back to article Apple unveils iPad mini, upgrades its big brother

Yes, it's called the iPad mini – and that was one of the few heretofore unknown facts about the new iPad that Apple rolled out at its "a lttle more" event on Tuesday in San José, California. That and its price: $329 for the entry-level, Wi-Fi model. Pre-announcement speculation was somewhere in the $299 range, with some overly …

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  1. stuartnz

    Nonexistent Nexus?

    " At a base price of $329, the 16GB iPad mini is a hefty step up from the – arguably less elegant – 7-inch, 16GB Kindle Fire HD"

    An interesting choice of product to compare it with - surely Google's tablet is at least as serious a competitor for the iPad Mini as Amazon's?

    1. LarsG
      Meh

      A must have?

      Renders all other small tablets 'must have nots' which will be seen in the sales figures.

      1. RICHTO
        Mushroom

        Re: A must have?

        LOL @ all the iSheep will have to go blow another £600 to have the latest over rated device from Apple...after having the last one for only a few months Surface is looking very attractive in comparison....

        1. asdf
          FAIL

          Re: A must have?

          You were going so strong and then you had to mention the Surface. Maybe not as DOA as the Kin but probably about as DOA as WP7.

      2. Gio Ciampa

        Re: A must have?

        Fine by me - means I won't have to spend my time queuing to pay the extra...

    2. ThomH

      Re: Nonexistent Nexus?

      Indeed, my main thoughts have been 'is $100 extra over the Nexus worth it for a 40+% bigger screen?' — I wonder if we're about to see an inversion of the usual squabbling over whether screen sizes matter above all else?

      1. eSeM

        Re: Nonexistent Nexus?

        Screen size does matter ....

        With a 4:3 screen ratio the iPad Mini will not fit in a suit or jacket pocket .... which kind of defeats the purpose of a small tablet.

        Lower spec and overpriced compared to the opposition.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Nonexistent Nexus?

        $80 difference for the 16GB Nexus.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: "$80 difference for the 16GB Nexus."

          For how long? The 16GB Nexus is expected to get bumped down on price within the next couple of weeks, and when that happens the $249 price point will be filled by a 32GB Nexus 7. At that point we're talking a $180 premium if you want 32GB and either a $104 or $130 premium if you want 16GB.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      To us in the UK

      $1=£1

      So it will be expensive. Next years update will have a retina display.

      1. Martin 47

        Re: To us in the UK

        Starts at £269 in apple store .co.uk so its almost at a tempting price point, which is another thing the green fruity thing is good at

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: To us in the UK

          tempting at £269? You have seen the leaks of the 32Gb Nexus coming in at £199 haven't you? That would make it £150 cheaper than the iPad 32Gb.

      2. Rukario

        Re: To us in the UK

        More like £1=$1.47 (taking the retail price of £269 to be £244 + 20% VAT to compare prices like-for-like without consumption taxes).

    4. Bob Vistakin
      Facepalm

      Re: Nonexistent Nexus?

      Does it come with a file?

      This guy said a 7" tablet doesn't work - guess he meant Apple would release one over, err, his dead body.

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFAjfUT8wZI

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        @Bob Vistakin

        It has a 40% larger screen area but nice troll.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          FFS - Does anyone know how to do math?

          Quoting from the presentation: "their area of display: 21.9 square inches, ours is 29.6 square inches"

          Then we get into the comparison fun: the Mini *is* 35% larger than the Kindle/Nexus (not 40%), *but* the Kindle/Nexus is also only 26% smaller than the Mini... it all depends on which one you use as the basis of comparison.

          I think the 35% is the more appropriate number, but regardless: 40% and the larger numbers being tossed about have nothing to do with screen size.

          1. James O'Brien
            Devil

            Re: FFS - Does anyone know how to do math?

            "We were already so far ahead of the competition, this just ... I can't see even them in the rearview mirror."

            While they may be far ahead at this time how many times in history has the underdog risen up to bite its master? Especially now with Apple losing several of its patents. Should be interesting to watch in the near future.

            1. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

              Re: FFS - Does anyone know how to do math?

              "We were already so far ahead of the competition, this just ... I can't see even them in the rearview mirror."

              So far ahead of the competition they got to the market months before us?? (years technically)

              So far ahead of the competition that their tablet packs twice the processing power of ours?

              It's an ipad2 that shrunk in the wash!!

              1. John Bailey
                Happy

                Re: FFS - Does anyone know how to do math?

                Shh.. Someone will explain laps to him in a minute.

              2. Psyx

                Re: FFS - Does anyone know how to do math?

                "We were already so far ahead of the competition, this just ... I can't see even them in the rearview mirror."

