educational content is being prepared for tomorrow’s presentation,” Jordan Kahn reports for 9to5Mac.
“We have it from reliable sources that the new 7-inch iPad will start at $329,” Kahn reports. “That is a good $80 more than the $250 Barclays Plc estimate. However, even at $329, we still think iPad mini has the best shot at being the education market’s go-to tablet in the months to come.”
Kahn reports, “Apple currently sells the iPad 2 starting at $399, but schools can get in as low as $370 a unit with education pricing. Of course, that’s for Apple’s 10-pack education pricing, which is typically just a starting point as bigger schools have worked out better deals with Apple for larger orders. While we are not sure if Apple plans to highlight education pricing at its event tomorrow, SKUs for the new iPad mini showed it does plan to continue offering the discounted 10 pack for education with the new device. ”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Dan K.” for the heads up.]
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$329.00 will probably stop me from picking it up. $249.00 was the high end I was willing to pay. Looks like I will be looking to get the kids something else for the holidays. That’s 2 less mini’s they will be selling, although Apple will probanly not even notice it.
Unless you are genuinely poor, I cannot understand this sort of attitude. Similarly for people who complain that the vastly superior Mac doesn’t cost the same as cheapo plastic $500 PCs.
When using a tool for business, education or fun — something that is like to be used every day for substantial periods of time — what the heck is $80 for a better, easier to use, more useful product? Over the lifetime of the product, it’s equivalent to what microscopic fraction of a cent per hour?
Exactly – while the price of a mac is generally higher than a windows PC, I gladly pay the premium for the ease of use, customer service, and superior “it just works”.
I agree with you Brian. in addition – What PC comes with an equivalent to iMovie or iPhoto? When the cost of PC software is figured in the price the Mac becomes a better value and is instantly productive out of the box.
My 2008 aluminum Macbook is still my primary laptop. That’s less than 60 cents per day of service and it’s still showing no signs of obsolescence.
I had a 3 year old iMac, I bought it for 1500 (ish)…..SOLD after three years in almost new condition for $700. It was running Lion which cost nothing since I can put Lion OS on more than one iMac for the $29 that it cost me.
You get a PC and its value after 3 years is close to $0. I know because I cannot give away my old PC and it is as powerful as my old iMac was. Nevertheless, lets give it some value…say $250. It originally cost me $1200.
If I sold it for $250, the PC would cost me $950 over 3 years. The iMac would cost me $800 over three years. At the same time I have enjoyed a superior product quality, experience and service.
Now (in the extreme) even if you were to say the PC should fetch $500, the MAC only costs me $200 more. And its still worth it!
Ever tried to get service on a PC….a nightmare. Nobody takes responsibility The manufacturer tells you its Microsoft’s problem, and Microsoft tells you its the manufacturers problem. And round and round you go till you give up.
+1+1+1+++
I’m sorry, I guess you haven’t heard of anything akin to a budget. If I was looking to spend $199 on the mini and then have to adjust to the rumors of a $249 price point and then further accommodate an increase to $329 that’s not an $80 increase, that’s $129 increase over the initial budget. Either way $80 or $129 is still a lot of money, especially when you have to double it so each kid is taken care of. Current pricing rumors aside, if this mini was initially rumored to be released at $329, it never would have been a consideration for Christmas. I cannot justify paying $329 for a device that is filling a niche between the 2 iPhones, 3 iPads, and numerous iPods I already have in the house. Honestly, even if i was looking at the 7 inch space for myself, I would be extremely hard pressed to lay out the extra $129 for the mini over a Nexus 7. Of course this is all speculative at this point since no concrete information has been released. We’ll have to wait and see, however it is not looking that there will be a pair of iPad minis under the Xmas tree this year.
Then I would assume you’ll also be looking to spend as little as possible on apps, patronizing search results, or buying products advertised on the web. This is the problem with the Android strategy of near zero profits on the hardware/software and making it up in advertising revenue.
In case you haven’t heard, everybody tries to economize, Zeke. Everybody.
If Apple wants to mini to make inroads into consumer groups that have never purchased Apple products before, it’ll offer the mini at a moderate price. Margins above 40% are excessive for that purpose. If Apple only appeals to existing Apple fans with the mini, then it will cannibalize sales of full-size iPads, which will cut into earnings.
