iPad mini price

I think Apple missed the boat (and the small/mid-size tablet market) with their pricing at $329 - and I have been using Apple products since my first SE (the one before there was color!). I saw a Nexus 7 in August when I was looking for something small and easy to use such as an eReader to read books, look at news on the web and generally surf the web from the comfort of my chair. I felt the iPad was simply too big and heavy. I was excited about the Nexus and even more excited when I heard that there was to be an iPad Mini. So, I waited and waited. Now the iPad Mini comes out and it is a bit too big (but not by too much) but the price versus $199 for a Nexus 7 which has the same memory, a better/higher ppi screen and a fast processor is simply out of touch with the market. This reminds me of the dental implant market where the company that invented dental implants (Nobelpharma) priced their equipment substantially higher than competitors. They lost the market and never regained the premier position that the first in the market should achieve. Apple could have dominated the total tablet market by pricing the iPad Mini at $250 or even $275. Now the market will get away from them. They will still sell a bunch of iPad Minis and reap much in short term profits BUT it is a short sighted strategy. If they had priced properly (i.e. $250-275) they would have marginalized the competition and both sold many more Minis plus dominated both segments of the tablet market. As it is now, they will always have competition and, if the market moves toward the 7 inch size, they are likely to be, as they used to say, "for the rest of us" and not "for all of us" which they could of had. Personally, I have put a Nexus 7 on my list for the Holidays.

Unless you only care about cheapness when choosing a tablet, you might want to read some reviews of the iPad mini before choosing the Nexus 7.

See here for a convenient roundup of review comments from a variety of sources.

For instance, The Guardian concludes:

"Lining those pluses and minuses up against those for the Nexus 7 – which garnered four stars – there's no doubt that this is indeed a five-star device. The 20% difference in comparative price is more than made up by the difference in build quality and software selection."

As is usually the case, you get what you pay for.

Juilian, I agree price should not be the only factor in making a decision...and it wasn't. I also agree quality is worth a higher price if it is within reason - usually in the range of 10 to 15% although I think Apple can command more and that is why I feel the iPad Mini could have withstood a $250-275 price (i.e. 25-38%) and still have dominated the smaller tablet market segment. However, I am not sure where the 20% comes from in the article quoted from the Guardian. They are talking British pounds in the article quoted and I am not familiar with Apple pricing in the UK. However, I am looking at US pricing of $199 for the Nexus 7 vs. $329 for the iPad Mini. That is $130 difference or a +65% premium for the iPad Mini. Finally,additional factors beyond price previously mentioned include screen resolution, comparable or faster processor and (at least for me) a bit more convenient size.

Goodluck using the playbook as a door stop