Apple rumored to counter Amazon Kindle Fire with 'iPad mini' in 2012 - Page 2

Investment play on this rumor, buy lots and lots of sand paper :-) Not going to happen.

You're right. I'd say priced at $299, no 3G, which will include a hefty profit margin. (The iPod Touch will have moved to a new, perhaps closer to 4", form factor by then, so it'll address a different segment).

Tiny iPad




Cheap iPad

I like the idea of a less expensive iPad but it's likely more then a year away before we will see apple move down to a lower price point, just after all their competition realizes that they can't compete with them upstairs, but have to head for the basement just like kindle line up dose, "lead follow or get out of the way" right? Amazon did what any good follower has to do, and because of that they will have success.

so now there saying apple will bring out a ipad S and a Ipad 3, just like they where saying a iphone 4s and a iphone 5

Thats a good quote, I may have to put it on a shirt.

Do these Apple analysts ever stop and actually do some analysis?

There would be no point in releasing a new tablet just to hit a lower price point. It would have the same size as the regular ipad so how would you differentiate it from the regular ipad? Apple would have another ipad product to spend resources to design, build, test, and support. I think it is stupid to fracture the ipad line this way.

As others have stated, it makes more sense to continue manufacturing the ipad 2 and to sell it at a reduced price.

Steve jobs would never ever make an inferior product to respond to a competitor's cheaper product.

Remeber WWSJD = What Would Steve Jobs Do

Stop wasting your bytes! Visited this topic many time over. First, Amazon Fire is not competing with iPad! Neither Amazon nor Apple is interested! Blogs like this create false expectation! Have we already forgotten iPhone 5?

iPad S. S for "small".

Stop dreaming.

Nope. It's so un-Apple to compete like this. Apple always takes the high ground.

I need a job as an analyst. Seriously. Why the hell do I work all day when I could get paid to make shit up?

Actually, you gave me an idea there... Put Siri on an iPod Nano, add cellphone network support, and you have the perfect iPhone Mini.

It'll be interesting to see what happens in the post-Jobs era, i.e., a smaller iPad, an xMac, elimination of glossy displays, etc.

This "analyst" should be fired.

Good points.

Tim Cook has proven that he can compete on price, and we know that the iPad has a generous enough profit margin that Apple could drop the price if they wanted to and still make money.

I don't think that it's a question of "IF" Apple will drop the prices on the iPads to compete with Android and Win 8 tablets, but a question of "HOW SOON"?

Look ....

When the #!@% are people gonna realize that these so-called "pundits" KNOW NOTHING!!!
Literally nothing ....
In fact, it's gotten so desperate now, they are "predicting": APPLE TO RELEASE iPAD 3 SOMETIME IN 2012,
just so they can have something Apple-centric to write.

I can "predict" a eagle's gonna fly outta my kiester -- doesn't mean it's gonna happen, FFS ....

There absolutely will NOT be a 7" "iPad mini".
Especially after the harrangue Steve went on about 'em during the 4Q10 conference call.

This "News Item" is a non-entity.

Not really. They could go with a 5" Touch with an edge to edge screen and just dump the retina display though. 5" is still pocketable with a edge to edge screen.

They could also do a biodegradeable plastic case... j/k

Never say never.

Popular misconception to the contrary, Apple is a very pragmatic company, and Steve Jobs was a very pragmatic leader (god how that past tense pains me... so unfair). The mistake people have made is to confuse focus/clarity/decisiveness with idealism.

Look at what happened with the iPhone. Apple started selling it unsubsidized for a high upfront price. That plan did not work. Apple changed tactics and succumbed to the subsidy model for the iPhone. Nobody ever talks about this, but it happened. Apple's history -- and Jobs' history -- is full of examples of pragmatic decisions like that.

While I'm skeptical that the Amazon Fire will do very well, some very smart people disagree (Gruber, for example). If Amazon shows that a subsidized hardware model works well in the tablet market, then Apple will adopt that model, and using iCloud is the most obvious way to do it.

The term wasn't being used by Apple marketing, though. It was used by anonymous drones overheard by someone visiting component suppliers in China. There's no reason one of them couldn't get it into his head to call an iPod Touch (or something of that size) an "iPad mini". People make up things like that all the time, thinking they're being clever.

Looks like the analysts found another hare up their ass

I have always wanted a 7 inch iPad. It's the only thing that I've ever wanted that was only 7 inches.

You need to read more analysts' contracts.

States quite clearly that after their first article is released, they have infinite, permanent tenure and free reign to have whatever they say published at any time.

Yep, that would be a fire extinguisher.

All iPad 3 models come with new processors, wi-fi and 3G. in 32, 64, and 128GB memory configurations, in white and black.

iPad 2S models have 16GB memory, wi-fi only, and no rear camera. Also use iPad2 processor. $299. Perfect for the education market.

What would be so awful about this?

Well, there's a good point about it not being complete BS: http://www.thoughts-on-tech.com/mobi...-in-early-2012

Niche market? Non-sense! All old people are cheap!

