Tuesday, October 23, 2012

New: iPad Mini

Today there's an Apple event. It's been a while since they or Amazon has streamed an event live, but they are doing that today.
... Okay, pretty good stuff:
  • New, slim, MacBook with 13-inch Retina display. 
  • New, slim iMads. (Not retina display.) 
  • A new Mac Mini with many fast/new connections. 
  • Surprise: an iPad generation 4! Didn't see that one coming. No new features really, but faster overall. 
  • And the worst-kept surprise since the last royal wedding: a new, smaller iPad: the iPad Mini

The iPad Mini seems really nice. Basically it is an iPad 2 (the one before the Retina Display), shrunk down. It is shrunk down so you get exactly the same number of pixels as on the 2nd generation. You can do the same stuff on it because it's the same pixels, but it'll seem a bit sharper because the pixels are smaller. And you can hold it much more easily in one hand, something I and others have been wishing for, for a long time, for reading purposes.

It is $329 and up. Mmm, I really thought they were going for at least down to $299. Sure, that would have collided with the newest iPod Touch, but that really could be $269, I think. It really does seem that Apple refuses to join "the race to the bottom". Good for them, I hope it works.  Anyway, for now, that's how it is, and I don't doubt it'll sell real durn well, because Nexus 7 or no Nexus 7, the iPad is still the best and most fun tablet, and now you can get a hand-sized version.

In fact I've been using my Nexus 7 and thinking: "This is really great. But it would be much more fun if it was an iPad." Well, now I can get it. The interface is better than Android I think, there are many more apps designed for it, and the content store is much bigger and better. (With the exception of the iBooks store, but you can just run the Kindle app on the iPad Mini.)

By the way, in this space I before have wished for a smaller iPad, and one under 300 grams. Well, they almost made it: the iPad Mini is 308 grams! I'll call that close enough, and I look forward to using it. ... Actually it is impressive, because the Nexus seven is over 30 grams heavier, has a plastic back, and it was the low-weight leader until now, and has a smaller screen (though higher pixel-resolution).

The thin vertical bezels might have presented a problem, but:
iPad mini intelligently recognizes whether your thumb is simply resting on the display or whether you’re intentionally interacting with it. 
Now that kind of design intelligence is typically Apple, sorry to say it.

I am not the only one to wonder about the price. Gizmodo calls it "crazy expensive": they point out that for a couple of years there, Apple was beating everybody on both price and features/quality, with the iPad and the MacBook Air. But now Amazon (Kindle Fire) and Google (Nexus Seven) is beating the iPad Mini soundly on price, at the same time as having much sharper displays.

I don't know. It's a bit disappointing. But then we know that Amazon deliberately makes no money on the hardware, and it seems pretty obvious that Google is trying the same thing, gaining market share with a loss-leader in the Nexus Seven. Apple won't do that, neither do they need to, probably. But it is a big price difference. If at least the display had lived up to current high-end standards (above 200 pixels per inch)...

There's a temptation to say that it's just Apple charging Apple prices, but that instinct is dated. The real genius of the original iPad wasn't just that it was first—it was also cheapest. It took competitors a full year to come up with a tablet that could even remotely compete at $500. Ditto the MacBook Air of the last several years; it set a price so low for ultrabook-style computers that Intel had to start a $300 slush fund to help PC manufactures hit that price point.

Update:
Len said:

I, too, am surprised by the price but am sure they will sell millions.

Oh, undoubtedly. I’ll buy your whole family one if they don’t. As certain as rain tomorrow here.

I predicted mainly two things: cheap. And light. They could’nt overcome their addiction to 25% profit margins (who can blame 'em?), but they did well with the weight, very well. I would’a thunk they would have to make it plastic to make it that light. Instead they beat plastic devices on their own game!
It must be very thin.
I like the shape. Not those durn tapered edges on the 2 and 3. Nicely rounded. Easier to handle and to plug things into.

If a 264 PPI screen (iPad 3) has not ruined me for a 163 PPI (iPad Mini), we may have a winner. (iPad two has 132.) But surely the screen is improved in other ways too. (You may recall my comparison showing that the MacBook Air looked much sharper than the iPad 2, despite the same pixel density.)

The Mini and the Kindle Paper White, good pair. for long-reading and surfing.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

"It is $329 and up. Mmm, I really thought they were going for at least down to $299."

THIRTY BUCKS! Is that going to keep people from buying it? How many coffees is that?

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

It won't keep people from buying it. People will sign over their firstborn to get this, just like their are doing with the iPhone 5. (I suspect many are counting more firstborn than they actually have.)

There's a bigger psychological gap between 299 and 329 than between 309 and 339.

And notice I said at least. I really thought 300 was to the top option.

Anyway, people are weird, they *will* often make a big deal over a price difference which is really just a cup of coffee.

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

I was hoping, like many, that they would make a price-shock like they did with iPad One.

TC [Girl] said...

http://www.cnet.com/news/apple-leaks-the-new-ipad-air-2-and-ipad-mini-3/

Eolake Stobblehouse said...


Thank you.

I think this time I will wait until tonight, so the news at the Apple event will be fresh. I'm quite curious if they have some significant changes or just a string of minor enhancements. (But don't tell. :-)

I am still using the 12-inch Samsung a lot! Shocking, but it is good, and I especially like the big screen, just like with the iPhone 6+.

HD video of course looks even better on the big screen, and I already talked about comics.

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

Apple always makes a doubtful pun in the invitation. This time it is:
"It’s been way too long."

So I'll guess they have shortened the bezel on the iPad Air. Mmmm, may be harder to hold though.

TC [Girl] said...

Thank you.

You're welcome...

I think this time I will wait until tonight, so the news at the Apple event will be fresh.

Good idea...

I'm quite curious if they have some significant changes or just a string of minor enhancements. (But don't tell. :-)

Honestly, I didn't even read it; just thought it kind of FUNNY ALL the faux pas they keep having rolling out!! :-P

I am still using the 12-inch Samsung a lot!

Cool; are you creating or "just" reading and looking? Anything to share w/"us?"

Shocking, but it is good, and I especially like the big screen, just like with the iPhone 6+.

Good to hear; I have someone in the house that won't go near anything tablet, she had such a bad experience w/her first tablet/gadget...

I can't WAIT for fricken January to get here...if I'm not having to sell a home, by then... :-/

HD video of course looks even better on the big screen, and I already talked about comics.

Cool... Yes; "fast forward" to the top of this blog, even...2 years later... ;-) MY

TC [Girl] said...

Apple always makes a doubtful pun in the invitation. This time it is:
"It’s been way too long."


Thought they might be referring to their keynotes!! :-P

So I'll guess they have shortened the bezel on the iPad Air. Mmmm, may be harder to hold though.

Tweaking = Job Security (Not always beneficial to the End Users, of course, "...but we're working on it!") :-P

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

Some people think it's an admission from Apple that it's been way too long since some product or other was updated. Do they know Apple at all?

TC [Girl] said...

I'm doubly chuckling, as I note this post, from 2 years back...introducing the "slim" MacBook, and less than 1 1/2 years later, I became a proud owner of the MacBook Air!! :-D xo

TC [Girl] said...

Um...the only thing I'm excited about hearing how successful is, is the Apple Pay and...I'm wondering if you're "creaming your shorts" over this new RD 27" screen... Did you watch the keynote, yet? I have sourdough bread to mix; I'm not going to get sucked in, right now; I'm not going to get sucked in, right now; I'm NOT going to get sucked in, right now!! :-P