sevenfeet

In my house, we have two Minis.  Both of them belong to my kids and they are perfect size for them.  Even more important is that my 13 year old son has special needs and is being trained to use iPads as a communication tool.  He has an iPad that the school gave him but his favorite size device is his personal iPad Mini.  It's much easier for him to handle and take places than the full sized iPad.

I get the problem of the Mini.  Schools don't buy them since they want the screen real estate of the full sized iPad (or they buy Chromebooks instead).  The people who buy the Mini are very specific for why they buy it, but it's probably not a huge seller.  What puzzles me is that the iPad has left the "Air" form factor and gone back to the thicker form factor of old.  But it did get the processor upgrade. I'm wondering if the A9 just dissipates too much heat for a 6.1mm form factor, which is also the thickness of the current Mini.

My problem now is that I need to replace both Minis...my daughter's is an original iPad Mini and my son's is a Mini 2.  The Mini 2 is in constant use for him in class and has a battery that's pretty shot after three years.  But I don't want to spend $399 to replace it (but it looks like I might have to).  My daughter wants a new one but her brother comes first in the priority list.  And in six months her school will grant her a MacBook, which may make the whole situation moot.

I'm surprised that one of the other obvious decision points for Apple hasn't been discussed.  Back in the early days of Airport, Apple was the first to bring out a wireless router and for a long time was pretty much the only one most people wanted.  That's changed over the years but the big change in recent years is that wifi is built into the broadband routers of most providers (Comcast, AT&T, etc).  So most people no longer have to bring their own Wifi anymore unless they want to for a specific reason.  Yes, there's the geek and gaming markets that will always want state-of-the-art but outside of that, most people don't bother buying a router anymore.

With sales down, you're serving a fraction of the market you used to and it's not getting any better.  Yes, it's a sad day since Apple virtually pioneered this space but it's not the end of the world.

macxpress said:

If I were Apple I'd drop the mini and lower the price of the 9.7" iPad to the price of the mini. Then lower the price of the iPad Pro models down to the price of the 9.7" iPad. Just in time for the holidays too. Apple's doesn't need an iPad mini Pro model. There are way too many models of iPads as it is between the different screen sizes, old models, new models, Wifi models, LTE models, Pro models, capacity models, etc. Its just too much IMO. 

The Mini is a perfect size for some people, especially children.  Both my kids have Minis and the form factor is perfect.