iPad Mini: come see me

Today, October 23, the next Apple presentation will be held, to which representatives of the world's largest media were invited.

Gossip as an informational occasion

All presentations of new products with “apple” symbolism, despite the indispensable mystery and intrigue surrounding them, are held in the same way.

It all starts with rumors, the relay and replication of which with reference to "reliable and trusted sources" involved a fairly large group of specialized media.

As a rule, some of them draw information from the Apple supplier chain in Asia (Digitimes, Macotakara), while others were lucky to establish close contact with one of the top managers of the California corporation, who throws up a sugar bone from time to time (All Things) D, The Loop). And it is completely possible that most of the so-called “leaks” are the work of Apple itself, which, with a seeming equanimity, itself thereby fuels the public’s interest in its new products.

At the scale on which Apple operates, it is unlikely that its headquarters in Cupertino do not have its own “Abwehr”, which carefully controls (and probably plans) the release of another dose of information in the media.



As a result, when it comes to the presentation itself, and it passes with crazy success and under the scrutiny of the media of the whole world, it turns out that practically everything that concerns Apple’s “carefully conspiratorial” media events prior to the media event itself was known in advance .

Steve Jobs was against

In the case of the event planned for today, the “main character” of which will be the iPad Mini, the situation is somewhat different.

The fact is that the smaller version of the iconic Apple tablet has never been a mystery to the media. The network is teeming with its renderers, photos of parts and body, technical characteristics and opinions of analysts regarding its profitability. Yes, Apple has never stated directly about it, but any other Apple product released by the company cannot boast of such a huge amount of pre-release information about itself.



Such “publicity” of the tablet that was not yet announced by Apple is most likely due primarily to the fact that Apple is not interested in hiding it, but rather achieves the opposite effect. After all, this is not just about a new product running iOS and with an apple on the back cover, ao a fundamentally new tablet format for Apple. The format, against which the founder of the company Steve Jobs has repeatedly spoken out, which in itself gives the new tablet a scandalous charm.

The fight for the redistribution of the market

There is no doubt that choosing this policy, Apple secretly announces a new product to the world, which is released in order to compete with other small-format tablets - Amazon's Kindle Fire and Google Nexus 7, which have already managed to demonstrate the commercial potential of small forms.

Apple products have always been in an elite status, was the inheritance of the elite. Now the following is happening - the company is beginning to expand into the lower price segment of the tablet market, while planning to retain the position of an elite class electronics manufacturer.

Already, analysts predict iPad Mini serious commercial success, despite the fact that it will cost significantly more than its competitors. According to Sterne Agee analyst Shaw Wu, for the success of the new Apple does not need to lower its price to the level of Google and Amazon - $ 199. Even at a price of $ 350, the iPad Mini will find its customers.



His colleague from RBC Capital Markets, Amit Darianiani, believes that the new tablet will bring Apple 2 billion net profit, while expert from Pipper Jaffray Gene Munster expresses serious fears that the popularity of the new tablet will negatively affect the sales of his “big brother”.

Rob Sira from the consulting company Evercore Partners agrees with him, believing that after the release of the novelty Apple will abandon the further production of iPad 2 in order to “clear” the market for its more compact follower. A clear will obviously need to - according to insiders, in the fourth quarter, Apple ordered suppliers of 10 million tablets.

And to realize such a number of tablets in the next few months is quite possible, because there is an extensive holiday season ahead, in which Christmas in the USA and Europe, Jewish Hanukkah, the meeting of the new 2013 and the Chinese New Year in February will successfully fit in. Exit the sale of the iPad Mini is scheduled for November 2.

What to expect, what to believe

Compared with the undeniable political importance that the iPad Mini has entered the market, its technical characteristics are much more modest. So, what we already know about him. Its main and fundamental feature (to which the tablet owes its name, in fact) is a display (not Retina) with a diagonal of 7, 85 inches and a resolution of 1024 x 768, protected by Corning Gorilla 2 glass.



In addition, it is known that the device will have two cameras, a dual-core A5X processor (32 nm), a new 8-pin Lightning connector, first introduced by Apple in the iPhone 5, but in the future, according to official information, it will be used in all Apple gadgets. The thickness of the device will be 7.23 mm, and the weight, according to some estimates, will be around 300 grams. In all other respects, except for a slightly different form factor, more reminiscent of the fifth-generation iPod Touch, the iPad Mini will be similar to the third-generation iPad.

The cost of the new device, according to KGI Research, will be $ 195 for the “youngest” 16GB Wi-Fi model and $ 254.50 for the most expensive 64GB 4G LTE version.

The approximate price for Apple’s new tablet for consumers will range from $ 299 to $ 349. Analysts note the low profitability of the new tablet, which Apple is consciously doing - the primary strategic task of the iPad Mini is not to make superprofits, but to conquer a new market for itself.

What are other news?

Traditionally, from year to year, Apple is not limited to the presentation of a single product. The flagship release is always accompanied by not so significant, but, nevertheless, important announcements. As a rule, these are new applications, updates to the operating systems iOS and Mac OS, and upgrades to laptops and computers.

Today’s event will not be an exception. Moreover, Apple has prepared an enhanced, "large-caliber" set of all kinds of bonuses.

Two days ago, evidence was discovered that in addition to the iPad Mini, the California Theater in San Jose will present an updated version of the “large” iPad - the third-generation iPad itself, equipped with the latest Lightning dock connector and global LTE support (I recall its absence in the previous iPad, Apple caused a lot of trouble in several countries at once).

No other changes are expected in the updated iPad, and therefore the new product is expected to be available at the price of a regular, “third” iPad.



In addition, the presentation is expected to announce the updated versions of iMac, Mac Mini and 13-inch MacBook Pro c Retina - display, as well as the announcement of the release received a major update of the iBooks 3.0 application.

How much all this information is true will show the time, which before the start of the Apple media event in San Jose is not so much.



Read the text broadcast of the event on the "Planet iPhone" . Beginning at 21.00.