iPad mini is small but big

According to foreign media reports recently, it is expected that Apple will release the new iPad and iPad mini next Tuesday. From the current tablet sales data point of view, iPad mini has replaced the iPad as the pillar of Apple's tablet computer products.

In fact, iPad mini is small, but the energy is definitely not small; iPad mini has now become the world's best-selling tablet PC, it is estimated that Apple sells three iPad each, of which there are two iPad mini. Apple’s late co-founder Steve Jobs once said that his tablet with a small-size display may “see death”, but now it seems that the iPad mini has become Apple’s overall strategic core in the post-PC era.

It is expected that Apple will release a new batch of iPad products next Tuesday. Its competitors are also closely watching the development of new Apple products. Samsung Electronics adopted a group of ant tactics to deliver a large number of tablet computers with different display screen sizes and different optional components. Amazon wants to compete with Apple for price, and its products are mainly competitive at low prices. Microsoft wants to open up a new battlefield in the tablet market with its relationship with business users.

Last year, Apple introduced iPad mini, which is relatively small in size and relatively inexpensive, which to a certain extent eased the competition in the tablet PC market. This year, Apple is preparing to launch an iPad mini with a higher-resolution Retina display; the standard iPad is going in a lighter and thinner direction. From the information provided by Apple's component suppliers, it intends to use a The film replaces the glass used on the existing iPad.

Apple's time to release the new iPad is a critical moment. Tablet PC has become Apple's second largest source of revenue, second only to the iPhone. In the nine months ended June 30, the iPad contributed almost $26 billion in revenue to Apple. However, the number of iPads sold by Apple in the second quarter of this year was not so much the same period a year ago. This is the first time since the launch of its first iPad in 2010.

Market research firm Gartner expects Apple’s share of the tablet market to drop below 50% this year. Competitors have started to launch large-screen smartphones (also known as "tablet phones") to run on the iPad mini; at the same time, the price of tablet computers is steadily declining, which further forced Apple to participate in it has been reluctant to proceed Price competition.

Sarah Rotman Epps, an analyst at market research firm Forrester Research, said: “New users are very price sensitive, so it’s even harder for Apple to attract new users. Apple’s price competitiveness is not strong.”

Samsung intends to use its strategy in the smartphone market to compete for the tablet market. The Tablet PC product it introduced has a very wide coverage, covering different price points and different configurations to meet the needs of various consumers. It offers 5 different size display products in its most important tablet computer brand Galaxy Tab series products. It also introduced the 8-inch and 10.1-inch Galaxy Note, which is Samsung's big-screen smartphone brand.

Amazon has a price to fight with Apple. Its newest Kindle Fire tablet has a faster processor and improved display quality. The 7-inch screen Kindle Fire is priced at just $229, and the 8.9-inch screen Kindle Fire is priced at $3,779. In contrast, the iPad's starting price is 329 US dollars, the configuration of the higher price of the model is 499 US dollars.

The same day that Apple held the iPad conference, Microsoft will launch its second-generation Surface tablet. The second-generation Surface tablet computer is preinstalled with software such as Office and Outlook, and Microsoft hopes that this will attract the attention of business users. Google and Sony will also jointly develop their own tablet PCs, while Asus and Lenovo continue to take advantage of price advantages in many markets in Asia. Some unnamed Chinese brand manufacturers have also launched low-cost Android tablets.

So far, the iPad mini has helped Apple to leave behind all its competitors. Soon after the success of the iPad, many competitors including Samsung, Google and Blackberry began to develop smaller, lighter, and cheaper tablets.

Apple CEO Cook said that iPad mini is not a compromise product, but a different from other 7-inch tablet products. Apple once said that the price it sets for the iPad mini will be lower, and its profit margin is lower than that of Apple's other products because of the long-term potential of the tablet PC market.

Gene Munster, an analyst at investment research firm Peijie, believes that the profit margins of the two types of iPad products are actually similar. It estimates that the iPad mini’s sales in the quarter ended June 30 are about 61%, and it is expected that this proportion will increase to 65% next year.

The market share of tablet computers based on Google Android system is still increasing, but iPad still occupies absolute advantages in application. According to market research firm Canalys in August, there are 375,000 applications in Apple’s app store designed specifically for the iPad, compared to only one or two thousand tablet applications in Google Play on Google. Canalys claims that nearly half of the top 50 paid and free iPad apps are either not available on Google Play or optimized for tablets.