iPhones, iPods, and iPads forum: What would you pay for an iPad Mini?

I think that $299 is the expected price point w/ 16 GB which would work for me, if I was considering a new tablet device.

ROM is Read only Memory and, as such, would not be much good on a device of this sort.

P

... I was obviously talking about how many "Fred Flintstone" style pterodactyls chipping data into stone tablets the iPad will have. That's where the term "ptero bites" comes from, after all.



I meant gigabytes of storage. My bad for not double checking what I was writing.

Look, I sell iPods, iPhones, and iPads through a third party retailer in one of my jobs. I've also been a mac user for 8 years now and use my computers to produce digital multimedia for my other job. I also use a 4th gen Touch 32 gig, to keep in contact thru wifi at work and home. I'd probably get an iPhone if I had cell reception where I live but since I don't, I use a tracfone when I'm mobile. I know enough about computers to know that I don't know that much but I do know more than most of my customers. I'm a huge fan of OSX but not so much of iOS.

I look at the prices of the iPod Touch which sells for more than many of the android based tablets. I'm left wondering how competitive Apple can be with the android based tablet market when their Touch starts at the middle of the android tablet price point and is not that much cheaper than the base model of the iPad 2. We know that apple is going to sell their product for a premium price and also make some compromises in the features of the mini ipad so as not to undercut their full size iPad market.

I'm just curious as to what compromises iOS users are willing to make, hardware versus price point. Since the iPod Touch starts at 8 gigs, could we expect an 8 gig mini for $250? What about a lower res screen or camera like the iPad 2? Can we expect an exact version of the iPad 3, only smaller in size? Would this be brought in at the $400 price point as a replacement for the iPad 2?

We will see next week. I'm just curious to see what is going to make iOS users happy.

Just as responsive as the full size iPad in many many ways. A real deal too, at $200. Have you had a chance to play with it? I think you may be selling some of apples competitors short. Maybe you need to sit down and try the Nexus. I think you would be pleasantly surprised.

However, other brands of tablets have nothing to do with the questions I have asked. I have specifically compared and contrasted the iPad against other apple product's price points. Apple is competing against itself, and its other products that run iOS, with a release of a mini iPad. When the announced the new iPod line up without dropping the price point, they pretty much telegraphed that they were going to start an iPad mini at the very least, a $300 price. I could never imagine an iPad base model costing just $50 more than a base model iPod... unless they stripped out some of the features.

I think a mini iPad will spell the doom of the iPad 2, unless they make the mini iPad less capable. A less powerful processor makes a mini iPad a content streamer rather than a content developer.

I predict the mini will fall into a $300 price point for 16 gigs, and $375 to $400 for a 32 gig. Add LTE and the price maybe hits $450. Top line model 64 gig with all the bells and whistles will be $550 maybe? The iPad 2 goes away after the end of the year or by next spring.

Will the mini have a retina display? I doubt it. That is one of the equipment compromises I foresee.

The 8, 16, 32, and 64 which is quoted in the first comment is actually the storage, and the i Pad Mini has only 512 meg of ram which is less than the i Pad and same as i Pad 2. i Pad 3 and i Pad 4 have 1 meg of ram installed. Supposedly the new Samsung Nexus is going to have 2 gig of ram and probably either a dual or quad processor. Probably most people can get along nicely with 32 gig of Storage. However if you are going to keep a significant amount of mp3 music and .jpg photographs, you might take up half of that with there two types of files. I currently have high speed internet, so can use streaming audio which means that I could get along without mp3 music. Also some of the Android Tablets have the provision to extend storage by another 32 gig, so that would give you 64 gig for the operating system, programs and data. If you have 100 gig or more of programs and data stored in your current computer, you will not be able to have that much in a Tablet. In the i Pad mini, 512 meg of ram is all you can have installed. With Android Tablets, the ram is fixed by the machine and usually the storage too except for the models that let you add to that with micro SDs of 32 and 64 gig. Estimate what you are going to need to do what you want to do, and that should allow you to select a Tablet that will provide the resources that you need. Also, remember the i Pads do not allow you to add additional Storage. What you buy is what you get.