Have to say I am not impressed with the new iPad mini, they just released the same thing and gave it touch ID, you may as well save yourself loads of money and buy the mini 2. The Air 2 is a better product with the A8x chip and the rumour is it actually has 2GB RAM but that was also the rumour with iPhone 6 and that didn't exactly turn out to be true. My personal opinion the mini 3 is a complete waist of time and money but the air 2 is a nice enough upgrade over the air. The only issue Apple has is that unlike with phones where you tend to upgrade as your contract runs out there isn't really a reason for a lot of people to do constant refreshes of their tablets because 99% of people buy them outright. Perhaps they should move to 18-24 month updates over 12 as I can't see there being enough money in the tablet market to warrant a new model every year when so many people already have one and are unlikely to upgrade frequently*. * This actually applies to all tablet makers, I can't see myself replacing either of my 2013 Nexus 7 tablets any time soon and they are both a year old now.
I think the changes that Apple has made to their product lineup means that it makes sense to have more differentiation between the specs of the mini and the full size iPad. For awhile, the role of the mini was to provide a larger screen than the iPhone with a lighter weight than the iPad. Now that they have a phablet sized phone and a much lighter full size iPad, the mini is probably less important to their lineup. They're looking to push prior mini buyers to upgrade to the full size iPad.
But they cannot surely justify the price of this thing? It is so underpowered compared to the iPhone 6, 6 plus and Air 2 it is almost silly yet it is only £80 cheaper than an Air 2? It should be sitting around £200-£250 not at £319. The Apple Store is down in the UK so I can't get the current price of the mini 2 but in the US it is $100 cheaper than the mini 3 for what is essentially the same thing with one added feature, even you have to agree that is a complete rip off on Apples part?
If you think it's a rip-off, then you obviously have other options with the larger sized phones and lighter weight full size iPad. However, in addition to the Touch ID, the mini 3 has higher storage capacity (64 GB/128 GB options) and the cellular versions now have Apple SIM, which provides multi-carrier compatibility in the U.S. and UK. Like I said though, I think Apple's hardware has changed to the point where the mini is less important. They're not really looking to drive buyers toward the mini. It might turn out that the mini was more of a temporary bridge product than a long-term product.
Yeah and the iPad mini 2 had those options too but they pulled them. If they can provide the mini 2 for $299 then they can easily provide the mini 3 for at least $320 for the base model if you include the cost of adding the touch sensor. If they want to drive people away from smaller tablets then they should have just lowered the price of the mini 2 to clear it out and not released a mini 3 which is a shocking attempt to make money out of poor suckers who don't know any better. Don't get me wrong here, I think the price difference between the Air and the mini 2 was fine when released because they were pretty much the same hardware but one was smaller but the mini 3 is a whole generation behind the Air 2. For $399 anyone who buys the mini 3 over the Air (now $399) needs their head examined.
I don't think it makes sense to upgrade from an existing tablet but these guys have to turn out new stuff every year just to look competitive. All it takes is for something to get about 8 months old and you'll see it referred to as old and tired technology. Consumers fear stuff labeled as "last years tech" more than ebola. In my house everyone prefers the mini. I seriously doubt we'd ever buy a full size 10" tablet again.
You know as well as I do that 50% of the buying public isn't that well informed and won't have a clue about just how underpowered the mini 3 is compared to the Air 2 and how they can get exactly the same hardware in the older air for the same price but with a bigger screen. The sales stands won't mention any of this either, it will just say iPad mini 3 and won't list its specs compared to the Mini 2 or anything like that. Case in point, I was with someone who was looking at Laptops yesterday in PCworld and I heard an 'advisor' talking to a girl about an iMac. She clearly had no idea about the differences, especially with the OS. His explanation to her was that it was a different desktop to Windows........ Because it has a 3 in its name people will just assume it is better and fork over the money, they will think they have the shiny new product but in fact have last years model with one added feature.
And that's likely because of the weight, not because people prefer to use a smaller screen for tablet functions. Apple is betting on the Air 2 being so thin and light that it changes people's minds about which one they prefer.
Apple does everything that you could expect on their end to provide the relevant info, including side-by-side comparisons of the various models and their features on their web site. I understand your point about many people not bothering to even look at those things, but that isn't an example of Apple suckering anyone. http://store.apple.com/us/ipad/compare
Weight is certainly part of it. The toddlers can't hold the iPad for very long. I can't hold it for very long either. Of course in my situation it wont matter how light the iPad gets. We're still going to seal it up in a 5 pound protective case and it's going to be a two handed tablet for all. A 7" to 8" is still going to be more manageable.
As much as I've been ragging on the iPhone, I've secretly converted to some Apple products (Mac mini & iPad4). When I had my iPhone4s, I discovered the absolutely insane resell value of Apple products... I sold the 4s for MORE than I paid... no other electronics device lets you do that. That's about to happen again, as I upgrade a family line to the iPhone6, the trade-in value of the iPhone5 was $240, purchased at $199!!! So the actual cost of use of a Apple product is close to $0 (+/- $35). You will probably get $260-270 for a Mini2. Pretty decent carry cost on a $299 device. My iPad4 is worth right around what I paid for it (+/- shipping costs). It might be time to sell it and get the next Apple tab for free... you just gotta be smart. Buy the black color, and have a case ready before you use it so it's in pristine condition.
Yep, pretty much just waiting until I become eligible to upgrade next month and then I will sell my iPhone 5 and cover a good part of the cost of a 6 Plus. No reason to hang on to an old phone with what cell phone plans cost and the fact that there's no benefit in pricing for being off contract (used to be, not anymore). Android phones by contrast are worth almost nothing second hand.
I'm assuming your $199 phone was locked with a contract. A 24 month contract probably cost $600 more than a no contract plan. So total cost to own your phone was around $800. If you sold it for $240 it still cost you $560 to own the phone for two years. This is of course considering that the cost of the phone is worked into the plan which is how I look at it. My last two phone have been off contract Nexus. After 24 months they are worth about $20. There is no resale value but I also only paid $350 for them.
Yes... requires contract extension for 2 years. My 24 month cost is roughly $1344 + hardware for unlimited everything (Sprint SERO). I do see that nowadays the plans are changing to BYOD, or even leasing. The leasing is a total rip off based on what I glanced at. I stuck it out on Sprint for many shitty years to hang on to this plan, and it's finally paid off! Softbank dumped $20B into Sprint and they've rapidly deployed 4G most anywhere I go now, no throttling. The SERO plan itself is worth about $250/per line if I wanted to sell them off and switch carriers.