Apple's smaller iPad forecast to become 'competition's worst nightmare' - Page 3

Quote:

Originally Posted by charlituna 


No, if Apple wants to crush the competition, low balling the price to give a perception the product is cheap is not the way to go. Creating a product so awesome that folks want it even though its priced higher than everyone else, that is Apple's game. And they tend to play it rather well

agreed.  The AppStore and ITMS make this "yes, this is $50-100 more than the competition, but it's better to start with,and look what you can do with it after you buy it."

For anyone but the most tech savvy, Kindles and Androids, don't have that 'after market' appeal.   

$199 is a great price point, but I feel you'll see that the 'next' turn of the crank (when the iPad Mini RD comes out, pushing this rendering down $50-75).

Long game.  Apple is in a position to look beyond this next 10Q, and it uses that to strategic advantage.

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheOtherGeoff 

I agree.  especially for the schools looking at iPads at the 1-5th grades.   The lack of a camera/vid and siri is no loss, and memory isn't an issue.  WiFi only (load them up with assignments at school.

 

The Mini to me is targeted to

- Kindle readers who want a 'bit more'

- Children hogging 'Mom's iPad 3

- pre-Teens

 

 

The Touch is the 'on the go' teen or young adult who can have 'feature phone' (phone plus text, maybe facebook), and a laptop back in the dorm/home.

 

As an Older adult, the touch hasn't been my or most of my observable peers' sweet spot.  an iPod Shuffle/Nano at the gym, iPhone for 90% of my moble, an iPad for around the house consumption, and a Mac Mini/iMac for the desk.

Before we have managed to fully and completely categorize and pigeonhole the iPad we are trying to define the true identity of the not yet release iPad Mini? Oh NOOOooooo..... 

Quote:

Originally Posted by protaginets 

 

put an Apple on it, the fan boys will come a runnin...

Good thing most of these 'fan boy's are 'first time buyers.'

Personally, I think the 'average joe' (never seen a line of Ruby, PERL, java, ObjC) prefers the apple product line, most are either priced out, or invested in other technology and the value in switching is not great enough for the (mental, monetary) cost of switching.

Driving the iPad entry price down makes that barrier to entry much lower.

Quote:

Originally Posted by charlituna 


That won't stop most folks. There was an iTouch keyboard for like 3 years before the iPod Touch was released and they still call it an iTouch.

I think people will identify it as the iPad Mini but refer to their device as their iPad. Just like the iPod Mini was referred to by its owners as their iPod. The iPod and the iPod Touch were so different that the iTouch made sense. iPod Touch was just too cumbersome, but iMini is just too .... ugly. Yech! People will refer to their iPad mini's as their iPad's.

Quote:

Originally Posted by bigmike 

 

It's an unofficial rendering.

 

I think the artist meant for the back-facing unit to be a bit farther but the shadow from the front makes it look too close, making it seem like the rear unit is shorter. I look at product photography/renderings all day and notice these things too. But, again, it's an unofficial rendering and most people don't give a shit.

I understand that it is conceptual. But I am assuming that, based on the quality, it was done by someone who is pretty good at his craft. It's a shame that it is "rendered" less effective by the distorted perspective.

Quote:

Originally Posted by charlituna 


If they can manage to clean up the iTunes stores (media and books) hat will be even more so true.
By clean up I mean things like pricing, release timetables, quality of media, metadata. That last one is a major one in my book. There are things linked as similar items that have nothing to do with each other, name links don't actually pull up everything by a person, or pulls up stuff from several folks as if they are the same etc. so you have the soundtrack to some 1940s musical movie connected to a TV show. Or when Genius recommends the movie 'Little Nikita' and you ponder what other River Phoenix movies are available so you click his name and freaking Stand By Me, which is in the store and has his name listed, doesn't come up. Or you search for the author of several kids how to draw books and also get erotic fiction by a different author with the same name. Not good.

ITunes the OSX app is getting a major release at the end of the month.  My guess is the front end needs to be cleaned up before the metadata works. 

Apple has always made the ITMS a 'break even' tool, because no one save amazon has a reasonable (meaning someone will buy a non-apple devices because if it) competitor.   Me thinks this will change as 'content' becomes more of a contributor to the bottom line (which in the long game is when the device wars run out, which in this case, I think is in about 5 years, after the TV/Cable war is fought). 

Quote:

Originally Posted by SolipsismX 

Reasonably well for the tablet market or reasonably well for an Andriod-based tablet?

Reasonably well for both, but particularly well for a Nexus-branded product. Google has never sold many units of Nexus phones. They are closer to a reference model than a mass product. But, Nexus 7 is being sold at outlets where the Nexus phones (with exception of Galaxy Nexus?) were not distributed.

Quote:

Originally Posted by SolipsismX 

I'm guessing a $249-$299 based unit iPad Air/Mini/iBook with 16GB storage, 1024x768 IPS in-cell display with essentially the SoC of the new iPod Touch would outsell it by a large margin and hurt its future sales.

That's my guess too. Frankly, I am wishing this not just for Apple, but for the tech economy as a whole. Google, Microsoft and Intel are all dragging the market down in a spiral. I would hope that even a Fandroid wants Apple to report an uplifting Q3 (or Q4 for them?) and sell boatloads of iPadAirs. The economy needs this.

Quote:

Originally Posted by paxman 

Before we have managed to fully and completely categorize and pigeonhole the iPad we are trying to define the true identity of the not yet release iPad Mini? Oh NOOOooooo..... 

Identity... no.  Niche, yes.  After 2 + years,  the iPad _IS_ a category in the computing continuum.  This is just a niche in that category.   sort of like is a laptop the same as a desktop vs a workstation vs a server in the old PC days.

It's more along the lines of, 'who will buy this?'  and we truly need to get out of the naval gazing that most of us techs do ("I will/won't buy this, because it will/won't meet _MY_ needs... therefore it's a monumental Success/Failure").  

As a Stockholder, I tend to see, 'how does a particular function/price point improve Apple ' as more important than "would I buy it at this price?"

Quote:

Originally Posted by jason98 


Your sarcasm is stupid.
Google is about to start a war of ecosystems with the tablet priced at $99.
There is a huge untapped market of those who do not belong to any of the camp yet (teens, college students, older folks, etc)
Do you realize that once someone joins whatever ecosystem most likely will get locked and stay for very long time?
IMO apple must provide a very low priced entry (perhaps with nearly zero margin) for these people, so once they are locked they will be willing to upgrade to more premium products.
To stay relevant in this war Apple should not repeat mistakes of the pc vs Mac era.

About to start? Hahahaha

PC vs Mac era? You really need to read up a bit.

I'll help you out a bit... if a company is selling everything that they can make to the point where they have a backlog of orders, even though they have really high margins, why would they lower those margins and then have to make even more product that is already low in supply at high margins.

Quote:

Originally Posted by protaginets 

 

put an Apple on it, the fan boys will come a runnin...

I keep hearing this moronic "fanboy" sh*t.

Apple is on the verge of selling 50 million iPhones in a quarter and 20 million (or more) iPads. With this many buyers, and a lot of them new (and a lot of them previous Android owners), at what point does this consumer base not become just fanboys?

Give your head a shake.

Quote:

Originally Posted by protaginets 

 

put an Apple on it, the fan boys will come a runnin...

Those "fan boys" are a huge chunk of the market at large. At what point does "fan boy" turn into "most everyone"?  It's already happened. Years ago, in fact. 

We, and they, come running because we know what to expect. We know what's behind the Apple logo and what it stands for, consistently. 

Take a gander at the consumer satisfaction reports for the 8 years or so. You'll find one name consistently in the #1 position. Every year. In nearly every category Apple played/plays in at the time.

Apple.

That isn't by accident. 

Originally Posted by jason98 
Google is about to start a war of ecosystems with the tablet priced at $99.

BA HA HA! If Google wants to be synonymous with "utterly worthless garbage", more power to them.

And they want to be part of Apple's camp. Google has to not only create something that will change their minds about that, they have to create something that will then actually keep them around for more than a few weeks once they've bought it.

Abject frigging nonsense.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jahblade 


Sounds like p***s envy to me.. Haters will be haters!

Apple envy. 

It took the industry and the market by storm years ago. Since the iPhone's debut it's intensified to astronomical levels. 

Apple leads the industry today (hell, they lead it 5 years ago already.) Apple sneezes, and everyone else grabs a Kleenex.

Quote:

Originally Posted by jason98 


Your sarcasm is stupid.
Google is about to start a war of ecosystems with the tablet priced at $99.
There is a huge untapped market of those who do not belong to any of the camp yet (teens, college students, older folks, etc)
Do you realize that once someone joins whatever ecosystem most likely will get locked and stay for very long time?
IMO apple must provide a very low priced entry (perhaps with nearly zero margin) for these people, so once they are locked they will be willing to upgrade to more premium products.
To stay relevant in this war Apple should not repeat mistakes of the pc vs Mac era.

