Sounds nice, but the way the market in consumer electronics is going, it's about time for Apple to do something disruptive. This seems like a "me too" move, unless it has features we don't know about.
In terms of screen size, everything is shrinking. 10 years ago, the hottest product was the LCD panel TVs. Consumer electronics were reaching new heights with bigger and bigger screens. The LCD TV/PC market is now saturated. Almost any CE company can make a decent LCD/PC, but making a great smart phone, not just in terms of hardware spec, but UI/UX is much more difficult because of the space constraints. HP got their asses handed by the market with Palm (remember that?) but they still recognize that mobile/smaller screens are the future. Now CE is trending towards wearable computers. People want information at their finger tips, they also want a flawless Siri/Google equivalent. In about 10 years, CE will be reading our minds and voice/keyboard entries will be seen as a barbaric task. Devices that need power will be charged using solar or wireless charging. (why are we still plugging things into walls?) Google is doing interesting things with Glass and self-driving cars.
>it's about time for Apple to do something disruptive
Apple is trending towards a great design firm with a tech focus. There are no bleeding edge products in their product portfolio.
Apple could disrupt the market by entering into emerging CE categories like 3D printing, wearable computers and robotics. I've seen some amazing products built by startups, if Apple invests their $100 billion cash reserves to into these categories, I can see them lasting another 30 years before teleportation and intergalactic travel become the norm.
> Google is doing interesting things with Glass and self-driving cars.
> There are no bleeding edge products in [Apple's] product portfolio.
I see these as two different companies having different ideas about what to do with unreleased products - Apple hasn't even announced an "iPad Mini" which is apparently starting production, and Google has announced products with a time-to-market measured in years (if they ever arrive).
I don't know what "big ideas" Apple's working on because they've decided not to tell us, but I at least give them the benefit of the doubt that by the time we see discussion about a product, it's much more likely to be released, and soon.
> I don't know what "big ideas" Apple's working on because they've decided not to tell us, but I at least give them the benefit of the doubt that by the time we see discussion about a product, it's much more likely to be released, and soon.
While I mostly agree, the average CE customer probably already knows what a iPad mini looks like. Google Glass is something that is foreign to the same person and Google is educating potential customers about their product. Apple doesn't need to do that and that is why they are doing well in terms of monetary value. Self-driving cars cannot be kept secret because of all the government regulations and road testing, which involves exposure to the public.
Just from my own experience, Apple hasn't impressed me from a technology standpoint on the past several products released. Specifically:
- The "new" iPad
- iPhone 4S
- iPhone 5
From a monetary and stockholders standpoint, they have been absolutely dominating the market. Apple stores make over $6,000/sqft, Tiffany's is 2nd with $3k. [1]
> I don't know what "big ideas" Apple's working on because they've decided not to tell us, but I at least give them the benefit of the doubt that by the time we see discussion about a product, it's much more likely to be released, and soon.
It's a double edge sword, they keep everything under wraps until they have something to show, but the build up of anticipation doesn't usually meet my expectations. e.g, #shutupandtakemymoney.
I think sooner rather than later, the rest of the public will catch on and demand more innovation from their CE manufacturers.
I think the release cycle of new product lines are much longer for Apple. The jump from iPod to iPhone was significant from an innovation standpoint, but it can be debated that the iPad is just a bigger iPod touch (released in 2007). So it's been roughly a 5-6 year cycle of a new product line. We're ending the cycle soon, and everyone is only talking about the iPhone 5 and iPad mini. As far as I know, the rumor mill has not given the public any kind of notion on what's next.
My point was that Apple's strategy has been to keep ahead of the pack by breaking ground. The ground has been catching up, despite Apple's patent lawsuits. I'm just concerned with their future in the post-Jobs era.
7" tablets have been around, but so were mp3 players (even good ones!) when they debuted the iPod. Until the Nexus 7, I don't think there were any worth looking at.
