Report Predicts October Release For ‘iPad Mini’

Mac blog iMore has quoted unnamed sources as saying Apple is going to release the rumoured “iPad Mini” device in October, at an ultra-low price point somewhere between $200 to $250 (£125 to £155).

That would put the device in direct competition with Amazon’s 7-inch Kindle Fire tablet, which is priced at $199 and runs Google’s Android operating system. The new iPad, released in March, starts at $499 but offers a high-resolution Retina display and several other premium features.

Consumer interest

The latest report is the latest in a long line of rumours regarding a smaller version of the popular iPad, which has revived and dominated the tablet market since its first incarnation. A recent survey from Pricegrabber suggests that though Apple has shown no official interest in building a 7-inch iPad (Steve Jobs was famously dismissive of the idea), consumers are quite interested in buying one.

Slightly more than half (52 percent) of the survey respondents said they would consider purchasing an iPad Mini for approximately $250 to $300, likely making the rumoured lower price point even more enticing. Indeed, 64 percent of those surveyed said a price point lower than that on the new iPad or iPad 2 would be a top consideration, followed by those who wanted a smaller, more portable size (54 percent).

Micahel Oh, chief executive and founder of Apple care specialist TechSuperpowers, remains sceptical about the device, citing analysis about the Kindle Fire. He says Amazon is probably breaking even or even losing money on the product, because Amazon’s play is to nail the 7-inch tablet market before anyone else does, and make its money on the ecosystem. Oh says if Apple was going to chase that space, the logic would be the same.

“They would be doing it to nail as much of that market before anyone else was out there. It’s a very opportunistic play, and I don’t really see Apple doing that. It’s a very non-Apple move, but they can afford to do a play like that to acquire market share,” he explains. “The real downside is, it takes away from the perception that they make premium devices. There would be no Retina display, a standard resolution camera, middle-of-the-road processing power. There would be a lot of sacrifices Apple would have to make in order to engineer the device. That’s why I don’t think they’re ultimately going to do it.”

Critical point

Oh says that due to the company’s massive popularity and staggering wealth – Apple has more cash on hand than the US government – this is a critical point for Apple.

“If they did decide to go down this road, a lot of people would buy the stock, but in my opinion, that’s when you sell. That’s when they’re starting to become a commodity manufacturer,” he says. “They’ve always avoided [becoming that] with everything that they do. It would show a really different turn for Apple as an organisation and I think it would destroy the perception that they’ve built. I don’t see that as being at all their brand strategy.”

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