I saw the presentation as a pre Christmas announcement. I’m amazed at how many new or updated products are going to be available with-in the next two weeks which was something Apple was never good at doing historically.

Even more interesting was how little iOS was mention. It was all about the hardware. No chance for Scot Forstall to be heard or a mention of the soon to follow iOS update, which will be needed to run the new iPads, as well as a statement addressing the Maps situation

Tim Cook stated earlier in the year that the new Mac Pros would be out next year, so not to wait now. So, while I agree that the purely professional market has been given little love by Apple in recent times, it is understandable as that market is minuscule compared to other markets that Apple is now operating in.

Mind you, Apple knows that next year when the new Pros are released they are going to sell a gazillion of them.

On price and the stock market’s reaction: the decision to not singlehandedly wipe out the $199 tablet market (it’s not a 7″ market; it’s a sub-$200 market) with a more competitively priced product will truly show its genius over the next several quarters in financial performance. The so-called success of the Fire and Nexus 7 is still small: maybe 5-10 million units. Apple will easily be at a run-rate of a 100 million iPads per year. If the iPad mini isn’t a complete world-beater, eclipsing all competition, it is still likely to represent 15-20 million annual iPad sales. Even if that doesn’t substantially decrease the competition’s market share (I think it will still hurt their market share to a degree), it will certainly show up in the bottom line: Apple preserving 35-40% margins across the entire tablet line, outselling all competition, while its competitors will have losses are single-digit margins. So maybe there is an umbrella for competition rather than a complete massacre — but the competition has already priced themselves at near-zero margin for a huge market just beginning to develop, and they’ve still barely established the slightest foothold in the larger form factors where the devices platform and ecosystem really show.The tablet market, which may not reach smartphone scale but will easily eclipse PC scale, could look like the current smartphone market (or worse) — Apple taking home the vast majority of the profit with share only greater than, equal to, or somewhat lesser than the 2 or 3 other players left standing.

Apple needed to learn to chase market share during the iPod revolution (I suspect because it wasn’t a true computing platform in itself), but I think they are relearning that profits at competitive scale handily trumps share. (This needs to be relearned because minority share leads to paranoia about market sustainability — but even Apple is still just waking to the fact that 5-30% of a billion unit market (with an average upgrade cycle of 1-2 years) is a huge, self-sustaining, and healthy ecosystem).

I think you couldn’t be more wrong about the iPad mini pricing. This feels like a John Sculley move; margin over market share.

This is the maximum growth phase of the market and Apple can’t afford to let anyone else get an installed base. They need to be super aggressive on pricing now, even if it means a margin hit; they can always raise margins later on in the lifecycle of the market but winning marketshare from competition in a mature market is a lot harder and more expensive than taking market share from new customers as the market grows. Maybe they’re counting on the fact that the $199 tablets are all media tablets and don’t really have a lot of apps that can get stuff done, but it seems like a hell of a gamble.

As a shareholder, I want them leaving no price umbrella even if it means taking a margin hit today. That’s how they moved in for the kill with the iPod and it served them well. They should be doing it here too.

The only reason they don’t compete on price with Macs is because the market is too mature and they wouldn’t be able to gain anything by it.

All this yap-yap about iPad Mini pricing is ridiculous,

The Mini is NOT meant to compete toe-to-toe with 7-inch crap. It’s essentially an iPad in a smaller package, and it doesn’t need a retina display or the fastest processor. It simply answers the demand–from many–for a smaller form factor. It’s a REAL iPad–WITH a cellular option–at a commensurately lower price!

Because of all this, the Mini will enable MANY MORE to get a REAL IPAD, and Apple will sell tons of them and leave the incessant price whiners in the dust yet again.

When has anyone successfully raised margin after pricing at near zero margin? I can’t think of any examples. You can talk of companies trying to move margins from 8% to 10%, but we’re talking about a current margin of around 35-45% versus 0%. Other companies do it because their strategy is to productize/monetize another service or product at an even greater scale. That is not the case with Apple’s strategy.

Also, you are overblowing the market success of the competition: you are talking exclusively about 2 specific units. Those units have virtually no significant international presence and even less international presence as far as their content ecosystems go.

As far as the iPad mini ad, which I do like, is concerned: I think it would have been a great idea to see a kid’s hand come in to play on the iPad mini piano. I wonder, if they ever thought of that and if, why they chose not to?

This thot occurred to me yesterday as well. Between yesterday’s announcement and the iPhone 5 unveiling, Apple has revamped almost every product in its cash machine. iPhones, iPods, iMacs, iPads, Mac minis & MacBook Pros.

Just in time for Christmas. And Windows 8. And Surface. And Kindle HD.

(Except for the Mac Pro %&@#!)

And the iPad 4 is a serious upgrade with the new A6 cpu. That thing seriously blows any other 10 inch tablet to heck combined with the retina display.

Comparing a $200 piece of plastic junk to that of a highly refined alumni-unibody Tablet is a little stupid if you ask me. If you can’t tell the difference, may I suggest stopping at LensCrafters before BestBuy.

Just shows you have never met either man.

Even thought the iPad Mini may be more expensive, I think it will still be a huge hit. They have already sold out of pre-orders, so we know they are doing something right. Ever since I heard about the Mini from my co-worker at DISH, I have been trying to find anything and everything about it. I have a regular iPad now, but it is too heavy to carry around with me in my purse, so I have been shopping around for a smaller tablet. I have been looking for a while, but none of the other small tablets has been appealing to me, which I am guessing is because I already have an iPad. With having to travel a lot and always being on the go, I like to have my iPad with me so I can watch all my shows on the DISH Remote Access app. I can access my DVR and subscription channels and watch live TV. The smaller iPad would definitely work for that, and I can easily carry it with me everywhere I go. The Mini will be a great holiday present for anyone that wants a tablet.