Mini Things to Discuss
It’s official. In an event held yesterday, Apple announced several new and updated products within the Mac and iPad lines. The Mac line received a new thirteen-inch MacBook Pro with a retina display, while the Mac Mini and iMac each earned a refresh. The iPad line expanded to include a new device – the iPad Mini – and also experienced a very surprising refresh of the flagship tablet.
I’m going to keep this post (mostly) about the iPad. The Mac refreshes were nice, especially as the iMac hadn’t been updated in three years. For a company always on the cutting edge, this lengthy time frame was somewhat surprising, and the update was well deserved. One brief thought on the Retina MacBook Pros … it seems to me that these are designed largely to attract new customers by what I call the “shiny” factor. The prices are sky-high compared to non-retina Macs with the same dimensions. For example: $1999 spent on a retina-display equipped 13″ MBP includes only 256GB of flash storage, while $1499 on the top-line 13″ non-retina MBP buys a 750GB hard drive. Most other performance measures increase markedly on the non-retina versions too.
Now, on to the iPad. The event was expected to be an iPad event, and indeed it was. The long rumored iPad Mini arrived on the scene, with a quick pre-order date of this Friday (October 26), with release on November 2. The device largely meets recent analyst expectations, including the predicted name. The display measures 7.9 inches, diagonally; this has proven popular among the app development community, as existing iPad apps can automatically scale down to fit the smaller screen. The Mini utilizes the same cameras as the larger version, and boasts identical battery life.
The price point that I guessed at in my earlier post proved to be too high. The Mini instead comes in at a somewhat strange $329 for a 16GB, Wi-Fi only version. Following the usual Apple habit of $100-to-double-capacity, 32GB and 64GB versions sell for $429 and $529, respectively. The Wi-Fi+Cellular versions start at a rather excessive $459 and rocket skyward for larger capacities.
$329 is clearly much more expensive than other seven-inch tablets, namely the Kindle Fire. The latest version of Amazon’s popular tablet, the Fire HD, starts at only $199 for 16 gigabytes. Amazon increases their prices only $50 to double storage capacity. Google’s Nexus 7 – featured in a devastating side-by-side comparison with the Mini during yesterday’s event – starts at $199, for a frankly ludicrous eight gigabytes. $249 buys at 16GB Nexus 7.
Someone asked me if I think the iPad Mini costs too much. Well, perhaps slightly. Actually, I see a major problem with the price point of the iPod Touch, fifth generation….the entry-level (32GB) iPod Touch sells for $299. To me, this model of iPod Touch should be around a $249 device. I think the Mini should start at $299, thus capturing the highly powerful psychological advantage of a two following the dollar sign. I also think Apple should eliminate the $100-to-double-capacity price strategy, in favor of, say, a $50 increase.
Talking about the device itself, I think it will be an excellent entry into the smaller tablet market. I would not be surprised to see it quickly become the dominant seven-inch tablet. It appears superior to the Kindle Fire, the Nexus, and the myriad other tablets floating around the ever-growing market. Plus, customers gain the advantage of iTunes and the App Store, with 275,000 dedicated iPad applications now available. To compete head-to-head with Amazon on price doesn’t seem realistic; and if it happened, quality could have easily suffered. Still, I think the device will be a hit. Portability is the biggest virtue I see…one obvious market would be women who carry purses. In addition, the iPad has already proven exceptionally popular in the classroom, and students could appreciate the smaller size (and school systems; the lower price tag). Overall, I think Apple hit the mark perfectly on design and functionality, and missed it slightly on price.
The biggest surprise of the day was the update to the main iPad line. The seven-month-old third generation iPad was kicked unceremoniously to the curb in favor of a new, fourth-generation model. The iPad 4, as I’ll call it for clarity, was not a huge update. The chip was updated to Apple’s new A6X, which claims twice the graphics performance of previous models. Also, the Wi-Fi is now twice as fast as earlier iPads. One can easily argue that this is a response to Amazon’s new Wi-Fi technology soon to arrive in the new Kindle Fire 8.9 series.
Full disclosure: I’m an iPad 3 owner. I’m glad I’m an iPad 3 owner. I am not disappointed by the release of the iPad 4. However, it concerns me somewhat from a business standpoint. I know many customers do not share my lack of concern for suddenly owning an “outdated” device. This shows the speed of progress….brand new in March is “outdated” in October. However, irritating that large of a customer base was either brave or stupid. Either way, I suspect I know why they did it.
For its entire history, the iPad has been on a first-quarter release cycle. This narrowly misses the holiday shopping season, which is the only time many consumers would consider spending $500 or more on a gadget. Last Christmas, many Apple watchers and other savvy shoppers steered clear of the iPad 2, guessing that a newer version would soon arrive. They were right: the third-generation iPad was announced in March. The original iPad was announced in January! I personally know of people who received iPads and iPad 2s for Christmas, returned them, pocketed the money, and promptly ordered the newer device a few months after Christmas. I suspect Apple was aware of this, and wanted to get the iPad on a release schedule which placed it right at the start of the holiday shopping rush. Also, with the Mini’s release, updates to both can now be synchronized. I’d say that this decision will be unpopular with consumers in the short term, but come Christmas this year, and especially next, everyone will be happier and better off.
I’d love to hear your thoughts! Feel free to leave them in the comments, or tweet me @mdgjedde
Thoughts from Aloft 