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iPad Mini could be Apple’s weapon against Kindle Fire
After last year’s launch of the 1st gen iPad tablet a few rumors have started to run around about a mini iPad, but were quickly dismissed by Steve Jobs, who said Apple didn’t believe in a smaller form factor tablet. 10 inches is perfect and you don’t want to mess with perfection, right?
Apparently they’re going to stick with that, but will offer a mini-iPad version meant to counteract the cheap $199 Amazon Kindle Fire tablet. In this case the ‘mini’ refers to pricing, not the size of the tablet, which is going to maintain the same 9.7 inch screen, but will include some sort of cost saving measures to bring it to a more desirable $200-299 pricing range.
The most important cost saving measure will be cutting down internal storage from 16 GB to 8 GB. I expect keeping the same CPU as this year’s iPad 2, sticking with the current low-res display and maybe using a plastic body could make it easy for Apple to match the pricing of the Kindle Fire without sacrificing quality and user experience.
In the light of this situation the iPad 3 is expected to launch ‘as usual’ with new features and the same $499 starting price. It will be curious to see how Apple adapts its strategy to the bunch of cheap Android tablets announced by its competitors.
mini iPad might mean cheaper, not smaller
John (Ionut Popa in Romanian) is the Editor in Chief at AllTouchTablet.com. He studied Computer Science and worked in IT press since 2002. He’s now involved in his own projects. My Google+ Profile, Twitter
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When Amazon introduces its 10″ tablet a follow on to the Fire (wild fire?) Apple may feel compelled to offer a less featured I-Pad but they will not compete on the basis of price.
The mini iPad is the iPod!
What a dumb ass move!!!! However, I saw this coming the minute Steve’s dismissal of any other size but the Holy 10″ was announced. I felt it in my bones that as soon as Apple got a whiff of some other company tapping into their net profits, they’d back pedal.
Now, out of respect to Steve or just plain stubborness, they can’t go backwards and make an actually smaller iPad; Steve would come back from the dead and make their life HELL!!! So, the only way they can cheapen the iPad is to reduce what it does, but still look the same.
Again…WTF???? That’s like buying a “cheaper” Jaguar car, with a Ford engine inside. Sure, when the motor is OFF< , it looks the same, but take it out on the road and you can't push it past 80 mph….what's the point?
It reminds me of the Rip Off Purse companies that are making $13,000 handbags for $100.00 bucks. The only one you're fooling is people as cheap as YOU; the people who can afford $13,000 bags are NEVER fooled and you look twice as stupid, trying to pull it off.
I read yesterday that Apple was successful in keeping Samsung's 10" tablet out of Australia, so they'd lose the entire Christmas season. Samsung said they will "scrap the entire 10" tablet, if we can't make the holiday time."
If Apple is so King of the Hill, WHY, then, are they so terrified of Samsung and amazon's Fire? They should concentrate on the next Greatest iThing Since Sliced Bread and not be so paranoid.
I’m sorry to hear Apple is stooping so low as to try and stop Samsung from getting into a market so they (Samsung) can’t sell their tablet and Apple hopes they will get the sales instead. I *expect* this kind of unprofessional *crap* from Miscrosoft but not Apple. A new low for Apple…how sad…
RalphF, these are just rumors from various analysts, so they might no be true at all. I guess we’ll find out next year :)
John: WHICH is the rumour…the dumbed down iPad or the lawsuit in Australia? I’m petty sure the latter is not rumour.
I was referring to the dumbed down iPad. The lawsuit in Australia is pretty much won by Apple, since Samsung can’t sell the Galaxy TAB 10.1 there anymore.
And I’m not surprised by the lawsuit at all: Apple might be a user friendly company, but it’s not friendly with the competition, it never was…
It makes Apple look like an insecure bully, what they are doing to Samsung. It’s things like that, that make me anti-Apple.
I own a landscape firm. I welcome competition in my field. It makes me smarter and more secure, when people continue to hire me, vs my competition. And of the people who don’t hire me and go with another company, it ALWAYS comes down to “price”, not quality of work. I refuse to low-ball a job and Apple making a cheap iPad would make me royally pissed off, if I owned the full priced one. All the prestige at half the price!!!
Just read yesterday that the Tech Heads in Australia are buying Samsung 10.1″ tablets like crazy…from Hong Kong online stores. LOL As the article stated, there’s no way to enforce the law, so people are just ordering directly from websites.
Stupid Apple. Didn’t anyone in their Law Department study Prohibition in the U.S.? The more you make something illegal, the more people want it!
Apple’s running scared, if they have to have 20 lawsuits against Samsung. Wankers!
Hi,
Brilliant, just what I needed to know, thank you!