[leebase]

Originally Posted by haydnfan

No you're absolutely wrong.

Are you kidding me? The iPads, all of them, have been criticized for not having usb ports, not having HDMI ports, not having memory card slots, not having the best available cameras. I could go on...but never ever ever has an Apple product come out that wasn't roundly criticized by the "I hate Apple" club.

Never.

Ever.

Originally Posted by haydnfan

Many people buy Apple products because of the excellent hardware and UI. While I grant you that ecosystem is an important part of the appeal, but if you think that it is only the ecosystem you are very, very wrong.

Watch and see. The iPad mini sold out in 3 days. It's not that plenty of folks continually find reasons to not like or buy Apple products...it's that there are CONTINUALLY millions who will.

Of course everyone wants everything, for cheap, light and thin. I surely do. I would have loved for the original iPad to have supported flash (but only in the fantasy world where flash ran great on mobile)...would prefer to have a memory card slot...that apps could be bought from any app store.

On and on. But I bought it for what it COULD deliver. The iPad mini isn't going to stop the 7" phone-app running tablets from selling. But neither are they going to stop Apple from selling the mini iPad from selling all that Apple can make.

Because it's an iPad. That's smaller, lighter and cheaper. Having a higher resolution screen does not turn a Nexus into an iPad.

Originally Posted by haydnfan

Stop trying to justify inferior hardware by saying that it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter for you does not mean that it doesn't matter for everyone and you don't speak for the Apple community.

It won't matter to SALES. And if someone thought the iPad 2 was great...as I -do-, then smaller, lighter, cheaper version of it is a welcome thing. The iPad 3 actually is SLOWER (by just a big), and bigger/heavier than the iPad 2, just to give a similar performance in battery life and speed to the iPad 2 while providing industry smashing gorgeous retina display.

The requirement for the iPad mini was to be...well...mini. Smaller battery. Now it was just 6 months ago that Apple was able to produce the retina display and it took a honkin big battery such that Apple did the unthinkable and came out with an iPad larger than the one before.

So we get an iPad 2 class machine which until a week ago had the leading performance for all metrics except the retina display. Reduced the battery to enable the smallest, lightest device capable of running all 270,000 iPad apps ever made. Your description of this device as being under-spec'd, old technology is just so much dog feces.

It isn't about the specs. It's about the experience. Smaller, lighter, cheaper -- and yet still an iPad running all the iPad apps at the same responsiveness of the BEST iPad ever until the one that was just announced a week ago. THAT new iPad still needs the big honkin battery.

And the screen -- while not a retina screen, will be better than the iPad 2 as it's the same number of pixels on a smaller screen, means better resolution. And it's only been 6 months that Apple has had a better screen on the iPad, so we haven't taken a huge step back in time. The iPad 2 is still being manufactured and sold by Apple.

Originally Posted by haydnfan

I think that it is more likely that the majority of people that buy the mini buy it because they wish they could afford the real deal-- an ipad 4, but they can't so they settle for less in every meaning of the word.

I'm sure that will describe some. But every one of them COULD by a Nexus or a Kindle Fire HD instead which feature a couple of higher specs, and much cheaper price. But those devices are not iPad's, do not run the 270,000 iPad apps, are not part of the iOS ecosystem.

And thus -- it's not about specs. Unless smaller, lighter, sexy, build quality is a spec too.