                We are so far ahead of the competition that we have to continually make comparisons to them*, rather than purely sell on our own functionality.

                Yeah, I'm totally convinced.

                *Except as regards price, obviously.

            2. James Micallef Silver badge
              Devil

              Re: FFS - Does anyone know how to do math?

              "I can't see even them in the rearview mirror"

              Is that because they're already overtaking you?

          2. Tom 35

            Re: FFS - Does anyone know how to do math?

            Apple talks about more screen area for web pages. How about a video? Most current video is 16:9 (or more for a lot of movies).

          3. Psyx

            Re: FFS - Does anyone know how to do math?

            "I think the 35% is the more appropriate number, but regardless: 40% and the larger numbers being tossed about have nothing to do with screen size."

            Two roundings of 5 upwards (here and in the 7.85 to 7.9 screen size) in 'premier' marketing text just makes me hear the words 'weasels' in my mind.

            1. I ain't Spartacus Gold badge
              Happy

              Re: FFS - Does anyone know how to do math?

              Psyx,

              Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines...

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Nonexistent Nexus?

        It's 7.9 inches and 4:3 ratio not 7" and 16:9 ratio. So the screen is actually a reasonable size.

    5. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Nonexistent Nexus?

      Better apps on the iPad, better design and a decent ecosystem.

    6. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Nonexistent Nexus?

      I agree, compare the two and The Nexus 7 wins on price, and I suspect performance...

  2. Khaptain Silver badge

    Underwhelming.

    Not really easy to understand the intended market

    Apple appear to be saturating their own market.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Underwhelming.

      It's the iPod stratagy.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        I'm just going to leave this here...

        http://www.iamconcise.com/main/the-reason-for-the-ipad-mini.html

        I swear I heard a violin playing in the distance as the announcement was made.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Yep

    Interesting holiday season indeed

  4. Nanners
    Stop

    Saturation indeed

    I am an apple user. Not an apple fan, but an apple user. In my area, music production, nothing else holds a candle. I've been an apple user since the late nineties. I have no idea what apple is trying to do here. They seriously need to simplify. Drop the iPad 2 already. The company will be in better shape with the new iPad, the mini, and the touch might as well be the iPad micro. Same with the rest of the products they are pumping out just because they can. This is not apple.

    1. paulll

      Re: Saturation indeed

      "Not an apple fan, but an apple user."

      "In my area, music production, nothing else holds a candle."

      Hate to break it to you, buddy, but you're a fan.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Saturation indeed

        ""Not an apple fan, but an apple user."

        "In my area, music production, nothing else holds a candle."

        Hate to break it to you, buddy, but you're a fan."

        No, he's right. The ipad has usable latency, android tablets currently available to buy don't. iPad has had this advantage for a few years. OSX laptops and desktop machines are more predictable for recording audio + midi. I don't want this to be true, but unfortunately it is.

  5. Ross K Silver badge
    Gimp

    How Appropriate...

    Apple's marketing honcho Phil Schiller reveals the pricing of the full iPad line...

    shill [shil]

    noun

    1. a person who poses as a customer in order to decoy others into participating, as at a gambling house, auction, confidence game, etc.

    2. a person who publicizes or praises something or someone for reasons of self-interest, personal profit, or friendship or loyalty.

    verb (used without object)

    3. to work as a shill: He shills for a large casino.

    verb (used with object)

    4. to advertise or promote (a product) as or in the manner of a huckster; hustle: He was hired to shill a new TV show.

  6. g e
    Meh

    iNexus

    Meh, done better elsewhere with 2x the memory and ~30% cheaper.

    Still shows how threatened the fruit-mongers feel by the competition if nothing else.

    Are US hands really that big or is that 'holding it' photo more than a tad 'shopped ?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: iNexus

      If you watched the keynote you would have seen Phil holding it himself, so it is holdable.

      They've reduced the area around the screen as you can hold this by the sides instead of the bezel like you need to do with a larger tablet.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: iNexus

      It's 6mm thinner than the smaller screened Nexus 7, ahold fit in the hand no problem.

      1. David Barrett

        Re: iNexus

        The mini is 7.2mm thick the nexus is 10.4mm thick

        So its 3.2mm thinner, why bother posting something so easily disproven?

  7. Stacy
    WTF?

    Larger Display?

    Or just physically larger? I can't help but noticing in the pictures comparing screens they show the larger screen for the iPad Mini (which in itself seems odd... hey we made a smaller device that's bigger!) show the smaller screen showing more of the website than the larger screen...

