A reason for the less-than-spectacular release of this new Apple product may be because it was so soon after the iPhone 5 came out, or perhaps because it seemed the next logical step in the progression of the company.
As for whether anyone will buy it remains to be seen. The product resembles a Kindle in size but an iPad in function. None of the apps or features of the iPad have been lost or changed in the mini, from the resolution to the battery life, like they were in the iPhone. Everything was simply scaled down to a 7.9 inch screen.
Jony Ive, Apple’s senior vice president of product design, commented on the new size.
“If all that we had done is just take the original iPad and reduce it, all that you would be aware of was just everything that was missing,” he said. “There is inherent loss in just reducing a product in size . . . we took the time to design a product that was a concentration of, not a reduction of, the original.”
Because the mini is so similar to its larger counterpart, the existence of the product itself begs the question, “Why not just get an iPad?”
At $329, the mini is cheaper and altogether less intimidating than the full-size product, as well as able to fit in a single hand. Consumers must be the ones to decide whether the reduction in size is convenient or a shortfall.
