Hi Spheric, fair enough, "professional" was a bit sweeping (although Pogo007 started it). However, I can't think of a simple term to replace it: 'government and large corporate' perhaps. Anyway, what I mean is that if you work in an area where you and your colleagues have thousands of large case files that have been assembled over many years, and which are comprised of many different types of document (Word, Excel, PPt, Pdf, Pages, Numbers, Keynote, dwg, etc. etc.) that have to be kept in order of filing and with a strict, legally defensible naming protocol, then an iOS device (and I adore both my iPhone and iPad) is no use at the moment. I keep dreaming of going from meeting to meeting with only an iPad in my hands, but that moment awaits a solution to the above problem. An iPad type device operating OS X would be one way of doing it.
For those who don't understand why Apple might phase out the Mini here is a profit calculation. Bottom line is the Mini makes so little profit and is such a threat to canibalize Air and 6+ sales it is not worth it.
Bottom line is that 1) you don't know the actual numbers and 2) you don't know how many times Apple sells a mini to someone who wouldn't have bought an iPad at all. Apple has a pretty good idea about both. You might not understand why the mini is a great product, but Apple understands that it is better to have a couple of products covering a range than one that is built to just to make a profit. Apple makes good products, profits just happen. You are thinking like Dell, not Apple, and Apple has no respect for your thinking.
I'm a professional, and I use my iPad for the job - in fact, large parts of my job wouldn't be happening without it - so this argument always strikes me as ridiculously narrow-sighted.
State what you need a file browser for, and why that's the only thing stopping you from buying one, but stop claiming that it's useless for "professional use", for some completely arbitrary and limited definition of "professional".
85-90% of my jobs computing needs are on handled on my iPad. Mini no less 8-) . So every time I hear "professionals need..." I think back to the argument that nobody would use a Mac or iPhone because they don't have MSOffice on them. People using this argument think "professional" means a useless middle management paper pusher that the world would be better off without. The people who make nothing, contribute nothing, spend their lives in useless meetings, and golf on weekends. You know, the people the human race would never miss....
"If I can't rearrange my files and create a new form 32-71-11 in triplicate before dozing off at the big meeting and then getting cake in the break room at Bevs birthday celebration, it isn't a real computer. Can you help me print all these emails so I can file them?"
Bottom line is the Mini gets horrible gross margins, averaging selling price, and net profits per unit. Yet its overhead cost is almost identical to the Air.
The only way I see this trend changing is if Apple sells the Mini for a higher price. Air at $499 and Mini at $449. At that point they could offer both models with identical specs. That $50 gap would be identical to the gap in the Watch line up.
And I think that makes complete sense if both devices have identical specs aside from the form factor. There's absolutely no need to artificially hinder the Mini's internal components in order to create cost separation between it and the Air. Just keep the previous generation model around for those who want to save money.
look at the averaging selling prices of ipad by quarter (SEC reports)
look at surveys and other data collecting. They all show the Mini getting vastly outsold.
The numbers we have might well mean that. They also might not.
And even if they do, you still have no idea how many of those mini sales would not have been a sale at all if there was no mini. What percentage of mini sales are to people who never would have bought an iPad at all? What percentage choose a mid or top model mini that would have chosen a bottom lvl iPad?
You are pulling numbers and conclusions out of ass based on incomplete data and assumptions. Then you use that to make a business case that might sell well with MS or Dell, and assuming Apple would care.
Based on your logic the iPod touch should have been EoLed years ago. Yesterday it got a substantial update.
Bottom line (as you like to say even though it isn't yet the bottom line of your argument) you have nothing, and built a world of assumptions from that nothing.
Oh how I would love to buy an Apple "Surface". But I get it. They want to sell you 3 devices not one. Tablet, laptop, desktop. Otherwise... they'd have a Apple tablet running OS X and iOS w/ detachable keyboard that also had a docking station. That would be great. It will never happen. Because AAPL no like. I miss the Duo. I like Surface. I likelove my Galaxy Note. I like the design of the Moto 360 that came out a year or two ago. Apple, come on.
I've been using and recommending it for years. Basically all if your files at your fingertips. All you need us an App installed to open some of them, like some Office docs. Common files like PDF, JPG, MP4, MP3, TXT, Rich Text etc are all viewable right from inside the App.
Transfers directly to your iOS devices through FTP, browser, or WiFi to a remote FTP server... or just view remotely in your servers. All folder hierarchies and naming conventions respected.
Disclaimer: I have nothing to do with them, just a happy customer.
