iPad mini Review
Over the last two months, Apple has updated almost all of its core product lines, with the addition of a 13" model to the Retina MacBook Pro line and new silicon for the iPad and Mac mini to go with ground up redesigns for the iPhone, iMac, iPod touch, and iPod nano.
Context & Ripple Effects
AnandTech's review lands three weeks after The Verge's iPad mini review opened the assessment cycle, closing out an unusually dense fall for Apple: within two months the company added a 13-inch model to the Retina MacBook Pro line, refreshed silicon for the iPad and Mac mini, and shipped ground-up redesigns of the iPhone, iMac, iPod touch, and iPod nano.
The commercial timing is the story behind the review: it publishes the same week Apple's Black Friday sale went live across the UK, Finland, France, Poland, Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands, with savings on iPads and iPods and $100 off MacBook Air and MacBook Pro, while IBM data put the iPhone and iPad at 19% of Thanksgiving shopping traffic.
First-order effects
- Holiday shoppers get a reviewed verdict on the mini at the exact moment Apple is discounting iPads and iPods across seven European markets plus the UK, collapsing the usual gap between evaluation and purchase decision.
- With IBM measuring iPhone and iPad at 19% of Thanksgiving shopping traffic, the mini enters its first selling season on a platform already carrying most of Apple's retail footfall.
Second-order effects
- Nielsen's finding that Apple devices dominate U.S. kids' holiday wish lists makes the mini the likely entry point for first-time buyers, extending the installed base at the lowest price tier of the iPad line.
- Apple's trial eBay store for select refurbished products, opened two days before this review, gives the company a secondary channel to place older iPads as mini demand pulls customers into newer hardware.
Third-order effects
- If mini demand holds through the holiday quarter, Apple faces a lineup-strategy question over whether the small tablet is a companion product or a distinct price-and-size segment of the iPad line — a segmentation decision that would shape how every future iPad refresh is positioned.
The trend: Tablet computing is splitting into size-and-price segments, with Apple using the iPad mini to defend the low end of its own lineup during the holiday quarter rather than ceding it to smaller tablets.