Apple iPad Mini chatter: Why it matters
Summary: Should Apple launch a 7-inch iPad there are a bevy of tablet market ramifications. For now, just talk of an iPad Mini is exquisitely timed as rivals ramp another assault.
Apple is reportedly prepping an iPad Mini---a roughly 7-inch version of its juggernaut tablet---and the timing of the chatter couldn't come at a more interesting time.
To wit:
- Google's Nexus 7 tablet garners strong reviews. David Pogue at the New York Times, best known for his Apple coverage, rates the Nexus 7 a worthy iPad opponent.
- Amazon is rumored to be prepping its next Kindle Fire.
- Microsoft talks up its Surface tablet meets laptop concoction.
These various reports and rumors all surfaced in the last two weeks or so. Enter the well placed stories about Apple's iPad Mini.
Both Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal reported that Apple is prepping the iPad Mini. The between the lines reading: The iPad Mini chatter is designed to freeze folks who want a smaller iPad and may ponder the Nexus 7.
The timing of all these tablet moving parts can't be mere coincidence.
Should Apple launch a smaller iPad it's going to have wide ramifications. Here's a look at just a few.
- The 7-inch form factor will be cemented as a viable option. The 7-inch tablet has been a bit of a tablet step child. The iPad has ruled with its 10-inch screen and Amazon was the first to make 7-inches viable in the market. The jury is still out on the 7-inch tablet space, but if Apple jumps in that size is here to stay.
- The low-end of the tablet market matters. A $399 iPad could be a short-term fix if Apple really goes with the iPad Mini. A smaller screen at a lower starting price could keep Apple as the unchallenged tablet leader for a long time.
- Businesses will have more options. The argument for tablets smaller than the iPad was that they can fit in lab coats and work better for industry applications. If I had a dime for every time some rival tablet maker said the iPad was too big...
- Apple can own the tablet market. Apple already owns the high-end and has the supply chain to take on the low end of the market. With a low-end market encroachment, Apple basically ensures that any tablet trade-up activity will stay in its court.
- Ecosystem may determine the 7-inch tablet winner. Apple clearly has the ecosystem and Amazon proved that its services can sell a tablet too. Google's offerings need to be built out a bit, but the company will get there. However, an iPad Mini would attract price conscious tablet buyers. Assuming price parity at the low end, ecosystem and brand wins the day.
- Price isn't a differentiator. Let's say Apple hits a $250 price point and does it profitably. Price at the low-end isn't a competitive weapon. Amazon's Kindle Fire sold because it was $199. The Nexus 7 is sharp partially because it's a great value. If Apple gets close to the $200 mark it nullifies all the value plays.
More:
Nexus 7 with Jelly Bean: a large smartphone without the phone
Why Apple doesn't need a 7-inch iPad
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Talkback
Maybe... Maybe not.
Pagan jim
I've always got a kick out of the notion
Well, the iPhone is a copy of prior smartphone designs...
…well not quite
...Blackberry did just that....
Don't make me laugh.
Your not dealing with the necessity of a gold medalist trying to copy silver and bronze medalists at all. Completely different dynamic.
If your going to compare this to athletes, its far more like a champion in one kind of division of a sport trying to step up, or step down or sideways for that matter, into a different division of the sport to become dominant there as well.
And that does happen, boxing, and wrestling it happens, I would imagine it happens from time to time in any sport where the analogy could be properly compared.
And the issue is; why would Apple want to do this?
The answer is simple. There may be more profits too be made. I have no doubt Apple has looked into this, and I also have no doubt that if Apple has determined there are realistic profits to be made they will do it.
And why not? This is not a puzzle, this is not unusual and its not a tricky question.
Its simple. If there is money to be made in selling a smaller form factor of Apples iPad then there is good reason for Apple to make a smaller iPad and sell it. The only reason they would not be likely to do it in such a case is if for some strange reason they couldn't get it right or make it profitable. But that takes back to the start doesn't it.
Gold medal in what?
The ipad is the most common tablet. It is the tablet makes up like 60% of a 10 horse race and came 3rd to 8th. And the Apple fans all jump up and down bragging about how they have the most entries in that race.
Apple following others
That may be true in general but Apple has shown they're willing to introduce new form factors in order to hit price points to keep competitors at bay. They were particularly successful at that with the iPod, and here we see a very analogous case.
You think of Apple introducing 7" tablets as "following" the competitors but really the people making 7" units didn't do so because they were particularly enthralled with the form factor, they did it because there wasn't any other way to compete with Apple. Apple's supply chain is so good that it's impossible to undercut them on price without compromising somewhere, and the biggest cost areas are 1) screen; 2) battery; and 3) flash memory.
Smaller screens need less battery, and they can cut out a lot of flash as long as they have the ability to take external cards. Pretty much every would-be competitor did all of those those things.
I really expect them to make a new form factor. I think they'll do it like they did with the iPod, where they leave out things or degrade functionality in certain areas even if competitors don't. As we saw with the iPods Apple doesn't necessarily need to hit all the features competitors have to win, they just have to hit the high points and be fairly close on price. Leave out a camera or use lower-quality cameras, use older electronics, lower density display, less flash, stuff like that. If you look at the kinds of compromises they make with the iPod touch, I think you'll see the same things.
The iPod touch also gives us an idea of what kind of price point they might try for. It sells for around $200 to start in a 8GB configuration. No way would Apple set it so low as to compete with it. $250 is, I think, the lowest they might go -- but I think I'd expect something more like $280 or $290. Less than $300, but filling the hole they currently have between the $200 iPod and the $400 last-generation iPad.
I know there are people who think they have to come really close to $200 to compete with the Nexus 7, but I don't think they do. Google can't build the Nexus 7 fast enough to really make a big impact on iPad sales (a problem Amazon has too although it turned out not to really matter), but much more importantly Google can't sell it through retail channels without increasing the price pretty significantly. As long as it's only available via Google itself it will have very limited market impact.
retail pricing?
THE device Apple needs to copy
Forget about 7" tablets, make a large screen phone and they will come!
Apple Mini iPad
I must live under a large rock
It would also have to fit the right aspect ratio I would think, making it less convenient than a Kindle/Nook/Nexus/Playbook/etc... people want something small enough to fit in a purse or coat. Most coats I know are a bit more rectangular than boxy, especially big coat pockets... that said, I don't know a single person that actually keeps a tablet in a coat pocket.
Seems like another story the tech media is writing for page views. This is the 3rd or 4th written in the last couple of hours.
It must be 4x3 aspect ratio!! No other option
I agree that 4:3 rules!!!
It's not a TV or movie viewer
Do you seriously believe that???
1) Games
2) Social Media Interaction
3) Video (YouTube / Television / Movies)
Please don't kid yourself.
BTW, your reasons have no leg to stand on anyway. Books and paper are not in a 4:3 format... Granted, they aren't in 16:9 or 16:10 either, but it's a mute point nonetheless.
What people DO care about, IMO, is the ability to hold it for long periods of time without fatigue. It's a couch item to most people and therefore they want it to fit their couch lifestyle.
I will admit, however, that this comes from a user of a non-iPad tablet who REALLY enjoys his tablet and would hate an iPad, but whose wife loves her iPad and the many conveniences it comes with. Most people don't want my tablet (Samsung Series 7 Slate - Almost doesn't count as a tablet as it's a 'real' computer) and I think they're crazy, but I don't try to push my own preferences onto other people as if everyone thinks the way I do.
Oh - And if you took mmckee58 seriously at all, I shouldn't even be wasting my time writing this... ( ;
The word is "moot"....
the paper paradigm
we have an INTERACTIVE display device which can SCROLL
Paper has different UI requirements, you can't scroll the page, you don't have onscreen controls. I throw up when I see ebook readers that FLIP pages rather than scroll. This is stupid UI which tries to emulate paper UI.
I much prefer reading and scrolling than flipping halfway thru a sentence or paragraph.
Don't ever try to emulate paper, it's just dumb and it is not efficient with an interactive device.
Haven't done their research
4:3 is good for what?
I can't find a situation where the 4:3 screen works better.
Easy case right here is viewing this forum (or any forum or website which is generally vertical) the 800x1280 screen simply sh17s on the iPads 768x1024.
In landscape mode, I can dock browser controls in the extra space on the side and free up vertical real estate.
Bring up onscreen keyboard in portrait on both and it's dead easy to see the 3:4 iPad leaves less space for content and clearly inferior.
Someone with tablets in BOTH format, please show me a case for 1024x768 which is superior to 1280x800. PLEASE!