iPad mini?

[Bryancd]

When the iPad was released and priced, there were all sorts of wailing around here about the price being too high, which I summarily dismissed and correctly pointed out it was perfectly priced. History and 100 million iPads later has proven me correct. Now I am saying this is priced too high, not by a lot, but a $299 number would have really hit it out of the park and provide a solid $100 price differential to the iPad2 which is still for sale. Now, the iPad2 is likely not long for this world based on todays new iPad processor upgrade so the product line will be more in line price wise once it's retired. However a $2XX number would really resonate with consumers and pull up bargain shoppers looking at the competing tablets.

[Rico]

Bryan, you can't go back in time - well at least not yet.  There is A LOT more competition in the tablet market these days - and in this size range too.  I think Apple boxed themselves in a bit on the price due to the current price of the iPod touch.  What they should have done was dropped the Touch price some so they could price the Mini at $299 - or even a little less.  The Nexus 7 and the Kindle Fire HD version are both very nice products and significantly less in price than the Mini.  In my view they should have gone for the one-two punch of size and price both.  Based on all this, I'd just buy a $199 mini tablet from someone else to go with my iPad.

[X]

When this fails and it will after you look at the kindle price point with better stuff and slightly larger screen, you are going to hear how jobs was right, but the price point here is just wrong. They painted themselves in a corner because of the touch, but they could have fixed the price issues with the cell version. They just gave reason on why people should get the 8.9 fire hd.

Apple just endorsed the small form and didn't bring their A game.

[X]

Did I mention that the 32 gb nexus are only 249.99? I don't even know when they go on sale and most sites list them as rumors, but I've held one in my hands.

[moyer777]

wow, so many things to think about here.  I was hoping for a bit less on the mini as I wanted one.  BUT.. now with the Ipad 4 being so fast, I may have to save up my pennies for that.. of course am I going to regret it in six months?  LOL.  Such awesome machines...

[Rico]

Nice article here comparing the current three, main "mini" tablets.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2411313,00.asp

[Meds]

Ridiculous price for the ipad mini, i was thinking of getting one but not at this price.

[QuadShot]

Sorry Bryan, I've got to side with Rico on this. I am disappointed in Apple for their price point on this. Really. Yes, I think a lot of people will buy but I just think it's too high for something smaller. Plus I'm pretty pissed at Apple for the new iMacs. I'm not sure WHY they removed the Superdrive. A truly stupid move if you ask me. So now they're telling me that if I want to watch a movie, burn a photo CD, burn a DVD, etc, I now have to pay MORE?! STUPID. When they first announced they were retooling the iMacs, and leaving them at the same price point I was excited. But...removing something, and NOT adding anything? Not even Retina Display? POOH. Poor form Apple!!

[Bryancd]

I'm sorry, reading comprehension has failed you guys! :) I said it was priced too high.

"Now I am saying this is priced too high, not by a lot, but a $299 number would have really hit it out of the park and provide a solid $100 price differential to the iPad2 which is still for sale."

I AM SAYING THIS IS PRICED TOO HIGH.  :old_bash:

[Coda]

I'm sorry, reading comprehension has failed you guys! :) I said it was priced too high.

"Now I am saying this is priced too high, not by a lot, but a $299 number would have really hit it out of the park and provide a solid $100 price differential to the iPad2 which is still for sale."

I AM SAYING THIS IS PRICED TOO HIGH.  :old_bash:

I have to agree.  All Apple products cost too much.  I would have bought a mac pro long ago if it just wasn't priced so high.  I can get multiple Windows systems for the price of one mac pro.  Don't get me wrong, I used a top of the line macpro at work and can run 2 VMs in it at the same time (Win XP and Ubuntu) and loved it.  But for the machine to be over $3k, whew!  I can get a whole lot of hardware for that amount....

[QuadShot]

Bryan....I just got back from vacation. Reading comp isn't where it should be I guess. My apologies.

Coda, yes Apple products are priced high but in general you get superior products. How many Windows machines can you say still function extremely well 3,4 even 8+ years after purchase? I say none. But for me, Apple has begun a slight downward turn of late. Like the are trying to nickel and dime us now.