Oh how I would love to buy an Apple "Surface". But I get it. They want to sell you 3 devices not one. Tablet, laptop, desktop. Otherwise... they'd have a Apple tablet running OS X and iOS w/ detachable keyboard that also had a docking station. That would be great. It will never happen. Because AAPL no like. <span style="line-height:1.4em;">I miss the Duo. I like Surface. I like</span> <span style="line-height:1.4em;">love my Galaxy Note. I like the design of the Moto 360 that came out a year or two ago. Apple, come on.</span>
It sounds like you are very happy with your Surface and Note. Why complain to Apple? I think you should be on the Microsoft forums asking them to build you a docking station.
I've been using and recommending it for years. Basically all if your files at your fingertips. All you need us an App installed to open some of them, like some Office docs. Common files like PDF, JPG, MP4, MP3, TXT, Rich Text etc are all viewable right from inside the App.
Transfers directly to your iOS devices through FTP, browser, or WiFi to a remote FTP server... or just view remotely in your servers. All folder hierarchies and naming conventions respected.
Disclaimer: I have nothing to do with them, just a happy customer.
Its obvious that Apple is removing resources from the Mini. When was the last time you saw a Mini commerical?
If the Mini was such a great seller you would see more Mini commercials and more emphasis on the Mini during events. The Mini has been a footnote the last 12 months.
If the Mini was so important they would have added the A8 to the Mini3. If the Mini was so important they would have made the body slimmer. But they have not. The mini is a 2nd tier device just like the iPhone 5C and MacMini.
Last week all these arguments could have been made about the iPod touch. This week they updated it.
The mini doesn't need commercials because it is a known product, basically identical to (for most users) it's big brother. It makes a smaller margin, though we don't know by how much, so why advertise? It sells itself by simply existing. It needs no research beyond what the iPad research halo gives it, no marketing, due to a similar halo, and fills a spot that makes sales that otherwise wouldn't exist. Just like the iPod touch.
The world isn't this binary thing you keep arguing for. I am glad the people at Apple have actual world experience and are running things, and not some sales driven binary thinking drone. But you do you...
IMO the release of the iPadMini was a mistake by Apple. Great for consumers but horrible for Apple. Why? iPads already have terrible gross profit margin compared to the iPhone and Mac lines.
Speaking as one consumer, your logic won't hold water. The mini is the size i want. If/when Apple discontinues it, i will switch to the Nokia N1, or the LG Gpad in same size Nd take my lumps adjusting to Android again, Apple will lose me as a customer all together. Taking away ipad mini i will not force me into buying the higher margin Apple hardware. Apple has already taken away my favorite device, the iPod Classic, which is perfect for those if us who cannot have ubiquitous internet connection and who have large music collections. When my last Classic goes, it will be the new Sony Walkman for me most likely. my iTunes collection is already up in the cloud thanks to Google Play Music offering free locker for my entire collection. And that prompted me a few months ago to subscribe to their pay service, which is excellent Btw, especially on their iOS app and with web access. See the trend developing here?
but the mini isn't pocketable. If you are going to use a bag/purse you minus well just bring an Air that is only slightly heavier than the Mini.
That's my problem with the Mini. It really has no place except for an extremely niche audience.
If you want a big screen go get a iPad that is only slightly heavier and will fit in a bag just like a Mini.
If you want a pocketable device get a 6+, Mini won't fit in your pocket.
Too many assumptions again. Actually, the Mini is not entirely immobile as you describe. It actually does fit into my pants pockets if i dont use a heavy case, but that has limited practicality. I can carry it in my sweats easily when i am knocking around on weekends, but is is the 1st gen which was lighter than my mini2. With my current mini2, I often stick in in my waistband behind my back if i really need my hands free. Hardly know its there. I know thats not for everyone by a long shot, but my mini2 is my central device, and includes the Talkatone app so i literally use it as my phone. It is amazingly useful having phone function in this form factor,btw. But yes, that certainly kills Apple's margin if people substitute mini for iPhone as i do. And i say this as an Apple shareholder who cares about margins quite a bit.
85-90% of my jobs computing needs are on handled on my iPad. Mini no less . So every time I hear "professionals need..." I think back to the argument that nobody would use a Mac or iPhone because they don't have MSOffice on them.
Careful there…Word has been on the Mac since 1985, LOOONG before "MS Office" even existed, or Word was released for Windows.
You're still right in what you're saying, of course.
