tillman grassy: The iPad Mini: Set to steamroller Android?s tablet ambitions

After months of speculation, it now seems almost certain that Apple will release an iPad Mini. The diminutive iPad will have a 7.85in, 1024 x 768 (163 PPI) 4:3 screen, and if parts leaked by Chinese suppliers are to be believed, the device will look like an iPad-iPhone lovechild (as pictured above).

The iPad Mini will have one purpose: To stem the loss of tablet sales caused by the rebellious 7in Amazon Kindle Fire in the US, not to mention Google?s Nexus 7.

To do this, the iPad Mini must look/feel better than the Android tablets, have a better range of apps/content ? and, as a sweetener, have a better hardware spec, and cost less.

Design and hardware

Judging by the leaked chassis ? pictured to the right, the leaked image courtesy of ZooGue ? and the relatively low resolution screen, the iPad Mini will be roughly the same height and length as the Nexus 7. However, it?ll be thinner and lighter ? probably around 7.5mm thick and 270 grams. The Nexus 7 on the other hand is 10.5mm thick and weighs 340 grams. The iPad Mini will have a slightly larger screen (7.8in compared to 7in diagonally), and yet it?ll be 30 per cent thinner and lighter. (The Kindle Fire is 11.4mm and 413 grams, incidentally.)

Instead of leading the pack spec-wise, like the iPad 3, think of the iPad Mini as an iPad Air. If it really does weigh 270g, the Mini will be well under half the weight of the full-size iPad 2 and 3 ? in fact, it?ll be around the same size and weight as Amazon?s e-ink Kindle Keyboard. The iPad Mini will be the lightest, easiest-to-hold content consumption device on the market. Don?t expect it to have amazing battery life, or anything more than 512MB of RAM and last-year?s A5 SoC. Like the 7in Android tablets, the iPad Mini will be nice, but have plenty of space for improvement ? like a Retina model next year!

Pricing

If there?s one point that the rumour mill can?t agree on it?s price. Will Apple go toe-to-toe with Google (and Amazon in the US) and sell the entry-level iPad Mini at the sub-?200 mark ? it would have to hit ?159 to compete directly with the Nexus 7 ? or will it start at ?200, or even towards ?250? We should also consider the recent rumour that Microsoft?s Surface RT tablet could enter the market under the ?200 mark, too.

Google and Amazon both produce their 7in tablets at cost, relying on app and content sales to turn a profit. Apple, with its supply chain dominance and economies of scale, could actually sell the iPad Mini for under ?200 and still make a profit ? but the margin would be a lot smaller than Apple?s used to. Realistically, given the insane gravitas of Apple?s brand, the company could perhaps price the Mini a bit over ?200 and still compete with super-budget Android rivals ? especially with the size of Apple?s content library.

Apps and content

The key selling point for 7in tablets is content consumption ? playing games, surfing websites, and watching TV/movies. The Kindle Fire is basically a glorified Amazon shopping basket, and the Nexus 7 has a giant Play Store widget front and centre. These devices are too big to carry around as phones (and don?t have cellular radios, anyway), and too small and underpowered to perform content creation tasks.

In short, Apple?s content library dwarfs that of Google, both in terms of apps (and tablet-specific apps!), and multimedia. Amazon again can?t compete with Apple on apps, but its library of TV shows and movies is comparable to iTunes. In the States, Apple?s biggest challenge in this arena is Amazon Prime, which gives Kindle Fire users free, instant access to thousands of TV shows, movies, books for $79 (?50) per year.

Apple easily has Google beat, then, but it may have to debut a subscription service to compete with Amazon in the US. To be honest, we?ve been expecting some kind subscription service from Apple for a long time ? primarily to underpin an Apple iTV, but a subscription streaming service would also be a huge deal for the iPod, iPhone, iPad, and iPad Mini.

The current rumour is that Apple will launch a subscription service at Christmas ? which would also be my guess for the iPad Mini?s launch date. Maybe the iPad Mini will actually be a remote control for the Apple iTV. Hmm?

Infallible Apple?

There might be a sliver of hope for Android, though. For the first time in many years, Apple is being forced to react to the market, rather than blazing trails and creating entirely new market segments. Ever since the launch of the first iPad, Cupertino (and Steve Jobs) has claimed that a small-screen iPad Mini is antithetical to the Apple Experience ? and yet here we are 30 months later, with the Fire and Nexus 7 selling millions of units, and Apple on the verge of releasing its own 7in tablet.

For the first time, Apple?s offering will be compared to the Android tablets, rather than the other way around. For the first time, rather than building something that came to Steve Jobs in an idealistic, unicorn-filled dream vision, Apple must react to what the consumer wants. In some ways, following in someone?s footsteps is easier ? you can see what the competition has done right/wrong, and improve on it. As numerous non-Apple smartphone and tablet makers have proven over the last few years, though, it can be incredibly hard to draw level, step out from the shadows, and begin to bushwhack your own path.

As much as I?d like Apple to fail, I have the nagging suspicion that the company?s industrial design wizards won?t have any problem building the ultimate content consumption device. Instead of treating the Fire and Nexus 7 as competitors, Apple will see them as rough-edged prototypes to infinitely improve upon. Rather than being compared to the 7in Android slates, Apple will, as it is inimitably wont to do, produce an iPad Mini that instantly becomes the de facto content consumption device.

Image Credit: iMore

Source: http://feeds.thinq.co.uk/~r/thinq/rss/~3/MC5F4WfcOVE/

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