[KingIsaacLinksr]

Sorry Bryan, I've got to side with Rico on this. I am disappointed in Apple for their price point on this. Really. Yes, I think a lot of people will buy but I just think it's too high for something smaller. Plus I'm pretty pissed at Apple for the new iMacs. I'm not sure WHY they removed the Superdrive. A truly stupid move if you ask me. So now they're telling me that if I want to watch a movie, burn a photo CD, burn a DVD, etc, I now have to pay MORE?! STUPID. When they first announced they were retooling the iMacs, and leaving them at the same price point I was excited. But...removing something, and NOT adding anything? Not even Retina Display? POOH. Poor form Apple!!

Apple is pushing the all-digital, wireless frontier heavily. They have been for the past several years. No discs, no wires, nothing, they want it out. Take a look at the Macbook Air, iPad and etc. Its been coming for a long while. It is interesting that they are removing it now, but not surprising. Though I pretty much never use a disc anymore, so losing a disc drive doesn't bother me much. But I understand that plenty of people do so removing it seems like a bad idea to me...

What does bother me is that the new Macbook Pros don't come with Ethernet. Idk if Apple has noticed lately, but wireless connections still pale in comparison to the stability, reliability and speed of ethernet connections. While I get that Macbooks aren't as likely to use wired connections when on the go, I'm sure many people still connect them to an ethernet connection when they get home. So not having Ethernet as a connection type would be a deal breaker if I was looking at getting a new laptop.

[Dangelus]

Watched the presentation of the new iMac.

Apple have always been very style conscious and to me their products are comparible with the designer clothes industry in many ways, very good quality going slightly overboard with the frills, and you pay a premium.

These iMacs jump the shark a little for me. If yes they are thin and look great but this doesn't actually save you any space on a desktop. A little bit of smoke and mirrors I think. Also as with many style emphasised products,  practicality takes a back seat. The SD card slot is on the back of the machine etc...

It may be obvious but I don't buy designer clothes ;)
To me a desktop PC needs to be a big box to be useful. Something I can upgrade and be user serviceable. These style features are more suited to laptop devices really. Apple say there will be a new Mac Pro next year but it looks likely that after that they will be retiring the big box and abandoning the professional content creators that kept their business going for many years before they became mainstream. A real shame.

[billybob476]

Sorry Bryan, I've got to side with Rico on this. I am disappointed in Apple for their price point on this. Really. Yes, I think a lot of people will buy but I just think it's too high for something smaller. Plus I'm pretty pissed at Apple for the new iMacs. I'm not sure WHY they removed the Superdrive. A truly stupid move if you ask me. So now they're telling me that if I want to watch a movie, burn a photo CD, burn a DVD, etc, I now have to pay MORE?! STUPID. When they first announced they were retooling the iMacs, and leaving them at the same price point I was excited. But...removing something, and NOT adding anything? Not even Retina Display? POOH. Poor form Apple!!

Apple is pushing the all-digital, wireless frontier heavily. They have been for the past several years. No discs, no wires, nothing, they want it out. Take a look at the Macbook Air, iPad and etc. Its been coming for a long while. It is interesting that they are removing it now, but not surprising. Though I pretty much never use a disc anymore, so losing a disc drive doesn't bother me much. But I understand that plenty of people do so removing it seems like a bad idea to me...

What does bother me is that the new Macbook Pros don't come with Ethernet. Idk if Apple has noticed lately, but wireless connections still pale in comparison to the stability, reliability and speed of ethernet connections. While I get that Macbooks aren't as likely to use wired connections when on the go, I'm sure many people still connect them to an ethernet connection when they get home. So not having Ethernet as a connection type would be a deal breaker if I was looking at getting a new laptop.

The other thing to point out here is this is Apple's historical behaviour. Remember, they were the first to remove floppy drives from the original iMac. People (myself included) reacted badly then, now no PC of any type ships with a floppy drive. That time they were right (albeit ahead of the curve), they are also likely right this time, but I guess we'll see.

[Dangelus]

Good point Joe but there is a huge difference to between a floppy disk and optical media and the reasoning behind removing them is totally different too.

The floppy was removed because superior storage mediums with greater capacity began to appear which made it obsolete. Optical media is also used for storage and is still being worked to increase capacity. It is also the bridging medium with consumer media (CDs, DVDs, and Blu-Ray) and it is this that Apple don't want you to watch / listen on your Mac as they want people to use iTunes.

I'm probably one of the people on this forum who rarely use physical media. I have all my movies and music on hard drives and they are networked to all my devices for playback. I still need a physical media reader to get them there so even if you are a bit like me there will always be the need for physical media devices on computers.