Hi Spheric, fair enough, "professional" was a bit sweeping (although Pogo007 started it). However, I can't think of a simple term to replace it: 'government and large corporate' perhaps. Anyway, what I mean is that if you work in an area where you and your colleagues have thousands of large case files that have been assembled over many years, and which are comprised of many different types of document (Word, Excel, PPt, Pdf, Pages, Numbers, Keynote, dwg, etc. etc.) that have to be kept in order of filing and with a strict, legally defensible naming protocol, then an iOS device (and I adore both my iPhone and iPad) is no use at the moment. I keep dreaming of going from meeting to meeting with only an iPad in my hands, but that moment awaits a solution to the above problem. An iPad type device operating OS X would be one way of doing it.
No, it wouldn't. That would be a Mac running on a device not at all designed to operate a Mac UI.
I get that you would like the functionality of a Mac on a device like the iPad, really, I do. But shoehorning an operating system designed from the ground up to be operated by indirect manipulation via remote-controlled cursor with single-pixel accuracy into a device operated by your fingers is exactly what Microsoft tried, and are backtracking 100% on now that they've realized this approach results in catastrophic products except for a very small niche that are, to some extent, actually buying Surface machines.
Careful there…Word has been on the Mac since 1985, LOOONG before "MS Office" even existed, or Word was released for Windows.
You're still right in what you're saying, of course.
Believe me I know. A guy once told me he could never use a Mac because it didn't have a real Office collection. I told him "I know how you feel, but until Apple makes some office apps we will just have to slum it with MSOffice."
No, it wouldn't. That would be a Mac running on a device not at all designed to operate a Mac UI.
I get that you would like the functionality of a Mac on a device like the iPad, really, I do. But shoehorning an operating system designed from the ground up to be operated by indirect manipulation via remote-controlled cursor with single-pixel accuracy into a device operated by your fingers is exactly what Microsoft tried, and are backtracking 100% on now that they've realized this approach results in catastrophic products except for a very small niche that are, to some extent, actually buying Surface machines.
No worries, I'm not an IT engineer, I'm just looking for "The power to be my best".
ThePixelDoc kindly suggested that I take a look at File Browser by Stratospherix Ltd (https://appsto.re/de/XFxVv.i).
It looks good, so I've purchased it and I'll see how it goes. Hopefully, it will meet my needs and I'll be able to stop posting impossible user demands.
Actually, no I won't: I still need stylus based handwriting recognition that is at least as good as my Newton 2000! Given it's been about 20 years it should be 99.999% accurate by now.
With these two apps, plus the normal stuff, my iPad would be fantastic. I'd probably ditch my MacBook Pro in favour of an IMac, and I'd still want my iPhone, iPod nano (at least until I get an A-Watch), Apple TV and Mac Mini (a paired home entertainment system), but I would be able to get rid of a heck of a lot of paper files and a large briefcase!
I don't get the obsession with handwriting. It is so much slower than even single-thumb typing... Although, I guess if you're drawing something and labelling it, it might be nice not to have to switch input modes. Nice to have, I suppose.
No worries, I'm not an IT engineer, I'm just looking for "The power to be my best".
ThePixelDoc kindly suggested that I<span style="line-height:1.4em;"> take a look at File Browser</span>
<span style="line-height:1.4em;"> by Stratospherix Ltd (</span>
<span style="line-height:1.4em;">https://appsto.re/de/XFxVv.i).</span>
<span style="line-height:1.4em;">It looks good, so I've purchased it and I'll see how it goes. Hopefully, it will meet my needs and I'll be able to stop posting </span>
impossible<span style="line-height:1.4em;"> user demands.</span>
<span style="line-height:1.4em;">Actually, no I won't: I still need stylus based handwriting recognition that is at least as good as my Newton 2000! Given it's been about 20 years it should be 99.999% accurate by now.</span>
With these two apps, plus the normal stuff, my iPad would be fantastic. I'd probably ditch my MacBook Pro in favour of an IMac, and I'd still want my iPhone, iPod nano (at least until I get an A-Watch), Apple TV and Mac Mini (a paired home entertainment system), but I would be able to get rid of a heck of a lot of paper files and a large briefcase!
Just wanted to say you're welcome and to ask if and when you find the time, possibly to come back to this thread and give your impressions and usage scenario of FileBrowser Pro. I like to here other people's stories, wishes, likes/dislikes. I often feel that the majority of my clients and even myself personally, don't make use of alot of the features some of these great apps have, nor do we have the time to test every single feature. So it's nice to hear from professionals in other situations, if only for me to take notes for later. :smokey:
Comments
Bottom line is that 1) you don't know the actual numbers and 2) you don't know how many times Apple sells a mini to someone who wouldn't have bought an iPad at all. Apple has a pretty good idea about both. You might not understand why the mini is a great product, but Apple understands that it is better to have a couple of products covering a range than one that is built to just to make a profit. Apple makes good products, profits just happen. You are thinking like Dell, not Apple, and Apple has no respect for your thinking.