    Unless the larger screen is supposed to be the smaller android screen...

    http://cdn.macrumors.com/article-new/2012/10/NewImage35.png

    (Seeing as something like the Amazon Fire HD has more than 1000000 pixels vs the Mini's nearly 800000. How is 200000 pixels smaller 49% bigger?

    Where's my question mark icon? I'd rather than that the WTF...

    1. Eddy Ito

      Re: Larger Display?

      Simple, the 7.9" 4:3 iPad display works out roughly to be 6.32" x 4.74" for ~30 sq. in. and the 7" Kindle/Nexus screens are about 6.10" x 3.43" for 20.9 sq. in. so the 9.1 sq.in. difference works out to be about 43.5% of the 20.9 sq.in. and I guess taking into account the space consumed by the tabs in the UI it brings it to 49%.

      What they've done in the picture is compare only the parts of the screen that are actually given to the web page and not the whole display. Also note they chose the web page carefully so that scroll bars aren't needed on the iPad and shows white space at the bottom of the "Fire" screen. A slightly different page might require the iPad to show scroll bars but the Fire wouldn't. Of course this is assuming the iPad has scroll bars of some sort.

      1. Paul E

        Re: Larger Display?

        And the 4.74 inch width they end up with means a less pocketable device than the 3.43 of the others thus removing one of the main reasons why people are buying 7 inch tablets.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Larger Display?

          And the 4:3 ratio means that a good chunk of the extra screen is wasted when watching video on it. All that extra space used to display the black bars top and bottom.

          43% more screen for 35% more money (soon to be 75% more).

          1024 x 768 against 1200 x 800

          No GPS on the wi-fi model

          No NFC

          Proprietary connector

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Larger Display?

            Only when you're watching movies; watching classic TV programmes such as the X-Files obviously has no problems. However, the reason I bought an iPad to begin with was reading ePub and PDFs, and for those formats the iPad has the best layout. It's interesting how every other manufacturer, from Microsoft to Samsung, present their tablets in landscape mode.

          2. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Larger Display?

            "And the 4:3 ratio means that a good chunk of the extra screen is wasted when watching video on it. All that extra space used to display the black bars top and bottom."

            Yes, and if all you want to do on the thing is watch 16:9 video, that would be a major issue. If you want to do anything else at all (including watching 4:3 video, of which there is still plenty), then 4:3 is a much better layout to have. I'm not using an iPad because I'm in love with apple, I'm using one because every single bloody Android devide manufacturer has inexplicably decided that people only use tablets for watching video, and specialised their products to support that. I had high hopes for the HP pad, but we all know what happened to that. Apparently the next transformer will have a 4:3 version, if so that'll probably be my next tablet.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Larger Display?

        @Eddy. On the iPad (or any capacitative touch device) you don't need scroll bars. Only scroll position indicators, which fade away after the scrolling stops. It's just a little floating grey lozenge shape which displays on the right over the top of the web page.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: On the iPad (or any capacitative touch device) you don't need scroll bars

          provided there's a good area of the screen you can touch and drag. A lot of websites make it pretty bloody tricky to find a spot that doesn't immediately launch a click event when you touch it. For example, try navigating the 4od site on a touch device without accidentally clicking something you didn't want to. It's a pain in the arse.

          Scroll bars (or similar, my android pops up a scroll button when a big list starts moving) are useful on touch devices, not least because some lists are bloody long and continually flicking the page up to get to the bottom is a pain. Oh but that's bad design! Well tough, the world is full of crap design, we need tools that enable us to get round it not make things worse... This kind of blinkered "I know better than everyone else" bullshit gets on my tits.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Larger Display?

      They decided to use 1024x768 as it is a current resolution used by the older iPads, This means developers don't need to do anything and all existing iPad applications will work perfectly on it.

      Putting a retina display in it would make this tablet very expensive and introduce a 3rd resolution for developers to worry about. Two is enough already.

  8. Churro Joe
    Boffin

    New iPad already

    So the old iPad is called the 'new iPad' and has a retina display and now the new iPad is called the 'iPad with retina display' and is a slight upgrade...alright then.

    Definitely a new strategy from apple- it seems to me like Apple are doing what the automotive market did when they started incrementing the number plates every 6 months instead of every year. People will be less inclined to wait for the next one before buying one as the upgrades are so frequent they might as well take the plunge now as in 6 months time. It also means that apple can react more quickly with smaller changes so that they are not painfully behind all the other manufacturers for eleven months of the year. It'll upset the fanbois for a while but they'll get used to it.

  9. Eddy Ito

    Interesting as in the curse?

    It's clearly priced out of major competition with Nexus, Kindle & Nook so we can only hope they decided to maintain their iPadded margin that way even if it cuts into sales of iPad the larger it won't be a kick in the shorts.

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