[Brave Ulysses]

Very interesting announcement and tons of analysis can be done and the way Apple did this and how they have laid out these product lines.


A few points:

1. 9.7" iPad sales are going to plummet. The design has always felt a bit cumbersome and heavy, made worse by the generation 3 design... which seemingly carries over to the generation 4 design.

2. $329 price is odd but I think entirely driven by Apple's fear of financial performance. If Apple didn't care about their stock price and investor reaction for a quarter or two they would have priced this at $299, but I think Apple did $329 strictly on a minimum acceptable margin basis. This product is going to drastically lower Apple's average selling price. Investors have been scared about that, and this is going to do it quickly. They could not do that and at the same time have the new cause for that be drastically lower margin.

3. I'm shocked the iPad 2 is still around. My only explanation is that Apple probably knows that the upsell to the 9.7" iPad is going to be harder, and at least keeping one at the $399 pricepoint helps. Still an oddball product that in the middle of a hell of a lot of SKUs.

4. The proportions and size of the iPad Mini just look right

5. Really amazing how Apple can mock smaller tablets for 2 years and then turn around and do this and claim how amazing it is. I understand their arguments, I understand it's actually closer to 8", but I still find it entertaining.

6. iPad updates are likely to shift to Fall as I predicted.