A well built Apple branded tablet with iOS (and all the apps) for under $300 might not be technologically interesting, but it will immediately outsell everything because everyone's aunt will know exactly how it works and every app you've heard of will work with it.
ICS/JB are fantastic, but I'd predict that iOS's sheer familiarity will win out for most consumers. It's not really much of a prediction since Apple's so handily owned the 10" tablet market despite an abundance of competition.
A maybe more importantly, a smaller iPad is needed to break into certain businesses who could use something bigger than an iPod, but portable than an iPad. For example, wait staff at a restaurant. iPods are too small, and an iPad is too big. Something in between is just the right size. I've also seen some cabs/shuttles using small Android tablets for GPS & dispatch. Here, the ideal size for something mounted is is between an iPad and an iPod. I could go on and on with ideas.
The big issue is: The new iPod Touch 5th gen is $300. For a 4" screen. How can they sell the new iPad at even $300? It would have to be $350, minimum. The iPad 2 is still $400, why buy a 7" for $400 when a 10" is $400??
I don't see how Apple is going to price this effectively without cannibalizing their own markets. I guess they could switch up the 5th gen pricing but they JUST announced it, and it would come across as a cheap trick to move the rest of the 4th gens at full price.
Successful disruption includes being thorough in the disruption's long-term consequences. Seems Jobs didn't believe the 7" market would work, but competition shows there is demand so time to patch the hole and unify offerings from 3.5" to 27".
Maybe not, but a $300 iPad would be enough to completely screw with Windows 8 device manufacturers just before they start releasing those tablets, as most seem to start at double that price.
with a 5th generation iPod Touch costing 299 I do not see why they would price a "mini" iPad at the same price. Perhaps as a 16gb model as the 32gb Touch is 299.
Yes, but is a 7" tablet a absolutely awful substitute for a iPod touch? It probably is since it wouldn't be as portable(who is going to strap a tablet to their arm to go running), but in the history of small, smaller, smallest iPods has the next size down ever been priced the same as its big brother? As far as I can remember the smaller ones have always been cheaper.
If the iPad Mini is an iPad 2 internally, the pricing isn't so weird. Those specs would make it a weak substitute for a new iPod Touch. (lower resolution, slower internals, not as mobile, worse cameras, etc)
Beyond the consideration that pocket computers make lousy solutions for the things tablets do, and tablets are lousy at the things you want a pocket computer for.
If this is true and it releases on October 17, just a few days before Windows 8 and Windows RT tablets hit the market on 10/26, some manufacturers might have just a week to adjust prices to react. I don't expect them to do it anyway, but it will be fun to watch the markets in a few weeks.
Been looking for ~7" tablet as reading device. 7.2-8" diagonal is about size of regular book printed on A5 (two pages on A4 as booklet) which I find good balance between portability and readability. Nexus 7 is almost perfect fit but has major issue(at least from what I've seen) - pdf rendering is very rough making reading/navigating books experience inconvenient. Hopefully rumored ipad mini would be better candidate, one worry though is no "retina"/high resolution which imo would be major drawback.
Anyone could share experience of reading technical books/sci papers on nexus7?
Forget the keyboard. Those of us hauling an iPad everywhere don't need anything else except a minimal phone which is nothing more than a phone. The simple act of calling still hasn't been perfected the way Apple could do it, esp. if paired to a tablet. Give us an iPhone Nano which auto-syncs contact lists, displays call info on a tablet (if that's on), voice dials, VoIPs to non-POTS audio communications (say: uses Skype or FaceTime's audio to contact someone via email address), has dead-simple configuration, forgoes everything not related to making a voice (or perhaps video) call.
Seriously, has anyone in the industry tried to get a "just a phone" that isn't an inch thick and downright obnoxious to use? Last time I did, the Verizon clerk had to dig thru the back storeroom to find a 3-year-old "candybar" phone (which tried setting itself on fire a few months later) of tolerable size & minimalism. Closest thing out there is is "John's Phone", which still screws up by insisting on doubling the size for storage space for a paper (!) pad and pencil (!).