...oh wait, I see what you... never mind then.

Yes... a new iPad with reduced capabilities, subpar screen, minimal storage, no camera, screen resolution (app) fragmentation, reduced profitability in order to compete on price... You may all diss this report but to me it all sounds like classic Apple.... errr... not.

I have to agree with all of this. Rolling out a limited type of iPad2 along with the iPad3 allows them to follow up a known working plan with another known working plan. Just like the iPhone they roll out the same form factor, lesser CPU, lesser storage (drop it to 8 gigs) and sell it for less. It attracts people who are on the fence with a lower price, and has a good chance of getting them to buy the top tier product next time around, but it also attracts people who already own one and see value in a second device. They would easily have both the first and second best selling tablets, just as they do with phones.

Right now we have 4 people in my household who need computing power. There is no way we will buy everyone a laptop, way too expensive. Getting three cheap netbooks is tempting, but only my son wants to use linux, so that is out. On the other hand with iCloud rolling out, having a single desktop (or laptop and external drive and monitor) and a few iPads is nearly ideal. The iPad replaces 90% of my computing needs, and about the same for the wife and kids. The desktop essentially becomes a local server, the cloud handles most of the real work, the desktop/server is there for the other 10% and everyone is happy.

What stops this? The $500 price tag. If I could get a 3G model for me and a $250 wifi only 8 gig for each kid for about what i could get a new macbook for.... Suddenly that price is more than right.

FORGET iPAD MINI

Since the first iPad announcement, I have hoped that Apple would find a way to get the costs down to where the iPad could fill the promise of OLPC (One Tablet/Laptop Per Child). If Apple can do this it could change the world for millions of in developing countries.

Not only the use of the devices themselves -- but the infrastructure that would bloom in those countries to support those users and devices...

hey idiot, I don't want a price reduction, It makes me feel good knowing i spent $600 on my iPad2. People around me look and figure there's a great guy who can afford to buy premium products. And the hot chicks hit on me more. Makes me look bad if its priced at a measily $200!

The name is misleading, it's not an "iPad mini", but rather an "iPad Cheapo"

Just buy a new one, no big deal, ok?

Honestly I don't even think they would need to make any changes from the current iPad 2. Just carry over the same principle from this round of iPhone updates. Sell the current iPad 2 16GB Wi-Fi version for somewhere in the $300-$350 price range. Introduce the iPad 3 at current price points in both Wi-Fi and 3G variants. If LTE chips are getting better powerwise, maybe the next iPad will be the first one w/LTE access.

iPad is Perfect sized device. The only thing necessary is a higher pixel density.

I have a PC/jr Chicklet kb -- it uses IR (I sold the computer to a friend who didn't need the kb).

I'll be the heretic. Without giving any credence to "analysts" or any speculation about this being a response to the Fire, I can see a market for a 7" iDevice.

But Steve's comments noted here already are well taken. Meaning the iOS that runs such a device would need some specific things in it to keep the need for sandpaper to a minimum.

The iPad is a hard cover books sized device. The iPod touch a pocket sized one. I saw someone with a 7" tablet and thought it kind of nifty. No idea what it was or what it was doing, but the size seemed somehow...right. And as we all know-size matters.

And my prediction on these eBook thingies is this: it is simply a matter of time before they are free. Yes, free. You've got a device that takes a credit card and at the touch of a button charges a customer anywhere they are. Think about that. Would you want *everyone* to have that? Give them away with 10 book purchases or something.

I can see Mr. Cook showing off His Stuff with a plan like this.

agree with several others that a larger - say 5.5" - iPod touch is certainly a logical possibility. running iPhone apps of course, not iPad apps, which avoids the "sandpaper finger" problem Jobs cited to forever dis 7" tablets.

as several have noted, the iPod touch has always been Apple's mini-tablet. the iPod name was just a marketing ploy to get it launched successfully when "tablets" still could not be readily marketed. and it has gone on to assume a majority of the iPod market.

at a $299 starting price, a "Big Touch" would compete well in the lower-end tablet market. especially given it would be far, far more powerful and capable than the Kindle Fire and its stripped-down cheap looking ilk from other OEM's.

but just as important, it would also compete head-to-head with the new generation of game players from Sony and Nintendo with screens about that size too. it could allow Apple to permanently eclipse both once and for all in that substantial market.

and with a maximum 160G SSD it could also finally replace the iPod Classic.

so what is dubious about this "analyst" report is not the idea of a third tablet model/size from Apple, but the timing. normally Apple would launch something like this in the Fall - i wondered if it might be coming last week, but no - for the Holiday season. the next launch window will come with the iPad 3 in the Spring, so perhaps Apple could unveil a "Big Touch" then. but it would be off-cycle.

what is definitely not going to happen is a "cheapo" 10" iPad. Apple does not join any commodity price race to the bottom.

Article Translation: Brian White doesn't know shit. But that won't stop him from trying to harm Apple by setting up false expectations. And AppleInsider is going to help him.

Agreed. Let the $199 tablet market have their Maylongs and ICAN tablets.