Ipad Air (aka Ipad 5), Ipad Mini Retina Thread

[Roland00Address]

$299 for old iPad mini with A5 soc
$399 for new iPad mini retina with A7 soc

$399 for old iPad 2 with A5 soc
$499 for new iPad Air, aka iPad 5, lighter, thinner, smaller bezels, with A7 soc

Note no models will have touch id fingerprint sensor

 

[Staples]

I wasn't expecting the Ipad Mini Retina to get up that much.

I was expecting a $299/349 (old, new) pricing system.

Probably still get one knowing that it will last a little longer now that it has the newest CPU.

 

[ChronoReverse]

Before the Mini was just a miniaturized iPad2 so it was cheap. The new Retina Mini seems to be a shrunk down iPad Air, so it's almost surprising it's still cheaper than the Air.

 

[Bateluer]

Curious that neither has a finger print scanner, that seemed like a feature they were hyping up with the iPhone 5S.

The new Mini also doesn't have a ship date, according to Engadget, just a vague 'Sometime in November'.

The lighter size of the Air model is the most interesting aspect for me, ~10in tablets were just too heavy for prolonged use. Made them worthless for reading, which is why I really love the ~8in tablets.

I've been eyeing LG's 8.3in tablet or the N7 2013, but I've been pretty satisfied with my Note 8. At least, satisfied enough not to drop another 300 dollars.

 

[Staples]

Guess that is another way to look at it. Smaller is usually more expensive.

I have no idea what their sales figures were for the mini but I think it sold well not only because it was cheap and all the "poor" people bought one but I think that a lot of 9.7" owners also bought one because for many people, 7.9" is the ideal size.

 

[Eug]

I think it's hilarious my ancient iPad 2 is still being sold, and for US$399, too.

That was US$499 over 2.5 years ago in early 2011.

I wonder what I could get for it. I'd be nice to get both Retina, and machine that's 1/3rd of a pound lighter, esp. if it only costs me $200 and tax after selling the old iPad 2.

 

[poofyhairguy]

Oh well, at least Apple made it easy to recommend stuff to normals:

"If it says retina, you are ok, if it doesn't slowly walk away."

 

[Roland00Address]

Cheapest iPad 2 on swappa is 240, second cheapest is 275
EBay shows similar prices in the 200 to 250 range

 

[Staples]

Apple products have always held on to value like nothing else in the computing world.

But as they get more and more popular and take a bigger and bigger market share, they will start to lose value quicker than they currently do.

 

[openwheel]

Yikes, typical Apple, outrageous prices. $400 for an iPad Mini?

 

[Mopetar]

I think it's hilarious my ancient iPad 2 is still being sold, and for US$399, too.

That was US$499 over 2.5 years ago in early 2011.

I wonder what I could get for it. I'd be nice to get both Retina, and machine that's 1/3rd of a pound lighter, esp. if it only costs me $200 and tax after selling the old iPad 2.

I think that they want a cheaper model around so they can advertise as starting at $399. It also makes an upsell to the newer model easier as well as for only $100 more you can get X, Y, and Z.

I've also heard that education customers have been buying a lot of the iPad 2's and I imagine that some of them can get better deals, because I imagine the cost to Apple for an iPad 2 is so low that that the margins are obscene.

 

[Mopetar]

Curious that neither has a finger print scanner, that seemed like a feature they were hyping up with the iPhone 5S.

There have been some rumors that Apple has bumped up the production of the 5S quite a bit. Perhaps they're constrained on parts to the point where they can't add this feature without limiting the number of iPads that they can churn out.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

My take:

More reasonable prices while maintaining the Apple Tax
iPad Mini: $249 (16gb), $349 (32gb). They could get away with $279 possibly.
iPad Mini Retina: $349 (16gb)
iPad budget: iPad 2 for $349 or iPad 3/4 internals w/o retina for $399
iPad flagship: $499.