Please, Apple, an iPhone Nano. You're my only hope.
Never gonna happen, even if the speech recognition were without flaws. Talking to your device is not a viable input method whenever other people you do not want to disturb are around. That doesn’t make voice recognition useless (I think it’s very useful), but it also doesn’t make voice recognition a viable keyboard replacement.
I'm having a hard time thinking that people will really do everything by speaking at their computer. This may work if you drive a car alone, or have a private office, but in more public spaces the cacophony would be bad.
And would you really want the whole train car to know the email you're writing?
And would you really want the whole train car to know the email you're writing?
In the past I had the same sentiment about phone calls, but what people are willing to talk about on cell phones in public proves me wrong time and again. It certainly isn't ideal but people would probably do it if it meant their cell phone was the size of an ipod nano(I certainly don't see it being the main iPhone but the iPhone nano) or built in to their Google glasses.
I have toyed with the idea of a chording keyboard. Either as an App or as a cover for an iPhone/Android.
(Probably a thousand other people have had this idea, too. So the chording addition probably has been tried -- and don't work well.)
I'd love a smaller iPhone.
On the subject of a mini iPad without a retina display -- why do people care? The mini is probably a boring product to fill a market niche and make it harder for the competition. The (third/)new iPad's good display is so readable that even I can read books. A 7" screen will have problems showing a full size pdf, even if it was retina. There are other use cases like gaming, but... Meh.
I'm actually waiting for a 7" iPad for my son. Have been since my 2 year old son decided my iPad is his favorite toy. He loves the thing, but it's just a bit too bulky for him to use comfortably.
I was thinking about getting him a 7" Android tablet but he has so many apps and movies that he loves from the Apple store, he probably wouldn't be interested. We even tried a dedicated "kids" tablet in a shop, after 2 minutes he got so frustrated he threw it down and toddled off to look at the other toys.
So the iPad and iPhone are retina, but this iPad mini will not be retina? Surprised that a technology author would assume Apple would take a step backward like that.
The most recent three generations of iPhone, one of iPad, one of Macbook Pro, and one of iPod touch have all been Retina.
I looked at a 3GS the other day and had a "this display looks like shit, what's wrong?" moment before I remembered. That's not how Apple wants the first encounter with an iPad mini to go.
It may be necessary if they want to hit a certain price point. Competitors are at the $200 mark and that's with razor thin margins. I understand that the screen is an expensive component and I wouldn't be surprised to see it be lower res, especially since it'd be marketed as a cheaper/lower tier device.
Apple has consistently avoided cheaping out to compete in the lower-end market.
Consumer and press response would probably be "Apple has fallen off the wagon, they're making crap now", not "Apple's moving into the lower-end market".
In all of these cases, Apple was introducing a retina display into an existing product; it served as a differentiator and reason to upgrade from a previous version.
In addition, I'm unsure whether current 7" competitors (Kindle, Nook, Galaxy) have a display so much better than Apple's non-retina display that Apple would need to start out with a retina display just to stay level.
First, this would mean the product is immediately perceived as outdated in comparison to its cousins. And for a smaller screen, why use anything less than retina? Not likely to happen.
Second, the more consistency across the various products, the more efficient the manufacturing and supply chain are -- keep it simple logistics.
Third, with volume purchasing of homogenous parts comes decreases in COGs and increases in profit margin across all product lines.
Regarding arguments 1 and 3, non-retina screens are still being produced for the iPhone 3GS. That's Apple's current low-tier product which is often sold for 99 cents with with 2 or 3 year contracts. I don't see why they wouldn't introduce a lower-tier device in tablets like they have in phones. It's the same idea, running older hardware, just in a smaller form factor. Most people don't want to pay iPad prices for a tablet, and the $100-$250 market is ripe.
