As expected, consumers have flocked to get their hands on the cheapest new iPad model to date.Even though its screen is about three inches smaller than the iPad everyone has come to know and love, the iPad Mini is already proving itself as a force to be reckoned with.
This is the first time that Apple is going head-to-head with the emerging competitors in the 7-inch tablet game, which is currently dominated by Google and Amazon.
After Apple announced the $329 price point for the iPad Mini – with higher-capacity versions available for as much as $529 – there was not a single person who said it was cheaper than they were expecting.
In fact, no one even said that it was on par with what they expected. Because the market of 7-inch tablets is wildly dominated by $200 devices, many analysts had predicted the iPad Mini would not go above $300.
But Apple’s logic is pretty sound. It thinks people will pay well over a 50% premium for a small version of the iPad over a Nexus 7 or a Kindle Fire HD because, well, it’s an iPad. Can’t argue that logic.
It is curious, however, that there is at least one version of the iPad Mini still available to order. Historically speaking, iPad pre-orders have been shut out within hours of the product announcement.
So the fact that it is still possible to pre-order any version of the iPad Mini may be a sign that it isn’t going to be the colossal success that the other iPad models have been. We’ll see.
