Quote:
Originally Posted by
SolipsismX 
You're not thinking it through. You're ignoring what I would call very important aspects of this device. So you think Apple wouldn't leverage any of its tech for a cheaper tablet but would rather just price at the iPad 2 price and above? I certainly don't think so. The market for this class is less expensive. The need for performance is less severe. What seems to be very necessary is weight and cost to make it the best product in it's class.
Also note that at rumoured 7.85" 4:3 it'll have nearly 50% more screen area as the 7" 16:9 tablets. Now do you think that it can be exceptionally heavier than them or will it have to be not only comparably lightweight but also light enough to be held with one hand comfortably for extended periods, which the iPad (3)
cannot do. I think it's the latter, as I've not only stated but described in great detail how this would be achieved.
Finally, you keep saying it will have an Retina display and yet not once have you stated what that Retina display resolution will be. The iPhone 5 has a Retina display and yet the resolution is less than the rumoured 1024x768 132 PPI of this iPad mini. You don't do yourself any favours my using a marketing term and then not detailing what you mean by it.
PS: Your question about "who told me" this or that is useless and argumentative. I've clearly stated my opinions here just as you've stated yours about how Apple will make this the best, despite not listing how that could be achieved. Imagine if my retorts were "who told you it would $529?" Makes for a pointless and hostile discussion, don't ya think?
PPS: You also didn't answer any of my questions about how the iPod Touch exists when you claim they only use the best for every product.
I'm just trying to have a nice discussion and figure this out.
First of all, you said that the market for this class is less expensive and the need for performance is less severe. I disagree (to an extent).
Second, your innability to see how apple leverages any of their tech for cheaper devices is both intriguing and wrong.
It's impossible for apple to do a cheaper version of the nexus and other similar devices.. Apple cannot and will never beat companies like samsung on the cheaper segment. Also, even if they could, it would be a mistake.
I will try to explain and share my view about this 2 subjects, that in reality are 1.
Apple makes premium and expensive products that can even outsell cheaper, with less build quality devices like the s3 and other similar junk. So, why doesn't samsung go for it and make an aluminium/magnesium s3 version? Because Apple pretty much OWNS (as you know) said materials, so samsung could never be price-competitive if they fought this war with the same weapons. However, samsung and companies alike totally OWN "plastic" and other materials, and since no matter how great deals apple got, the price of aluminium used for iDevices is still much bigger than plastic, so Apple can only achieve great deals and competitve advantage in products where aluminium is required and used, not plastic (premium segment, more profit).
The same can be said about flash memory vs traditional HDDs. Apple pretty much outmuscles the entire industry in everything related to ssd, but is a little ant against the consortium of hp,samsung, dell, sony, etc when we talk about HDDs, so they do not have an advantage there, and Apple's HDDs will gradually disappear as they bring their own rules for this fight.
Displays? the same thing. Apple is the force of high resolution IPS (i guess) display. Less quality displays?samsung owns it. If apple uses a non retina resolution in their devices, samsung can produce and use the same quality display on their devices and make more profit (iDevice vs sDevice, based on screen) or make a cheaper but equal sDevice.
The same logic can be applied to other components/areas.
Now let's talk about the 7inch market. First of all, it exists because all other companies failed (see previous points) in the premium/high end 10inch segment, so they started a war were they are sure they can beat apple: Price. If they use cheap materials, Apple cannot fight them at all. Apple cannot build a google nexus-like device with 200dollars. If they tried a 200dollar tablet, it would lose on everything at least against 1 opponent (speed, build quality, screen, storage, features, camera, etc). However, a company like samsung already showed that they cannot produce an awesome 7 inch by less than 400 dollars, unless it is done with cheap plastic, shitty oversaturated screen, shitty software, shitty graphics, etc, but apple can.
There's no iOS on the 7inch market and that java thing is built upon non-quality applications, malware and cheaper, uglier versions of real iOS apps. the moment apple enters that market, you will see beautifull and powerfull software designed for the 7inch screen that requires performance (imagine decent gaming, decent photoshop apps, even cad viewers/edit).
Also, you must realize that the only costumers that apple is trully losing (those that are choosing other thing instead of an ipad, not those that are going after the cheap cheap cheap) are those that trully want the smaller form factor and not those that are concerned about price.
This is where the 399 7inch with a6, 1gb ram, retina and iphone graphics enters.
About the ipod... it was and is the best MEDIA player out there and it doesn't have anything to do with an ipad, that is marked as a "better" pc. The ipod is about apple's ecosystem (movies, books, music) where performance is far from being the "big" thing, the ipad is much more than that, so it needs more performance to be a much better device.
Now, I'm convinced that a "new" 9.7 is also a possibility, and it makes a lot of sense in every aspect. a6 (we all know how important this chip is for apple, we all read about it), new connector (are they really keep selling millions and millions of old ports/adaptors?) etc.
This is what makes sense. If i had to bet, this would be it. what you said (you can be righ, i can be wrong) makes no sense (to me!).
best regards.