 

[ivwshane]

Here is what I don't get:

New iPad mini w/lte = $530
iPad air w/lte = $630

New iPad mini = $400
iPad air = $500

IPhone 5s = $650

So a larger screen = $100
LTE = $130

So with a more than 50% smaller screen, finger print reader, better camera, and a smaller battery, the iPhone costs $20 more than the iPad air?
We know a smaller screen is at least a $100 cheaper which means that the finger print reader and better camera equals a $120 premium?

Give me a break! Add their odd storage pricing ($100 for an additional 16GB, but only $300 for 8 times that amount-128GB).

 

[Bateluer]

People need to start raging hard over 16GB models being the entry model. Thats just not acceptable in 2013. And Google, Samsung, and LG are all guilty. Launch a 16GB model to advertise the lowest price, than add a dollar's worth of flash memory to jack the price up in 50 dollar increments.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

People need to start raging hard over 16GB models being the entry model. Thats just not acceptable in 2013. And Google, Samsung, and LG are all guilty. Launch a 16GB model to advertise the lowest price, than add a dollar's worth of flash memory to jack the price up in 50 dollar increments.

Samsung offers microSD at least.

 

[Roland00Address]

Yikes, typical Apple, outrageous prices. $400 for an iPad Mini?

You do understand it has similar specs as the kindle fire hdx which goes for 379 and it has a usable os unlike amazon

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

You do understand it has similar specs as the kindle fire hdx which goes for 379 and it has a usable os unlike amazon

However, because the Nexus 7 exists, all other devices are therefore overpriced. /s

 

[Staples]

Samsung offers microSD at least.

The microSD is limited as for what it can be used for. There is no substitution for built in memory.

 

[poofyhairguy]

The microSD is limited as for what it can be used for.

Newer version's of Samsung's Android does apps2SD and saves photos to the SD card. What else do you need?

 

[Ravynmagi]

I'm really interested in why Apple has renamed the iPad to iPad Air. That announcement had me kinda wondering if Apple was going to announced another 9.7 inch or larger iPad. That didn't happen, but with rumors of Apple looking at larger sizes, I wonder if a larger iPad is imminent?

I'm okay with the iPad Mini pricing. $400 seems reasonable for something that now has the same specs as their $500 tablet. Same screen resolution (and higher DPI), same A7 processor. So the iPad mini at $400 kinda seems like a pretty nice deal.

Still disappointed with the $100 increments for storage capacities or 16GB being the base model. 16GB is no longer sufficient for me and it pains me to pay an extra $100 for 16GB more storage. But Apple knows they can still get away with that, so they do.

So I'll have to end up spending $500 on my iPad mini, which I'm not quite as enthused about. I'm debating between this and $430 on a Fire HDX 8.9 32GB. I have Amazon Prime, so it's a kinda compelling alternative.

 

[Ravynmagi]

However, because the Nexus 7 exists, all other devices are therefore overpriced. /s

Only if you are happy with a 7 inch screen. I love the Nexus 7 and have one. But I also want something with a bigger screen on it.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

I agree that you need some level of built in memory. I wouldn't want apps2sd either because I don't want my apps to go kaput if I swap my SD cards.

But at 16gb of internal memory, you can install practically anything. All your photos and media can go on the SD card.

 

[nickbits]

I'm really interested in why Apple has renamed the iPad to iPad Air. That announcement had me kinda wondering if Apple was going to announced another 9.7 inch or larger iPad. That didn't happen, but with rumors of Apple looking at larger sizes, I wonder if a larger iPad is imminent?

Because they hit a wall when they named the last one "iPad with Retina." "iPad with retina 2" would be a confusing mess. I wish they just stayed with calling it 2, 3, 4, etc.

 

[ultimatebob]

There is not much in terms of innovation, is there? The new iPads are thinner, lighter, and faster... and that's about it. No fingerprint sensor, no 3D display, and no connections to a new wearable device.

I'm starting to really miss Steve Jobs and his "one more thing" at these launch events