According to Trefis Apple does not need to answer Amazon’s Fire with an iPad mini.
Research from Trefis has shown that ” iPad sales post the Kindle Fire launch have emphatically dispelled concerns that the iPad might take a beating unless a smaller iPad is launched.” The margin hits Apple would suffer if it developed and competed with the Fire at the same price-point would be a sharp departure from Apple’s winning 30% margin business model.
Apple, principally a hardware company, makes most of its money selling devices. Amazon, on the other hand, uses its Kindle Fire basically like a vending machine for it’s products sold on Amazon.com. These two different models have two very different objectives, and since sales for iPads have not slipped since the Fire’s release its seems to make sense not to compete head-on.
Although its hard to say that Apple follows conventional business thinking, looking to the future of mobile its hard to imagine iPads not getting significantly smaller, sooner not later. The shelf life for the iPad in its current gaze seems rather short. Mobile tech is more or less like aiming at a moving target. Without getting to far ahead of ourselves wearable mobile tech is just around the corner ala Google Glasses.
What Apple has done so well over the past decade is innovate the perfect design/functionally sweet spot for its loyal niche market. As long as Apple continues to innovate faster and better than then growing competition, it would flourish. No easy task, but Apple’s devoted customer base does afford it some latitude to experiment or fail fast and continue to capture the hearts and minds of its followers.
By Marc Niola – The UX Acrobat and
UX Strategist @ Digital Cunzai
Follow Marc on Twitter: @marc_niola
References:
Link to article: Debunking iPad mini Rumors
About UX Acrobat - Marc Niola
Marc is an expert UX professional with a focus on customer-centered design principles, social media, gamification and psychology. He has developed innovative business solutions for global corporations, SME, agencies, clients and brands.
Connect with Marc on Google+