Buying an Apple product *is* economizing. As alluded to above, my 2008 Macbook is still going strong and shows no signs of obsolescence. It’ll even run Mountain Lion. It’s cost me something like 60 cents per day so far, and that’s a constantly decreasing figure.
I’m with you ob1. We have 4 iPads, 2 iPod Touches, and 2 Iphones in the house and was quite interested in spending 350-400 for an iPad mini with LTE, just for kicks. Now closer to 500 and I’m just not interested. Now I might MIGHT check out one of the Android tablets that are available for 350 with LTE. Or I might not, don’t slam me, people. I hope this is all some misdirection by Apple PR to bring down expectations so they can surprise with a lower price.
Not to slam you, but would you buy a Rolex watch out of the trunk of a Cadillac? That’s the moral equivalent of buying Android. Of course it’s cheaper. Stolen goods usually are.
I would have loved to see Apple profitably market the iPad mini at $249. But it didn’t happen because Apple is in business to make a profit and it doesn’t release junk to reach a price point. It will likely take years for the price to drop to the mid-$200s.
The people who were hoping for $199 iPad mini were fooling themselves. Apple is not in the business of selling hardware near or at cost, particularly when said product will pull some business away from its higher margin iPad products. I believe that a sub-$300 price point would have had psychological significance to many buyers. But $329 is still $170 less than the starting point for the new iPad. If the old $399 iPad2 disappears, that leaves a clear purchasing choice between the iPad and the iPad mini.
If you think that the cost is too high, then wait for a refurb unit or buy one iPad mini rather than two and force the kids to (gasp!) share it. I wouldn’t bet on a quick price reduction (ala the original iPhone) because Apple has been consistent about sticking to its original price points. It took quite a few years to gradually whittle down the price points for the Macbook Pro models, for instance.
In these economic times you have no business deciding what a person can or cannot afford.
All naysaying is spoken by optimistic views. The market sucks. Lots of out of work people and consumer spending is down. Will people buy an iPad Mini at $329…yes. Would some also buy at $399. Yes, because size AKA convenience drives about 25% of purchase behavior. But, would more people buy at $299. Yes (unless you want to argue the law of supply and demand). The question is: will apple make up the 10% margin loss of $30 per unit in additional market share if you compare sales at the two price points. They are betting not. Personally, I think it will be close. If the economy does not pick up in 2013, price will become and even bigger factor.
Seamus…”genuinely poor”??? You are a prick! There are a lot of people that cannot afford the additional $30 much less the $80 Barclay differential. If it was spread out over the life of the unit…different story. But, your cavalier statement is immature.
Don’t be such a sanctimonious prick.
People in china selling their kidneys is “Genuinely Poor”. People in third world economies paying a month, even three months or even a years worth of salary are “Genuinely Poor”. You are far from that, unless you are telling me that $329 is your monthly income.
I’m by no means poor, but I’m a fourteen year old. I was planning on getting one too, but at this price, I think I’m going to pass.
Unless you obtain a good education and get a high-paying job there are going to be a lot of things in life you won’t be able to afford. Just understand why people try to make as much money as possible. You can drive a Toyota or you can drive an Audi. They’ll both get you where you need to go, but some people prefer more expensive autos for many reasons. So, if you need to pass on the Apple product just because it’s more expensive that’s up to you, but you’re the one who has to live with your decision.
Looks like a Nexus 7 could be in your future.
Their “reliable sources” for the $329 number are the dude at 9to5 who pulled that number out of his ass and backed it up with an official looking chart.
That’s a lot less of a “pulled out of an ass” number than $199.
same here, $329 is too much for too little considering iPad2 is available for $399.00
I shall continue to hope that Apple offers a 16 GB iPad mini at $249 or less.
Some have suggested that the basic iPad will cost Apple approximately $200 to bring to market. I think it’s OK for Apple to make a $50 profit on that unit. Other units will produce a slightly higher profit.
The $249 price would leave very little room for competitors. The component cost will go down over time and margins will increase.
This price point offers the fencesitters a more comfortable entry point. More importantly it becomes more affordable for families and individual students as well as school systems. You may have noticed that most people using iOS devices are interested in future iterations of the device. For those starting with the mini many will branch out into a larger iPad and iPhone etc So yes reduce the price and broaden the user base. Seems like a reasonable approach.
