A lot of people were annoyed after Apple’s event yesterday. Actually, I should rephrase — a lot of bloggers and analysts were annoyed that Apple announced the iPad mini with a price tag of $329.00. We’re not sure what they expected, considering the iPod touch weighs in at $299.00, but the bloggers and analysts complained nonetheless. The complaining got so loud in fact that Phil Schiller actually had to address the concerns. Long story short, people will pay for quality, and the iPad mini is pure quality.
The iPad mini, while more expensive than the Google Nexus 7 and Amazon Kindle Fire HD (both $199), is also lighter, thinner, and built out of more durable materials. But, that’s not the only reason Apple priced the mini where it did. According to Schiller, “The iPad is far and away the most successful product in its category. The most affordable product we’ve made so far was $399 and people were choosing that over those devices.” It’s a pretty good point. People would rather a last generation iPad over the competition, and they were willing to pay more for it. That says a lot about the iPad’s success and place in the market, doesn’t it.
When you consider build quality, and the price of the iPod touch and the current fourth-generation iPad, the new iPad mini is almost exactly in the middle. In fact, it’s closer to the iPod touch than it is to the iPad (iPod touch: $299, iPad mini: $329, Normal iPad: $499).
Analysts, who are supposedly good with numbers, despite being insanely poor at predicting things (Apple Television anyone?), couldn’t even deduce that an iPad mini, a device that’s bigger than the iPod touch, and smaller than an iPad, would also fit somewhere in the middle when it comes to pricing. Here’s a suggestion, dear analysts. Let’s let Apple’s economists determine pricing. They’re actually quite good at it. Why would they price an iPad mini cheaper than an iPod touch? A first year economics student could figure that one out.
