With the next Apple event coming on quick, the folks at KGI have suggested that both the iPad 5 and the iPad mini 2 will be coming with not just updated casings, but an updated back-facing camera too. The 5th generation iPad has been predicted to be appearing in bulk, so says KGI analyst Ming-Chi […]
It’s little more than a rumor at this point, but stories of delays and shortages have been circulating for about as long as mentions of an iPad mini with Retina display. Reuters spent the morning adding a bit more fuel to that proverbial fire with its own band of anonymous sources. The “people who work in the company’s supply chain” confirmed that there have been issues bringing a higher res tablet to market — issues that may, in fact, impede Cupertino’s ability to capitalize on the ever-important holiday push.
The refreshed mini is still apparently set for an October release according to the aforementioned unnamed informants, but it “could be available in only limited quantities this year.” As to what’s actually causing said shortage, no can say for sure, though word is that Apple’s own certification process around power consumption may have thrown a wrench in the proceedings.
Source: Reuters
Apple is rumored to be planning the rollout of new iPads in time for the holidays, and there are a couple of different models potentially in the pipeline, including an iPad mini with a high-resolution Retina display. That Retina mini may be in very short supply before the new year, however, according to a new report from Reuters.
Reuters cites sources working in Apple’s supply chain as providing info that suggests is just now ramping up production on a Retina iPad mini, leading to a strong likelihood that there will be relatively few available during the holiday shopping season. Apple still plans to unveil the device this month, according to those same sources.
The Retina mini will be supply constrained at launch because of delays of unknown reasons, the sources say, but one believed it might have something to do with Apple placing extremely tight requirements on its suppliers in terms of power draw for panels used in the device. The display on any mobile is a huge source of battery drain, and Apple typically either matches or improves on the battery life of previous devices when it launches new ones, even in the case of those sporting more power-hungry high-resolution Retina displays. If it is putting Retina into the new iPad mini, it won’t sacrifice the tablet’s long-lasting battery life to do so.
Apple’s Retina mini will be available in large quantifies only next year, and Reuters’ sources couldn’t say for sure whether the Mac maker would hold off on a retail launch entirely until 2014, or offer up only limited numbers of the devices before the end of the year.
At the same time, the supply chain sources said Apple is putting pressure on suppliers to reduce costs (again, not a very surprising request coming from Apple), and that could result in an iPad mini model with just 8GB of storage, which would be positioned as an entry-level device with the potential to come closer to matching the Kindle Fire and other low-cost Android devices in markets like Asia where cost is seen as a limiting factor for continued iPad growth.
Apple probably still won’t hit the $200 mark or even get all that close, and an 8GB version does seem like strange direction for it to take the iPad line. Supply constraints are nothing new for Apple device launch; the iPhone 5s is currently facing similar issues, and basically every new Apple hardware launch is preceded by these kinds of reports of supply issues.
My take is that we’ll see Apple unveil and start selling an iPad mini with Retina display in time for the holidays, irrespective of any potential supply issues. Stock outages are a given, and people will likely have to line up or order far in advance in order to secure them, but these types of leaks seem more a way to control consumer expectation than any kind of sign of real trouble in Apple’s production pipeline.
One of the rumors that continue to circulate in the Apple realm is that the company will be introducing a new iPad mini this month. In fact, over the last few months we’ve seen what is claimed to be the casing for the iPad mini 2 leak. Rumors also continue to suggest that the next […]
Apple is expected to refresh its iPad line-up next month, likely adding a Retina display to the iPad mini, and perhaps pushing the iPhone 5s’ Touch ID fingerprint sensor-fuelled home button into a new flagship iPad. But even as Cupertino upgrades the iPad’s capabilities, its dominance in the tablet category is coming to an end — as the sheer size of the Android ecosystem inexorably dents the iPad’s universe.
Analyst ABI Research has flagged up what it describes as a “shift in leadership” in the tablet space, with Apple’s iPad family passing the baton to Android in three areas. Firstly in shipments: ABI notes that Android-powered tablets surpassed iOS-based slates during Q2 for the first time. Secondly, it says tablet-related hardware revenues in Android and iOS reached parity at the mid-point of the year; and third it notes that the average selling price (ASP) of the iPad is “rapidly approaching the market average.”
Apple reported its first yearly decline in iPad sales in its Q3 results back in July, with 14.6 million iPads sold in the quarter (vs 17 million in the year-ago quarter). Apple of course competes with multiple Android OEMs — which in the tablet space includes Amazon with its Kindle Fire range; Samsung with its Galaxy Note line up; and Google’s Nexus slates. So it’s fair to say that Android-powered tablets passing iPad shipments at some point was all but inevitable, with multiple companies attacking the iPad maker.
Amazon and Google especially have used price as the differentiator to move more tablet-shaped boxes by undercutting the iPad’s premium pricing. That it’s taken the Android ecosystem more than three years to be shipping more slates than Apple is a measure of how relatively poor Android tablets have been vs the iPad experience (it’s no coincidence that Google felt it needed to get involved directly with the tablet space with its own-branded Nexus slate to help bring up standards and push down prices).