I am not saying a $329 base iPad won’t sell, but I am suggesting that the $249 ipad will bring even more people into the iOS ecosytem.
I shall continue to hope at least until I find out if Apple agrees with me.
That amount sounds like a 7-inch with an LTE radio built in or a 32GB Mini with a $70 discount.
This is just ridiculous. There’s no reason for Apple to continue to gouge customers. How much profit do they need to keep making?? Give the consumer a break for once will ya????
As much as they can and still sell every device as fast as they can make them. This is business. They don’t have it out for the public. They have to report to share holders and the street (that doesn’t believe they can sustain this growth). Should anything happen, that cash is going to come in handy. I’m not saying the cash is propping the stock up but it definitely sets a floor for how low it can go. Finding the price point sweet spot so 80% of the population is happy will make them boat loads of cash.
I recently visited some countries abroad and I actually see this device more for the Asia market. China, Korea, Japan and Malaysia are very fond of the Note and the lower price point and size of this will help those markets.
I agree. I think the $329 price will disappoint some, but this is Apple’s first run on the iPad mini. I don’t think they would be able to meet demand for Christmas given a $199-$249 price.
By next year they should be able to ramp up production to allow a lower price (same as with previous generation iPhones) and still leave the $329 price point for a retina display iPad mini.
If it costs about $200 to make a mini, selling it for $250 would not provide $50 in profit. One has to also calculate the cost of sales and amortize the R&D. To make a decent profit, $329 would be about the right price, and even that would squeeze profits.
I believe he is saying the basic iPad costs $200 to make. If that is correct, they are selling it for $400 and up.
Sorry…I’m wrong. He is talking about the new small iPad…sorry.
You hit the nail on the head. As a shareholder, I have to back Apple’s pricing decision. Wall Street hates Apple to lose profits and will quickly downgrade Apple for that reason, so they’re basically putting Apple’s back against a higher pricing wall. Loss of profits works rather well for Amazon and their P/E of 300, so they can please Wall Street all they want with selling a $199 tablet.
And that I just don’t get.
I think ob1spyker should stick to his budget and not buy something that is out of his range. I would like to have a Tesla but I don’t expect Tesla to lower their price to suit my budget. If you can’t afford it, don’t buy it. Have fun with the
“2 iPhones, 3 iPads, and numerous iPods” you have until you can afford the new iPad. It is simple. Wait until tomorrow to decide. Apple may offer a price to kill off the ‘competition’ to put millions of these things under Christmas trees. I’ll buy 2 for staff that have stuck by me from the time I opened business. Unless they are out of my budget. 😉
Almost no one has ever been satisfied with Apple’s educational discount prices. The dissatisfaction continues. If Steve were alive this would never have happened…errr… Wait… Steve started it that way. My bad.
/s
What I don’t understand is the claims that Apple is charging too much for its products. If that’s the case, then why is Wall Street always crying about Apple’s every little loss of profit margins. If Apple charged less for its products, then the profits would drop even more. Are they saying that Apple should make cheap junk out of cheap components like everyone else is? It’s easy enough to see that other companies are losing money in the smartphone and tablet business whereas Apple is doing just fine. No matter what Apple does, there are always going to be people griping about the price. I wonder if Mercedes, BMW, Porsche, Ferrari, etc. have the same problems with griping consumers.
$329 is too high. Period. I agree that $249 is the ideal price point, but I think Apple could push it as high as $299. With the Kindle Fire starting at $199, Apple should try to keep that price tag as low as possible.
I’d be very surprised if they price it at the same price or lower than the new 4″ iPod touch. That being said laughing boy has it right. In the eyes of Wall Street Apple is in a no win situation. They can’t win for winning.
I don’t understand why most people are looking at the mini like a toy version of the iPad. Like all the sudden it’s suppose to be this cheap tablet to compete with the Nexus and Kindle. Just because something is small doesn’t all the sudden make it cheap. Apple makes top of the line hardware always has always will. It’s a premium device with a smaller and lighter form factor for people that want a tablet for traveling around to where ever they need to go. I’d pay close to what a full size iPad cost if it had LTE, Retina, LTE, 1gig ram, A6 similar to how the 15inch retina and 13inch retina MBP are.
This is not towards anyone here just other people that I’ve seen writing how this is suppose to be 199 or something that would not sell at a profit etc…
/end rant