From the very bottom of this Bloomberg post:
The iPad mini, which was last upgraded in 2015, and the 9.7-inch iPad, last refreshed in March, won’t be upgraded, a person familiar with the company’s plans said.
This seems to be confirmation of something widely speculated to be true, that the iPad mini has been end-of-lifed.
From this terrific 500ish Words post by M.G. Siegler from last year:
The notion of this potentially largest iPhone yet led me to wonder out loud if it’s existence in a supposed pipeline (one which, again, Kuo may have inadvertently tapped into) is the reason why the iPad mini is no longer getting refreshed. After all, 6.63″ is getting awfully close to the 7.9″ of the iPad mini (almost as close, in fact, as an “iPhone Pro Plus” would be in size to the current “iPhone Pro” models).
Worlds are colliding. The iPad mini has a base price of $399 and the iPhone X has a base price of $999. Presumably, if Apple does release an iPhone X Plus (or insert your best guess at a name here), it will sell for $100 more.
As pointed out in our earlier post, Apple doesn’t do low budget, when given a choice, Apple is focused on the higher end of the market. Updating the iPad mini would potentially cannibalize sales of a newer, iPad mini-sized iPhone.
Sad but, purely looking at the numbers, not updating the iPad mini makes sense.
With the new iPad Pro bezel size, the Mini could likely have a screen size approaching 9″ – a major difference from even an X Plus.
If there was a price slot that a 9″ Mini filled, we’d see it. I’m guessing that’s the reason we’re not.
Well I can’t fit an iPad mini in all my pants pockets. I’ve avoided plus-size iPhones because they don’t.
I’d prefer an iPad mini pro so I can use it for work: note taking with the pencil, use camera and audio recorder.
An iPhone, even plus-size ones, are too small for note taking. Also the minis fit in my work uniform cargo pockets. But I won’t change my wardrobe just so i can carry a plus-size phone.
Looks like that 500ish Words post was from 2017. But still interesting…
They need to just put Phone.app capability in the 4G iPads and stop this silliness.
I like the mini but I agree with you on the dynamics. What pisses me off is that Apple is selling it, still, even though it has 4 year old tech. For the same price as the new iPad, basically. End of life means sell the rest of the stock and discontinue it. Same with the Mac mini (beware, apple products, don’t let them put mini in your name!)
This, too. Simply because I can get the large screen on an iPhone doesn’t mean I want to carry the largest phone with me all the time.
There’s no iPad mini-sized iPhone, and there never will be. That’s huge.
My most recent iPad is a Mini 2.
I’m not even sure I’ll buy another one, because the value proposition isn’t there for me, as nice as the current 9.7″ ones are.
Per current and plausible “reports”, the Mac Mini is due for a real update.
Yeah, I know. But they’ve been selling the old one with IIRC, a Broadwell chip, for years. I obviously don’t know the internal stuff here but if I were hired in a position to affect this stuff my question would be “If this is important enough that we want it to have a place in the product mix, why aren’t we updating this at least every 18-24 months??”
I have a mini 2, which I think was the best one – the first with a retina display, and the only generation that had the same cpu as the large model. I love that size. Great for reading, and great for use on an airplane. It is still good for kindle and a lot of other apps, although Safari is annoyingly slow (yay, modern web development).
I don’t buy the “6.63 is awfully close to 7.9″ argument… when the first mini was announced, Steve talked a lot about how much better 8″ was than 7” (the size of most Android tablets of the time). And as mentioned, the mini and super-sized iPhone X are very far apart in price and capabilities, so I don’t think one would steal share from the other.
More likely explanations: the mini doesn’t sell in enough volume, isn’t profitable enough, or a device with a screen that small doesn’t fit with Apple’s overall objectives for the iPad.
Same here. Shockingly, ios12 works OK on it. I use it mostly for reading – books, news etc. and audio streaming so it actually doesn’t bother me that the UI is a bit slow to respond.
I’d consider a new Mini but I need to see the new phones too. I can do most of what I use the mini for on the 6S plus but the size difference IS noticeable. We’ll see with the new phones.
“More likely explanations: the mini doesn’t sell in enough volume, isn’t profitable enough, or a device with a screen that small doesn’t fit with Apple’s overall objectives for the iPad.”
Which is fine. Then take it off the store and stop selling it. Alternatively, if it sells well enough to justify a place in the product line, update it.
Agreed. Not a fan of the Cook-era strategy of zombie products.
I find it frustrating as the iPad mini is the perfect size for kids. Full size iPads are too large and heavy.
A bezel-less iPad would get pretty close in size/weight to a Mini. I think that’s really what’s happening. And they’re probably not interested in the trade-offs needed to cut down the bezel of a Mini.
Wouldn’t be surprised if they take away the bezel from the normal iPad and point out that they’re almost the same size now.
I bet it has to do with screen density. Of the iOS devices, the iPod Mini is the only one that’s locked into making the screen physically smaller without a change in logical size.
This is my frustration as well. All three of my kids have an iPad Mini. When given a choice, my son (he was 11 at the time) said he wanted a mini vs a full sized iPad. My other two kids are 4 and 8 and they both love their iPad Mini’s. We have been waiting for a new version to replace one of them (a first gen iPad mini) but obviously that’s not going to happen now. So we will have to buy them larger ones going forward.
The issue with a bezel-less iPad is that it doesn’t sit well in an iPad case which is kid friendly (i.e. lots of padding protecting the whole thing, front back, sides etc) We use ones which are a foam type with a handle which doubles as a stand for our three iPad mini’s.
I have replaced several iPads with iPad mini’s just because of the portability. You can get an iPad mini with 128gigs from Walmart for $299. I don’t understand this, but it does seem like they are clearing the inventory
Loss leader?
I got my Watch at Best Buy for well under Apple’s price, too, for the same reason.
Thank you Rick. Agree 100 percent.
My mini that I bought last year is a 4, which replaced my iPad 2. I love the size of the mini, but I’d trade in the 4 in a heart beat if a mini pro became available.