85-90% of my jobs computing needs are on handled on my iPad. Mini no less 8-) . So every time I hear "professionals need..." I think back to the argument that nobody would use a Mac or iPhone because they don't have MSOffice on them. People using this argument think "professional" means a useless middle management paper pusher that the world would be better off without. The people who make nothing, contribute nothing, spend their lives in useless meetings, and golf on weekends. You know, the people the human race would never miss....
"If I can't rearrange my files and create a new form 32-71-11 in triplicate before dozing off at the big meeting and then getting cake in the break room at Bevs birthday celebration, it isn't a real computer. Can you help me print all these emails so I can file them?"
Idiots...
All I can say is that assumption stinks so much that I can immediately tell where you pulled it out of...
First, laughing at your ignorance and defensive are different things.
Second, I guess you can show me where Apple breaks down their mini vs air vs standard sales numbers and profit per model then? No? Why not?
Oh, you pulled those numbers out of your ass? Okay then.
Bottom line is the Mini gets horrible gross margins, averaging selling price, and net profits per unit. Yet its overhead cost is almost identical to the Air.
The only way I see this trend changing is if Apple sells the Mini for a higher price. Air at $499 and Mini at $449. At that point they could offer both models with identical specs. That $50 gap would be identical to the gap in the Watch line up.
And I think that makes complete sense if both devices have identical specs aside from the form factor. There's absolutely no need to artificially hinder the Mini's internal components in order to create cost separation between it and the Air. Just keep the previous generation model around for those who want to save money.
The numbers we have might well mean that. They also might not.
And even if they do, you still have no idea how many of those mini sales would not have been a sale at all if there was no mini. What percentage of mini sales are to people who never would have bought an iPad at all? What percentage choose a mid or top model mini that would have chosen a bottom lvl iPad?
You are pulling numbers and conclusions out of ass based on incomplete data and assumptions. Then you use that to make a business case that might sell well with MS or Dell, and assuming Apple would care.
Based on your logic the iPod touch should have been EoLed years ago. Yesterday it got a substantial update.
Bottom line (as you like to say even though it isn't yet the bottom line of your argument) you have nothing, and built a world of assumptions from that nothing.
Oh how I would love to buy an Apple "Surface". But I get it. They want to sell you 3 devices not one. Tablet, laptop, desktop. Otherwise... they'd have a Apple tablet running OS X and iOS w/ detachable keyboard that also had a docking station. That would be great. It will never happen. Because AAPL no like. I miss the Duo. I like Surface. I like love my Galaxy Note. I like the design of the Moto 360 that came out a year or two ago. Apple, come on.
You might want to take a look at File Browser.
FileBrowser - Access files on remote computers by Stratospherix Ltd
https://appsto.re/de/XFxVv.i
I've been using and recommending it for years. Basically all if your files at your fingertips. All you need us an App installed to open some of them, like some Office docs. Common files like PDF, JPG, MP4, MP3, TXT, Rich Text etc are all viewable right from inside the App.
Transfers directly to your iOS devices through FTP, browser, or WiFi to a remote FTP server... or just view remotely in your servers. All folder hierarchies and naming conventions respected.
Disclaimer: I have nothing to do with them, just a happy customer.
You might want to take a look at File Browser.
FileBrowser - Access files on remote computers by Stratospherix Ltd
https://appsto.re/de/XFxVv.i
I've been using and recommending it for years. Basically all if your files at your fingertips. All you need us an App installed to open some of them, like some Office docs. Common files like PDF, JPG, MP4, MP3, TXT, Rich Text etc are all viewable right from inside the App.
Transfers directly to your iOS devices through FTP, browser, or WiFi to a remote FTP server... or just view remotely in your servers. All folder hierarchies and naming conventions respected.
Disclaimer: I have nothing to do with them, just a happy customer.
It's downloading now! Many thanks!
Last week all these arguments could have been made about the iPod touch. This week they updated it.
The mini doesn't need commercials because it is a known product, basically identical to (for most users) it's big brother. It makes a smaller margin, though we don't know by how much, so why advertise? It sells itself by simply existing. It needs no research beyond what the iPad research halo gives it, no marketing, due to a similar halo, and fills a spot that makes sales that otherwise wouldn't exist. Just like the iPod touch.
The world isn't this binary thing you keep arguing for. I am glad the people at Apple have actual world experience and are running things, and not some sales driven binary thinking drone. But you do you...