Competing with Apple on price in the mobile space is usually a losing proposition. 

And if Google wants to rule the shitastic junk-segment of mobile, then more power to them. They can keep that crown. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by jason98 


To stay relevant in this war Apple should not repeat mistakes of the pc vs Mac era.

 

What mistakes?

Quote:

Originally Posted by jason98 


Your sarcasm is stupid.
Google is about to start a war of ecosystems with the tablet priced at $99.
There is a huge untapped market of those who do not belong to any of the camp yet (teens, college students, older folks, etc)
Do you realize that once someone joins whatever ecosystem most likely will get locked and stay for very long time?
IMO apple must provide a very low priced entry (perhaps with nearly zero margin) for these people, so once they are locked they will be willing to upgrade to more premium products.
To stay relevant in this war Apple should not repeat mistakes of the pc vs Mac era.

Which mistake is that? I assume you mean the battle for the thinnest profit margins.

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheOtherGeoff 

Identity... no.  Niche, yes.  After 2 + years,  the iPad _IS_ a category in the computing continuum.  This is just a niche in that category.   sort of like is a laptop the same as a desktop vs a workstation vs a server in the old PC days.

 

It's more along the lines of, 'who will buy this?'  and we truly need to get out of the naval gazing that most of us techs do ("I will/won't buy this, because it will/won't meet _MY_ needs... therefore it's a monumental Success/Failure").  

 

As a Stockholder, I tend to see, 'how does a particular function/price point improve Apple ' as more important than "would I buy it at this price?"

Sure - niche. But for the longest time, and still, people have been trying to niche away the iPad. Trying to define the category. Its OK to say that the iPad is a category but so what? Its meaningless in an of itself. When you categorized, classified or 'niched' the forthcoming iPad mini you called it a 'reader'. This is where the problem lies. Can you categorize the iPad along the same lines? A 'media consumption device' sure as hell doesn't work. I mean, who do you reckon buy an iPad?

Quote:

Originally Posted by jason98 

Well $99 nexus is coming with perhaps comparable specs. Apple has to offer a $200 low margin option.

No. They. Don't.

Price too low, cannibalize the big iPad while making less profit (lower margin)

Price too high, sell too few (while still cannibalizing iPad to some degree)

Quote:

Originally Posted by paxman 

Sure - niche. But for the longest time, and still, people have been trying to niche away the iPad. Trying to define the category. Its OK to say that the iPad is a category but so what? Its meaningless in an of itself. When you categorized, classified or 'niched' the forthcoming iPad mini you called it a 'reader'. This is where the problem lies. Can you categorize the iPad along the same lines? A 'media consumption device' sure as hell doesn't work. I mean, who do you reckon buy an iPad?

There's no point in categorizing it. It still will do what it does, and evolve by the month, by the year, etc. 

Call it a "cheeseburger", if you want. Whatever. It still is what it is, it's still the game-changer that it is, and its sales numbers are approaching iPhone figures. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Neo42 

Price too low, cannibalize the big iPad while making less profit (lower margin)

Price too high, sell too few (while still cannibalizing iPad to some degree)

Or it could dominate its segment like the iPod did. 

If we do get a smaller iPad, Apple will be following the iPod model. An entire family of devices. Bad news for competitors. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by paxman 

But why would schools do that? I think they would think about it for 30 seconds and realize like everybody else that it would be false economy. The only place I can see an 8gb being a sensible choice is in situations where the only use will be to input data, such as in an inventory situation, POS situation, etc. where the device strictly serves a single purpose and is linked with a larger infrastructure. 

No, 8GB is actually quite a lot of space as long as you are using the device for work/class related activities that would otherwise be done on a laptop or a desktop computer.  

Documents (PDF's, Pages, Word Files, Excel, Numbers etc.) don't take up much space at all, nor does a properly formatted book.  What takes up space is torrented movies, music, pictures and games.  All of that is stuff you aren't really supposed to be worrying about in school or at work.  Even if the class project is to do an iMovie, 8GB is fine when you consider that at the end of each class, the device is wiped and returned to a pristine state for the next class. There are lots of classes that use the iPad already and they go for the low-end 16GB one.  The (presumed) $250 iPad mini would reduce the cost from roughly $400 a seat to roughly $200 a seat (there are discounts involved), and that will probably count for more than the slightly lower storage.