Apple product line-waiting has gained intense popularity rapidly over the past five years. The iPad Mini release may be poised to change this phenomenon. Traditionally, this contact sport has rendered sleepless nights, sore rear ends and fractured dreams for devoted Apple groupies nationwide.

Hopefuls gather on city blocks and suburban shopping centers to have their materialistic addiction temporally satisfied. It may be easier this time around to get ahold of a new gleaming iPad.

Each of the last several years, Apple has recorded record revenues and astronomical profits. Product releases are heralded as engineering marvels designed to reinvent the way we communicate with one another, procure information and generate content. The media monsoon from an event produces a tidal wave of news stories that serves as fodder for the ever-growing Apple hype.

The newly released and highly rumored iPad Mini surged onto the market last week along with the fourth-generation iPad, and a refresh of the iMac. At first glance, the critics are pleased with the design and features of the new line of tablet.

But the expensive $329 iPad Mini price-point fare exceeds the competition and may hinder Apple’s tablet strategy.

The low-cost tablet market has taken off over the past two years with Amazon, Samsung and Google breaking the $200 price wall. Apple’s $329 iPad Mini positions the tablet far above the discount market, but still substantially below the larger-sized competitors.

In 2010, the first iPad was released, thus introducing the tablet market to the public. Prior to the release we were progressing toward becoming a two-device society filled with laptops and smartphones. Today, with many low-cost tablets on the market, a wide swath of Americans can find a use for three devices in their homes.

Upon the iPad’s release, $499 was not just in line with the competition, but in many cases beat other major companies like Motorola’s Zoom or early Samsung’s tablets. Unfortunately the iPad Mini will not likely adapt to this trend because of its luxury price tag.

Gift giving will be down 3.4 percent from last year’s $68.63 billion. The top 10 percent are expected to account for 29 percent of all 2012 holiday spending. The bottom 90 percent are expected to reduce their holiday spending by roughly 10 percent this holiday season.

The financial restrictions families face will likely inhibit their purchasing power and, therefore, the low-cost tablet market will likely have a strong holiday season. According to Reportlinker.com, the low-cost tablet market consisting of tablets sub $250 will likely be worth $3.44 billion.

It is puzzling to think why Apple would strive to hit the $329 price point when the company is aware that it will be considerably more expensive than the low-cost competitors. A possible explanation is that it actually wants to cannibalize the upper-level tablet market.

The more the tablet market moves to a lower price point, Apple may desire to separate its iPad Mini line as a Web-browsing and content-consuming device, whereas the larger iPad may be subject to a substantially improved specification overhaul next year in an attempt to bring it more in line with its Macbook Air.

The iPad Mini was the most predictable Apple product release in recent memory, but the rationale for its pricing is unbelievably opaque. As Apple continues to familiarize itself with life at the top of the NASDAQ, the homogenizing of product releases is a bold and risky strategy. The iPad Mini might just be the first product to make only a mere ripple in the technology industry.

Jared Rosen is a sophomore advertising and marketing management major. His column appears weekly. He can be contacted at [email protected] or followed on Twitter at @jaredmarc14.

 

Published on October 29, 2012 at 11:00 pm