
Although the rumor mill was right about Apple developing an iPad mini, most were flat out wrong about the price tag that is coming with the pint-sized iPad.
On Tuesday, Apple unveiled the ultra slender device with a 7.9" display. But the grand reveal came with a bit of an unexpected sticker shock. As MMi reported yesterday, the new iPad mini starts at $329 for the Wi-Fi only, 16 GB model. The cellular version, of course, is more at $459.
The low-end scale of price estimates had the iPad mini costing somewhere between $199 and $249, although many analysts thought the device would be priced at $299 as we approached Tuesday's media event. The $329 price tag caught most by surprise, although Apple marketing chief Phil Schiller has gone public to staunchly defend the cost of the tablet.
"The iPad is far and away the most successful product in its category," Schiller tells Reuters. "The most affordable product we've made so far was $399 and people were choosing that over those devices." According to the Apple executive who unveiled the iPad mini yesterday, consumers are willing to pay for a premium product and shouldn't expect anything called an iPad to play a pricing war with inferior products.
"And now you can get a device that's even more affordable at $329 in this great new form, and I think a lot of customers are going to be very excited about that," Schiller concluded. "Others have tried to make tablets smaller than the iPad and they've failed miserably," he said yesterday.
Source: Reuters
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