Apple iPad Mini will dominate the market, analyst says

August 30, 2012

Apple’s other much-anticipated device, the iPad Mini, shouldn’t have a problem dominating the market, according to some analysts.

The only thing Apple needs to figure out is how much profit they want to make off the smaller tablet.

Yesterday on Blorge, we reported that it would cost about $190 to manufacture the iPad Mini, which would feature a 7.85-inch non-Retina display, compared to the popular 10-inch version of the current iPad.

So will Apple price the iPad Mini at $200? $250? $300? The $200 mark seems a little low for an Apple product and would put the smaller tablet way to close in price to the portable iPod Touch.

Conversely, $300 could potentially have a tough time competing with Google’s Nexus 7 and Amazon’s rumored next-generation Kindle. Both are priced at $200 and one of Apple’s goals with the iPad Mini is to take away their market share.

“The input I’m getting from the supply side is that [Google] has actually raised the quantity of orders being built this year,” Rhoda Alexander, an analyst at IHS iSuppli told CNET. “We see it on the order of five to six million in 2012 or maybe even a little more than six million.”

The up in quantity is obviously filled with anticipation for whatever Apple’s next-generation tablet will be called.

The iPad Mini could potentially be priced as high as $400 for higher storage (64 GB) and with 4G LTE service.

Many mass-transit commuters would find this smaller tablet attractive, but there are several other perfect uses for the iPad Mini.

While originally rumored to be released alongside the much-anticiapted iPhone 5, it seems that Apple will separate the announcements and make its iPad Mini announcement in October, when the company typically makes music-related announcements.