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iPad mini

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131–140 of 358 posts

Re: iPad mini

#131

How underwhelming. At 7.9 inches, it’s perfectly sized to deliver an experience every bit as big as iPad What does that even mean? Either it's perfectly sized, and the iPad is the wrong size. Or it's not. There can surely only be one perfect size to deliver an iPad experience??? Either it's 10" or it's 7.9". I think Apple's marketing has always been the same - it's just that for a while they were ahead of the curve a…

Agreed that the copy is cloying, but surely you realize that the point is that some people prefer a smaller device? When I showed my wife this link, she immediately requested one for Christmas. This was surprising, as she had never before shown the slightest interest in an Apple offering. Then she said that this was going to sell like hotcakes, because at this size, it's not too big to fit in a lady's purse.

Re: iPad mini

#132

Why does it cost more than the Kindle Fire HD but has way worse specs? Apple have shot themselves in the foot with this launch. I'm so disappointed in the iPad Mini.

> Why does it cost more than the Kindle Fire HD but has way worse specs?

Can you enumerate these "worse specs?"

Re: iPad mini

#133
post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I totally agree. I really like my iPad for a lot of things, but it has been disappointing for pleasure reading of books because it is just too heavy. Given that my primary use case will be reading, I now have to decide between a Kindle Paperwhite or the iPad Mini, with the one additional input that my kids would love to have another iPad in the house.

I have a Kindle Paperwhite and it is awesome for reading. I gave up on the iPad for reading a while ago.

I was convinced the iPad Mini was for me, until I just looked up the Paperwhite. However, I read a lot of articles and rely on Reader or Pocket. Does the Paperwhite support any such functionality?

Re: iPad mini

#134
post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He's not criticising the product, he's criticising the marketing.

Read the front of an Everglade spray can. I think it says "The Essence of Nature". Then read the back. The back is full of skulls... While I agree some of the texts on the iPad mini page could have been better written, it's as usual just marketing speak designed to push interested customers that extra cm they need to do a purchase.

Well that sounds about right, the essence of nature is that everything dies.

Re: iPad mini

#135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple competes on user experience. Not price, and certainly not specs.

The poor specs lead to a poor UX, so I fail to see the difference.

Take a look at some videos of the Kindle. That hardware is clearly not going towards the UX because that thing is so laggy.

Re: iPad mini

#136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is odd with the iPad maxi and the iPhone both having retina displays that Apple didn't go with that out of the box for the mini. But maybe hamstringing the resolution is one of the ways Apple hopes they can nudge buyers over to the full size.

Can we agree to not say "iPad maxi" again? Thanks.

I'm not aware of anything you need my permission or inclusion as a precondition to agreeing to.

Re: iPad mini

#137
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Meh, 164 PPI isn't bad, and this resolution allows them to run legacy iPad applications unscaled.

isn't bad? The original android g1 had greater PPI (180) than this thing.

Smartphone versus tablet is not really a fair comparison.

The pixel density for the new iPad mini sits between the iPad 2 and iPad 3 with Retina display. As far as I'm aware, no one was complaining about the iPad 2 display.

In any case, I suspect the choice of resolution was driven more by compatibility concerns (i.e. it can run iPad 2 apps unscaled), and this paves the way for a 'Retina display' iPad mini at some point in the future.

Re: iPad mini

#138
There is no obvious reason this product isn't going to sell in huge quantities.

Less conceptually fragile, less expensive, more portable, same software stack, same media stack, same OS, same UX, same premium experience, same monstrous manufacturing and distribution reach, same monstrous advertising and product awareness engine.

Every single one of the children you see in restaurants working an iPad so mommy and daddy can eat in peace will have one of these by January.

Schools will buy in by the hundreds of thousands, regardless of actual utility or how successful digital textbooks eventually become.

This is the new travel iPad. This is the status gift for the developing world. This is the throwaway iPad if you're rich or the first one you look at if you're less so.

It's priced to make Apple the margins they want while still inviting comparisons with less expensive and similarly sized tablets. It's going to suck the oxygen out of the $300-$500 price range for anything with a screen.

And it's cheap enough to substantially distinguish itself from the main iPad line, which is selling millions a week. That's all it had to do, pricing-wise.

I don't want or need this, and I don't think it was particularly necessary for the health of the iPad line, but they dotted all the Is and crossed all the Ts when designing this product.

Re: iPad mini

#140

Apple stock is down on the news. Although I'm personally underwhelmed by this announcement, I'll bet analysts are more worried about the lower priced iPad cutting into margins than they are Apple's ability to ship them.

They could've offered this at $250 and still make a profit. I doubt the profit is much smaller than the regular iPad. All its internals are 1.5 years old.
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