Overall, ABI says tablet shipments grew more than a fifth (23 percent) year-over-year in Q2, while the market declined 17 percent sequentially.
On the revenues front, overall, ABI estimates that tablet shipments in Q2 generated revenues of $12.7 billion — with the iPad accounting for (only) 50 percent of worldwide end-user revenues. That’s notable because it’s the first time Apple’s slate has not dominated market revenues. Albeit, it still means Apple split the market in the quarter – taking the largest share for itself, while all other branded vendors shared $6.3 billion among themselves.
A dip in iPad sales and the lower-cost iPad mini go some way to explaining reduced revenues for Apple in the tablet space. But with multiple Android OEMs targeting the 7-inch small slate space before Apple did, there was a clear need for Cupertino to introduce a smaller iPad, whatever the costs on the revenue cannibalisation front. (Cannibalising itself is not, in any case, something Apple shies away from.)
ABI’s data reinforces the importance of the small slate category, noting that circa 7-inch tablets finally became the category majority in Q2. Apple’s own small slate also dominated overall iPad shipments — and accounted for nearly half of iPad revenues. “The 7.9-inch iPad mini represented about 60% of total iPad shipments and 49% of iPad-related device revenues in the quarter,” notes ABI senior practice director Jeff Orr in a statement.
The iPad mini, which launched just under a year ago and costs $329 vs $499 for the Retina iPad (or $399 for the iPad 2), is the main cause of a 17 percent drop in the ASP of the iPad over the past year. “The iPad drop is primarily attributed to the introduction and volume shift to the smaller iPad mini,” ABI notes.
Yet, while the ASP of the iPad has been falling — as buyers shift their cash to Apple’s smaller, lower cost slate — the ASP of the rest of tablet market has increased 17 percent over the same period. ABI attributes that to competition heating up and iPad rivals being able to match and even best the capabilities of Apple’s hardware. “Twelve months is a long time for the peak lifecycle of a contemporary tablet. To remain a leader, Apple must continue to innovate and address real-world market needs,” adds Orr.
The iPad 5 looks as though it’ll be taking its design cues from the little tablet that could, the iPad Mini, if the latest supply chain leak is to be believed. SW-Box has gotten its hands on what it claims is the latest Apple tablet shell, and it’s looking decidedly Mini-like.
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Today a collection of images has appeared – with specifications attached – of both the iPad 5 and the iPad mini 2 in Space Gray. Up-close photos and inspections of the individual parts of Apple mobile smart products like the iPhone and the iPad have become somewhat commonplace over the past few months, particularly with […]
All the way upstream in the wild west (or Wild East, if you prefer) of secondhand parts stores sourced from what’s supposedly Apple’s own assembly line appears a Gold colored iPad mini 2. This device follows with the release of the iPhone 5s in Gold and the suggestion that the iPad’s 5th generation release will […]
It’s not that much of a stretch of the imagination to believe that Apple might unveil gold, or “space gray,” iPads in the upcoming month(s). That’s why it’s quite interesting that Chinese tech site DoNews has posted photos of a champagne iPad mini 2, complete with TouchID sensor.
Not enough evidence? Sonny Dickson, the same fellow who released the most accurate pre-release photos of the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c, has today tweeted out his own information regarding the inevitable iPad mini launch, as well as a photo of an unassembled iPad mini 2 in “space grey.”
From the unconfirmed photos, as well as Dickson’s predictions, it seems that there are quite a few similarities between the latest flagship iPhone and the forthcoming iPad mini. As you can see in the images above and below, the next-gen iPad minis will allegedly come in champagne gold and the same space grey we’ve seen with the iPhone 5s.
Dickson also tweeted, without revealing photos, that the iPad mini will be available in silver as well. Furthermore, we may see a TouchID fingerprint scanner on the Apple tablets, also shown in images.
No word yet on whether or not the iPad mini will sport a high-res Retina display.
As with any Apple leak, these images are far from confirmed, but Dickson has a solid track record and the details seem to make sense in terms of Apple’s evolution. After the iPhone 5 came out in the anodized aluminum black “slate”, so too did the iPad mini.
Dickson also mentioned that, according to his sources, the iPad mini 2 would include Apple’s new A7 64-bit chip, the M7 motion coprocessor we’re seeing in the iPhone 5s, along with 1GB of RAM. As for the 9.7-inch iPad 5, Dickson’s sources revealed that it will pack 2GB of RAM under the hood, presumably sporting the same specs as little brother.
Again, we haven’t even received an invitation to the iPad/iPad mini launch event (expected to go down sometime in October), so it’s far too early to tell the legitimacy of these claims and/or photos.
Still, these aren’t too far outside the realm of possibility.
[via PhoneArena]
When you’ve got a company that sells products as successfully as Apple, there’s a good chance a group like RED comes knocking at your door at some point or another. For Apple, that time came quite a few years ago – and here in 2013, RED spokesperson Bono has given Apple a round of applause […]
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