Speaking as one consumer, your logic won't hold water. The mini is the size i want. If/when Apple discontinues it, i will switch to the Nokia N1, or the LG Gpad in same size Nd take my lumps adjusting to Android again, Apple will lose me as a customer all together. Taking away ipad mini i will not force me into buying the higher margin Apple hardware. Apple has already taken away my favorite device, the iPod Classic, which is perfect for those if us who cannot have ubiquitous internet connection and who have large music collections. When my last Classic goes, it will be the new Sony Walkman for me most likely. my iTunes collection is already up in the cloud thanks to Google Play Music offering free locker for my entire collection. And that prompted me a few months ago to subscribe to their pay service, which is excellent Btw, especially on their iOS app and with web access. See the trend developing here?
Too many assumptions again. Actually, the Mini is not entirely immobile as you describe. It actually does fit into my pants pockets if i dont use a heavy case, but that has limited practicality. I can carry it in my sweats easily when i am knocking around on weekends, but is is the 1st gen which was lighter than my mini2. With my current mini2, I often stick in in my waistband behind my back if i really need my hands free. Hardly know its there. I know thats not for everyone by a long shot, but my mini2 is my central device, and includes the Talkatone app so i literally use it as my phone. It is amazingly useful having phone function in this form factor,btw. But yes, that certainly kills Apple's margin if people substitute mini for iPhone as i do. And i say this as an Apple shareholder who cares about margins quite a bit.
85-90% of my jobs computing needs are on handled on my iPad. Mini no less
Careful there…Word has been on the Mac since 1985, LOOONG before "MS Office" even existed, or Word was released for Windows.
You're still right in what you're saying, of course.
Hi Spheric, fair enough, "professional" was a bit sweeping (although Pogo007 started it). However, I can't think of a simple term to replace it: 'government and large corporate' perhaps. Anyway, what I mean is that if you work in an area where you and your colleagues have thousands of large case files that have been assembled over many years, and which are comprised of many different types of document (Word, Excel, PPt, Pdf, Pages, Numbers, Keynote, dwg, etc. etc.) that have to be kept in order of filing and with a strict, legally defensible naming protocol, then an iOS device (and I adore both my iPhone and iPad) is no use at the moment. I keep dreaming of going from meeting to meeting with only an iPad in my hands, but that moment awaits a solution to the above problem. An iPad type device operating OS X would be one way of doing it.
No, it wouldn't. That would be a Mac running on a device not at all designed to operate a Mac UI.
I get that you would like the functionality of a Mac on a device like the iPad, really, I do. But shoehorning an operating system designed from the ground up to be operated by indirect manipulation via remote-controlled cursor with single-pixel accuracy into a device operated by your fingers is exactly what Microsoft tried, and are backtracking 100% on now that they've realized this approach results in catastrophic products except for a very small niche that are, to some extent, actually buying Surface machines.
Believe me I know. A guy once told me he could never use a Mac because it didn't have a real Office collection. I told him "I know how you feel, but until Apple makes some office apps we will just have to slum it with MSOffice."
No, it wouldn't. That would be a Mac running on a device not at all designed to operate a Mac UI.
I get that you would like the functionality of a Mac on a device like the iPad, really, I do. But shoehorning an operating system designed from the ground up to be operated by indirect manipulation via remote-controlled cursor with single-pixel accuracy into a device operated by your fingers is exactly what Microsoft tried, and are backtracking 100% on now that they've realized this approach results in catastrophic products except for a very small niche that are, to some extent, actually buying Surface machines.
No worries, I'm not an IT engineer, I'm just looking for "The power to be my best".
ThePixelDoc kindly suggested that I take a look at File Browser by Stratospherix Ltd (https://appsto.re/de/XFxVv.i).
It looks good, so I've purchased it and I'll see how it goes. Hopefully, it will meet my needs and I'll be able to stop posting impossible user demands.
Actually, no I won't: I still need stylus based handwriting recognition that is at least as good as my Newton 2000! Given it's been about 20 years it should be 99.999% accurate by now.
With these two apps, plus the normal stuff, my iPad would be fantastic. I'd probably ditch my MacBook Pro in favour of an IMac, and I'd still want my iPhone, iPod nano (at least until I get an A-Watch), Apple TV and Mac Mini (a paired home entertainment system), but I would be able to get rid of a heck of a lot of paper files and a large briefcase!
Just wanted to say you're welcome and to ask if and when you find the time, possibly to come back to this thread and give your impressions and usage scenario of FileBrowser Pro. I like to here other people's stories, wishes, likes/dislikes. I often feel that the majority of my clients and even myself personally, don't make use of alot of the features some of these great apps have, nor do we have the time to test every single feature. So it's nice to hear from professionals in other situations, if only for me to take notes for later. :smokey: