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iPad Mini Shows Up in the Stock System for a German Retailer – 249 Euro Price Suggests Weak Specs

Assuming the following screen image is legit, I think we finally have a price for Apple’s new smaller iPad.

A German language gadget blog reported yesterday that they had gotten an exclusive photo from inside Media Markt, one of Germany’s larger gadget retailers.  Flo’s Weblog is saying that this photo shows that the Pad Mini will come in both Wifi and 3G flavors, with prices starting at 249 euros for one with 8GB of storage.

That is a surprisingly cheap price, and when translated to US prices it indicates the the iPad Mini could cost $249. I’m also a little surprised at the limited amounts of storage. Amazon set a new standard when they shipped the Kindle Fire HD with 16GB, one which everyone else seems to be planning to match. Just not Apple.

It’s not clear what the US price will be, but based on Apple’s other pricing decision we can simply swap out the euro symbol for a dollar sign. The iPod Touch is priced at $299 and 299 euros, and the latest iPad starts at $499 and 479 euros. This would suggest that the iPad Mini will cost $249, and that means Apple is indeed undercutting the price of the iPod Touch (though not by much, given that the base iPod Touch ships with 32GB of Flash storage).

Assuming this image is real, I think we can make a couple guesses about the specs.

Apple is going to have make the iPad Mini less impressive than the iPod Touch, and that means it likely won’t have as good of a camera (it might have only one camera). I’d also bet the iPad Mini won’t have have a Retina screen (possibly not even as good as the one on the Nook HD). This cuts the cost as well as removes the need for the pricy A5 CPU found in the latest iPad. With a price of 349 euros, the iPad Mini probably won’t have the 4G connection found in the latest model iPad. That would have cost too much.

Assuming my deductions are correct, the iPad Min will be comparable to the specs of the existing Android tablets on the market. It might be better in a few ways, but it won’t be like the iPad, which is better in a bunch of ways.

In any case, we’re going to have to wait until at least the 23rd to find out for sure.

via Flo’s Weblog

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Comments


Mike Cane October 14, 2012 um 3:20 pm

No one ever expected a Retina display or the latest CPU in it. And 8GBs were rumored but I’m surprised to see Apple still going through with that. And yeah, Apple tends to do straight numerical swaps for Dollar/Euro prices, so $249 for that base model.

The other rumor is an iPad 3 refresh with Lightning connector and the latest CPU in the iPhone 5.

Crap, is 8GBs even usable with an iPad? I know of people who went cheap and got the 16GB iPad and iPad 2 and have regretted the lack of storage.

I’m also thinking now that Apple once made a 4GB(!) iPhone and pulled that within months. Perhaps the same thing will happen here, with the 8GB Mini disappearing after stock depletion and then dropping the 16GB one to $249 as the base model.

Mike Cane October 14, 2012 um 3:22 pm

Oh, the other thing we now know is that it will *not* have the color assortment offered by the new iPod Touch. The listing has just Black and White models.

And I just stopped to read the full list. Holy shit! $549 for a WiFi 64GB Mini?!!? Does that make it the most expensive 7″-Class tablet?

cookie October 14, 2012 um 3:35 pm

do you want your mini with a schwarz or a weiss?

Nate Hoffelder October 14, 2012 um 3:41 pm

I was hoping for a rote iPad Mini. Much of the coverage will be rote, anyway.

Nate Hoffelder October 14, 2012 um 3:40 pm

Just because no one expected a Retina screen doesn’t mean that it was impossible. Had the iPad Mini been priced at $399, like I expected, Apple might have thrown in the Retina screen.

Mike Cane October 14, 2012 um 3:59 pm

$399 is too big a premium over other 7″-Class tablets. Pay attention to the Reality Distortion, dammit! Besides, an 8GB Retina-screen Mini would fit what, ONE app? LMAO!

fjtorres October 14, 2012 um 6:58 pm

Well, the True Believers expected a "New iPad" in mini casing, but most reports before the Amazon and B&N intros were expecting a shrunken iPad 1. That, is 8GB and XGA screen for $299.
It was only after the Nook HD was announced that the expectation of a "Retina" display came into currency in the rumorsphere.
Now, since "Retina screen" is an Apple trademark, they can define "Retina" as whatever resolution they choose, so both expectations *could* be accurate. 😀


iPad Mini: 8GB WiFi Base Model US$249 | Mike Cane’s xBlog October 14, 2012 um 3:48 pm

[…] iPad Mini Shows Up in the Stock System for a German Retailer – 249 Euros & Weak Specs […]


Mike Cane October 14, 2012 um 4:02 pm

$249 for an 8GB iPad Mini suddenly makes the 32GB $299 iPod Touch seem like a freakin mad bargain. *shakes fist at Apple*

Nate Hoffelder October 14, 2012 um 4:20 pm

Whoops. I thought the iTouch came with 16GB. That does make a difference.

Tim Gray October 15, 2012 um 3:54 am

4th gen was 8, 32, 64 iirc. I have the 8, and it’s very workable if you don’t go for a lot of games or media.


Sherri October 14, 2012 um 4:32 pm

I don’t understand why Apple would bother with this device, if this is true. Why buy this rather than an iPod Touch? What’s the target market?

Nate Hoffelder October 14, 2012 um 4:43 pm

It gives Apple a chance to go after the sub-$300 tablet market which was defined and currently dominated by the Kindle Fire. There is a logical progression from Apple’s $500 iPad to their $400 iPad and now the $250 iPad Mini.

Sherri October 14, 2012 um 4:53 pm

Apple hasn’t usually played defense like that. Coming out with a crappy product just to protect their low-end has not been Apple’s way of doing business. If the rumors are true (8 GB, no retina display), this is a significantly inferior product to the iPod Touch, for only $50 less.

Wonder if it will even be able to run ios 6? I suppose it depends on how much RAM and which processor is in it, but I’ve had some experience with new ios updates and underpowed Apple products, and they’re just as capable of being sluggish as any Kindle Fire.

Nate Hoffelder October 14, 2012 um 5:35 pm

True, but one thing that I kept hearing at the ed tech conference this week was that the $400 iPad cost too much. Rge ipad Mini could be Apple’s plan to get more school district dollars.

And besides, this "crappy product" as you call iy could end up being based on the same logic board as the current iPad 2. Slappig it in a new shell with a smaller screen makes some sense.

Mike Cane October 14, 2012 um 7:30 pm

>>>Why buy this rather than an iPod Touch?

Because I want a larger screen. And the iPad Mini screen is about the same ppi resolution as the Archos G9 80 — which isn’t all that bad.
http://mikecanex.wordpress.com/2012/07/11/want-to-glimpse-an-ipad-mini-see-an-archos-80-g9-tablet/

I just hope the screen continues with the tradition of eye-popping colors — and not a crap screen like the last-gen iPod Touch had,

Tim Gray October 15, 2012 um 3:57 am

There is an inevitable market they have to think about sometime: iPod Touch owners whose eyes are getting older. B\

Mike Cane October 15, 2012 um 7:32 am

Tell me about it! I curse all the time about things having too small type on my screen. Use more electrons, dammit!


Xyzzy October 14, 2012 um 6:32 pm

249€ isn’t equal to US$249… The exchange rate is $1=1.29€ — Yahoo Finance’s calculator puts the US price at US$322.622.

Ouch.

Also, whether a top Android tablet or an iPad is "better" depends entirely on what the person wants, prefers, and feelings towards the companies involved — both sides have strong positives & negatives.

fjtorres October 14, 2012 um 6:52 pm

Electronics products across countries are not priced according to currency exchange rates (which vary daily) but rather on the cost of doing business and what the market will bear.
As Nate pointed out, iPod Touch sells for 299 euros and 299 dollars.
That is a reflection that it is cheaper for Apple to do business in the single 300 million US market than in the comparably-sized but fragmented 27 nation EU with different communications authorities, languages, and consumer laws.


Mark October 14, 2012 um 8:07 pm

Rumors have been that the iPad Mini will have a 7.85″ 1024X768 screen, which comes out to 163 DPI. Yuck. That’s significantly worse than the Nexus 7 with its 7″ 1280X800 (216 DPI) screen, and gets crushed by the Nook HD (7″, 1440X900, 242 DPI).

If this is what Apple introduces, they’ll sound particularly ridiculous saying how great the thing is. Hell, the Kindle Paperwhite has 212 DPI.

Mike Cane October 15, 2012 um 7:34 am

The NookColor was 169 ppi. That was not bad. And I’ve seen the Archos 80 G9 which is 8″ at 1024×768 and it is not bad. See link above for example. Stop thinking of the larger pixels of the iPad/iPad 2. The screen lacks that graininess at a smaller size.

Nate Hoffelder October 15, 2012 um 7:44 am

This is true, but Mark’s reaction is the one you will see on the face of many bloggers should the iPad Mini have a 1024×768 screen. And if Apple cannot do anything better than that screen I would tend to agree with them.

It should be better.

Mike Cane October 15, 2012 um 8:15 pm

Then those bloggers are whiny-asses who should be stripped of their positions if they can’t see with their own effin eyes that 7.85″ 1024×768 is NOT bad at all.

The only disaster would be if the screen itself was cheap-ass, like the "Retina" screen of the last iPod Touch, which had atrocious viewing angles. (Another hit would be no light sensor — which they ditched in the new iPod Touch. WTF!)

The more important question is when the hell will Apple start with 32GB as the iPad minimum storage and 128GB as the new max? iCloud is for rubes.

Andrys October 16, 2012 um 1:04 am

Mike, It’s hard for me to use my KFire 1 now with 1024×768 after I’m used to the 1280×800 on that small screen. It makes quite a difference. Maybe it’s also the anti-glare lamination that works well for many when outdoors even.

But to see that 1024×768 on an almost 8″ screen? No. I would think the Apple would go with 1280×800 . Otherwise they’ll come out with what is visibly an inferior product vs the KFire and Nexus. I don’t count the Nook
Tablet HD much because they won’t allow apps from 'unknown' sources, which is very crippling even to the most mildly-tech types.

On the other hand, 8GB is workable ONLY if they don’t make it HD-file focused. It’s about 3.3x difference in file size up to HiDef level…

So it may well be at 1024×768 and 8GB. Not very attractive. They’d be going after only those already wed to the Apple system and wanting baby iPads for the kids or to have as a portable unit outside.

The 8.9″ Kindle Fire in HD, just a bit bigger, is really gorgeous. It’s something like 254 PPI and will come with 16GB at $299.

And both the 7″ and 8.9″ have loud, clear dual speakers with Dolby Plus (whereas the current iPad3 has one speaker — will they change this for the 7.85″ ?

Then there’s the micro HDMI out. So Apple will need to have done more than is being said (and they probably have quietly done more).

Nate Hoffelder October 16, 2012 um 7:59 am

I prefer the older KF screen. A lot of apps have not been updated for the higher res screen on the new KFHD. They use the same graphics as before and thus look smaller. Angry Birds is one example.

fjtorres October 15, 2012 um 8:35 pm

Maybe that’ll be the logo for the baby unicorn TV carpet bombing?
"XGA resolution isn’t bad!"
Which is true, XGA at 8in isn’t bad.
It isn’t insanely great, though. 🙂

Mark October 15, 2012 um 8:39 pm

Wait a minute… First, aren’t you a Retina display worshipper? 🙂

Second, I’m pretty sure one 169 DPI screen should look about the same as another 169 DPI screen. Yes, it should be better than the iPad 2’s 132 DPI, but it’s still noticeably worse than the 212 DPI of the Nexus 7 and the 242 DPI of the Nook HD (not to mention the 264 DPI of the iPad 3).

Really, a good reference would be the 7″ Android tablets at 1024X600 (e.g., the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7 2.0), which is also 169 DPI. That’s not _terrible_, but it’s nothing to write home about and doesn’t compare to the alternatives at this point.

When Google and Samsung release the Nexus 10 with 299 DPI, the iPad Mini will start looking even worse.

fjtorres October 16, 2012 um 8:04 am

Uh, yes.
But the Nexus 10 is aimed at the full-sized iPad and will likely run closer to US$500 than whatever the baby unicorn is priced at.
Mind you, it is theoretically possible both end up at $399 but the word on the Nexus 10 is that it is meant as a premium-price tablet with premium features aimed at the bigger iPod. There really shouldn’t be much cross-shopping there.


Tom October 15, 2012 um 3:10 am

This must be a fake.
100 euro extra for a 16GB device compared to the 8GB?
That’s way way too much, even for Apple…


Tim Gray October 15, 2012 um 3:59 am

I love the smell of speculation in the morning.


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