not a big deal.
only fan boys will queue up. But fanboys will already have the bigger ipads and wont want the mini, hence no queue.
Astonishing queues at times reached as far as several feet from the tills in Glasgow's Apple store, as the Wi-Fi version of the iPad mini launched in the UK. Reader Joseph Heenan reported walking in to the Apple Store, buying the device and walking out "within a couple of minutes". Heenan added that "there were staff standing …
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My conspiracy theory is that the A6 was always meant for the iPad 3 and that Apple hit delays producing it. This required a stop-gap which was the A5X. The only problem being it was fabbed at 45nm and the quad-core graphics needed to push the retina display created a very large and expensive chip.
Therefore the costs of the chip meant it was always going to be a temporary solution that would be replaced with a more cost effective 32nm A6 as soon as was feasible. I believe that was the plan all along and is why the third gen iPad was just called "the New iPad" and the fourth gen is called the "iPad with Retina display" to avoid blatantly incrementing the version number twice in one year. That Apple also had a new dock connector to help justify updating the model is probably just lucky happenstance.
this is a niche product - those that want a full tablet will already have an iPad. If you don't then you've got an iPhone. There definitely seems to be a market for the iPad mini, but if the highly unscientific sample set of people in my office is an indication, then the market is about 1/5th that of the full size iPad and a tiny fraction of that for the iPhone.
When there are no queues for an Apple launch, it is not because Apple have stopped marketing massively overpriced, overhyped tat to fashion victims. It is because their naked greed has risen to the point that their customer base can no longer afford to buy all the tat - that, and the tat is so much tattier that even fashion victims won't buy it.
To answer your points...
not everyone wants a device with a widescreen? My desktop is 2 24in 1920x1200 monitors with them rotated by 90deg giving 2400x1920., almost 5x4.
Would anyone (geeks apart) notice if the CPU is not quite the latest 'hot-rod'?
Many people already have GPS on their phone.
(I do but I have disabled it from day 1. I don't want any stinking location based adverts.)
Ok, so I own a MacBook Pro and an iPod Touch. both are several years old and do their jobs perfectly.
I didn't get an iPad mini but a Kindle HD Fire. Nice but still not as good as the company iPad I had in a past job.
Having to use iTunes does not bother me either.
The HD fire ebooks are good but there is an iPad version as well so meh!
Friday Lunch Beer Time and yes I can find my way to the pub without needing GPS
>There is such a thing as off line maps you know, like what all those sat navs use...?
Do you really think apple want you to have anything offline - especially maps?
GPS + wifi is useful because, you normally use your phone as a hotspot (one 3g contract), but you may want a larger screen than your phone. Or you may want to geolocate photo's - perhaps edited in iphoto.
Or you may be on holiday in your hotel room and be planning your day's schedule. You'll use your phone on the move, but plan stuff on the bigger screen.
It does look a little bit gloomy there. Maybe they didn't want to go out in the cold and wet.
Perhaps Apple are on the way down and people don't get excited anymore, or maybe they have saturated the market with slightly different products that overlap in function?
Two of my friends have asked me if I knew anything about the iPad Mini in the last week or so. (Disclaimer: they already know I don't like Apple) I spared them the anti-Apple rant but just asked if they had seen/considered the Nexus 7 or one of the Kindle Fires. Both of them have looked into it and are edging toward the Kindle Fire. (Just to further prove I didn't try to influence them: I would have gone for the Nexus 7 myself).
That's not scientific and probably not even relevant, but it will be interesting to see how the figures stack up after a while.
"It does look a little bit gloomy there. Maybe they didn't want to go out in the cold and wet."
It's Scotland, it always looks like that :o)
Personally I'm not that surprised. The mini only exists because the N7 and Kindle have proved so popular. Apple had to do a major u-turn on Jobs' famous "there will be no 7" ipad" statement and declarations the regular ipad is perfect for everyone. Nothing is perfect for everyone. They just seriously misjudged the number of people who wanted a smaller and/or cheaper device.
Unfortunately Apple's famously high profit margin doesn't fit well in the budget sector, so the mini ends up underspec'ed and over priced.
This means the only people who will choose to buy a mini are either:
1) Mad (crazy)
2) Already have a large investment in iOS apps
or
3) Non-tech savvy Guardian readers mislead by the hype.
This photo shows the former and latter categories have failed to show up. This is not good news for Apple. Especially if category two do the maths/math and realise just how many Android apps they could purchase with the price difference between a Nexus 7/Kindle and the mini.
You know, iPad L (Large, i.e. regular version) is way too heavy at its 600 or 700 grams (my notebook which I use for writing this reply weights approx 500 grams), especially when you have something to compare to, like e.g. Kindle. Reading books on iPad is not that great experience, neither is it that unobtrusive when stuffed with its SmartCover into messenger bag etc. I'd like to have something lighter and smaller, but not that small as iPhone, so iPad S (Small, i.e. Mini version) would fit the bill (but only with GPS, and priced below $270).