Analysts Weigh In On Why Apple’s $329 iPad Mini Price Tag Is Just Fine, Thanks

iPad Mini To Grab Sales From $199 Tablets – J.P. Morgan Analyst

Lance Whitney reports CNET’s that with iOS 6 and a 7.9-inch screen size, the iPad Mini will scoop up market share from lower-priced rival tablets, according to J.P. Morgan analyst Mark Moskowitz in an investors note released Tuesday, in which he acknowledges that the $329 price tag on Apple’s new tablet came in substantially higher than J.P. Morgan’s estimate of $249, but the features and specs were better than expected as well, and Moskowitz predicts that the larger screen size and iOS 6 capabilities of iPad Mini stand to be good enough to grab share from the $199 tablet crowd.

Why Apple Doesn’t Need a $200 iPad Mini

AllThingsD’s John Paczkowski says that with a starting price tag of $329, Apple’s new iPad mini may be too expensive to attract budget-conscious consumers drawn to Google’s Nexus 7 and Amazon’s Kindle Fire, but does that even matter, observing “when has Apple ever played at the bottom of the pricing barrel?” and citing Apple marketing VP Phil Schiller commenting on Tuesday that “Competitors are making compromises with their products. We don’t.”

Why The Hand-Wringing Over iPad Mini Pricing Is Ridiculous

SeekngAlpha’s Scott Rothbort wonders if traders and analysts really expected the expected iPad mini price of $299 to be highly competitive with $199 for competitors’ 7-inch tablets, because when you analyze it that way, it sounds ridiculous. Rothbort observes that the 7 inch, 16 gigabyte Samsung Galaxy sells for $349, which is the mini’s the real competition in his estimation. so $329 means better margins for Apple while still being cheaper than Samsung while Amazon is selling its Kindle products at cost and are backed into a corner. If they raise their prices, the iPad Mini looks even more attractive. He notes that perhaps Amazon believes in the razor and razor blades concept for the mobile computing market, but Apple knows better – that it can make money on both the razor and the razor blades.

Apple iPad Mini Price Isn’t Putting Off MarketWatch Readers

MarketWatch’s Tom Bemis says MarketWatch readers don’t appear to be put off by Apples pricing of its new iPad Mini starting at $329, noting that nearly 90 percent of those responding to the informal MarketWatch questionnaire indicated plans to get an iPad Mini, and nearly 58% of that group indicated theyd buy one at the current price.

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