I don't like and avoid to buy 1st gen products in general, but considering the mini as only a variation of previous models with no real new parts/tech, it should be ok.

I might go for a low-end 8GB WiFi-only model as a christmas present for parents. Would be perfect for a kitchen/living room/bed tablet, when no traditional PC needed/comfortable.

err ... so 339 € (with VAT, here in France) for 16 GB then. One month to decide but that should do it, though the new new iPad become more attractive with its retina screen, and its A6X ensuring more than the about 2 years i give to the A5+RAM to be obsoleted. mmmh

This is probably not a popular opinion, but I wouldn't mind a slightly LARGER iPad. I read a lot of scanned PDFs on my iPad, and a larger screen -- even just an inch larger -- would do wonders.

I agree that it's not always perfect with the 9.7" iPad but I get by.

I actually wrote a blog post today on the topic of using tablets to read PDFs--I was wondering if it is possible for the 7.85" iPad to still be big enough to read PDFs/scans without panning and scrolling, but I don't think it is. I tested by trying to read from Preview windows on my Macbook that were sized to be the rumored size of the iPad mini/air.

Once again the tech press doesn't, like me, have to deal with PDFs on a daily basis, so this is just guesswork.

But thinking about this further, it looks like the iPad mini will be large enough for PDFs to be usable, in landscape mode. That is, the text will be big enough to read, but you'll have to scroll a bit. I think I can live with this.

I'm less excited. I really thought $299 at most, and I was hopeful for $249.

It's always nice to be hopeful, but were you really expecting Apple to sell a 16 GB mini at the same price that Google is selling their 16 GB Nexus 7 (for no profit), and hence less than the starting price of an iPod Touch (even if it is 32 GB)?

I've always kind of wanted an iPad just because it's cool and it would be fun to play with for a while, but I have never considered buying one because I really don't need it for anything. When I was watching the keynote, I said to myself, if this is $199 (unlikely), I will buy it just for fun, on impulse. If it's $249, I would probably buy it just for fun, after some consideration. At $329, I think I'll pass. That's just a little too high for something I don't need. I think if it had a retina display I'd be on the fence still, but at this point I'd probably rather get a Nexus 7 for something to goof around with. And that's saying something for me, since I've never even thought about buying an Android product, and I'm a pretty die-hard Apple person.

I'm less excited. I really thought $299 at most, and I was hopeful for $249.

It's always nice to be hopeful, but were you really expecting Apple to sell a 16 GB mini at the same price that Google is selling their 16 GB Nexus 7 (for no profit), and hence less than the starting price of an iPod Touch (even if it is 32 GB)?

Once again the tech press doesn't, like me, have to deal with PDFs on a daily basis, so this is just guesswork.

But thinking about this further, it looks like the iPad mini will be large enough for PDFs to be usable, in landscape mode. That is, the text will be big enough to read, but you'll have to scroll a bit. I think I can live with this.

Used this DPI calculator to figure out screen sizes. In landscape the width should be a bit wider than the big iPad's width in portrait (6.32" vs 5.82"), so just view something on the iPad in portrait to get a sense of size, but with about 40% of the vertical height cut off.

Mocked that up (on my iPad!):

Edit: "One more thing", if you compare to the non retina big iPad keep in mind you're also getting a little resolution boost when comparing that way, 1024px across vs 768px.

It's always nice to be hopeful, but were you really expecting Apple to sell a 16 GB mini at the same price that Google is selling their 16 GB Nexus 7 (for no profit), and hence less than the starting price of an iPod Touch (even if it is 32 GB)?

OAW wrote:

Indeed. I can't fathom how anyone even remotely would think this.

Well, kinda. Early in the thread there were all kinds of justifications that made it seem reasonable. The first one being an 8 GB iPad Mini for $249. The more reasonable guess seemed to be 16 GB at $299. It still doesn't seem that unreasonable to me. I mean, if Apple can sell a Retina Display, 32 GB touch for $299 then it would seem fathomable that an 8 GB Mini might be $249, or that Apple might forgo the gimpy 8 (because of user experience) and stick with 16 for $299. They do manage to sell a 16 GB 4 gen touch for $199. A $50 premium for the screen and processor doesn't sound out of the realm. You make it sound like $249 or $299 has no precedence or place in their line up.

I'm just saying that Apple is more likely to provide some CLEAR differentiation price-wise with the iPod touch and the full-size iPad. It's a mid-range product that will appropriately have a mid-range price. To put it in the same price range with the ONLY differentiation being screen size and perhaps storage capacity is simply not something that Apple is likely to do.

Once again the tech press doesn't, like me, have to deal with PDFs on a daily basis, so this is just guesswork.

But thinking about this further, it looks like the iPad mini will be large enough for PDFs to be usable, in landscape mode. That is, the text will be big enough to read, but you'll have to scroll a bit. I think I can live with this.

Used this DPI calculator to figure out screen sizes. In landscape the width should be a bit wider than the big iPad's width in portrait (6.32" vs 5.82"), so just view something on the iPad in portrait to get a sense of size, but with about 40% of the vertical height cut off.

Mocked that up (on my iPad!):

[sni[]

Edit: "One more thing", if you compare to the non retina big iPad keep in mind you're also getting a little resolution boost when comparing that way, 1024px across vs 768px.

Awesome, and great link! It's always a bit hard to figure out actual screen heights/widths. It does look like the mini screen is usable for larger documents, PDFs, cbz files and so forth--definitely worth the tradeoff, since I'm much more likely to read from the smaller device.

Now I want a (current) iPod Nano-sized phone. I like there to be some gap between screen size on my devices--felt silly with an 11" Air and a 10" iPad.

The more reasonable guess seemed to be 16 GB at $299. It still doesn't seem that unreasonable to me. I mean, if Apple can sell a Retina Display, 32 GB touch for $299 then it would seem fathomable that an 8 GB Mini might be $249, or that Apple might forgo the gimpy 8 (because of user experience) and stick with 16 for $299. They do manage to sell a 16 GB 4 gen touch for $199. A $50 premium for the screen and processor doesn't sound out of the realm.

Maybe it was not yet a possible pricing, with the Touch at the "bottom" and the lost-in-the-middle iPad2.

I can imagine for the next iPads + iPod Touch revision (before next autumn?) something like: