Although most of those who have not purchased a tablet iPad Mini expect the model released this year to have Retina Display, those from Apple seem to be more concerned with the development of a cheaper model and not with the implementation of a Retina Display in the existing one. The problem is that Apple's partners can't produce enough Retina Displays for iPad Mini, and Apple would be forced to postpone the launch iPad Mini 2 until the fourth quarter of this year, but in the meantime the company could bring to the market a cheaper version of the tablet that could cost between $199 and $250.
Prior to the iPad mini 2 launch, Apple might roll out a more affordable iPad mini to compete with Android products. To cut costs, Apple might push for lower component prices, use a more advanced process to produce the A5 processor, simplify metal casing production, remove the rear camera, cut storage to 8GB and find more component suppliers to lower costs. We think this cheaper iPad mini retails for US$199~249.
What the American analyst says is logical, most consumers are interested in paying very low prices for Apple products, and an iPad Mini tablet with such a price will exist. Why am I saying this? If we look at the recent releases of iPhones/iPads, we notice that Apple has reduced, on average, by about $100 the selling price of iDevices that are no longer the high-end of the company, and the iPad Mini could be sold at a maximum price of $250 as soon as iPad Mini 2 will be released.
It is unlikely that things will evolve differently, especially since Apple does not make a very large profit with the iPad Mini and the company has never been interested in substantially reducing its profit just to offer customers cheap products.
