Apple the most innovative Hardware Tech company till date surprised everyone of us with the release of the Lighter than expected Slick iPad Air Tablet. At just $499, this is the best Gift one can go for this holiday season considering the Hardware Quality it is bundled into.
Although the feature sets of iPad Air were largely expected, but the amount of weight reduction is much more than market expectations. We believe the market was expecting around 500~550g versus the actual new weight of 453g. This makes the full-size iPad only 120g heavier than the iPad mini at 331g. In latest iPad Air Apple has adapted proprietary GF2 (cover glass with double side ITO film) structure to replace G/G (cover glass with sensor glass) touch, with this change we estimate touch module will save 50g~60g. We believe this is a major improvement as the weight of the full-size iPad was often criticized as the bigger drawback versus the iPad-mini, in our view.
Changes in the iPad mini Line-Up
The original iPad mini pricing was cut to $299 (from $329). With the new line up, iPad now covers a wider range price points (starting from $299-$499) with compelling features. The new iPad-mini with retina display is priced at $399, a $70 dollar increase over the previous generation. The original iPad-mini will continue to be offer in parallel at $299, which is a $30 price cut. We believe the Street could view this negatively as investors were largely expecting iPad-mini Retina, if announced, to be price point replacement and the price of the original iPad-mini could drop to <$279 level to compete with the cheap Android tablets.
We believe there should be pentup demand for iPad 5 as the biggest drawbacks of weight and thickness have been reduced. As for iPad-mini, we believe the retina display version, although priced at $399, could be attractive to consumers who put higher values on mobility (due to smaller form factor vs iPad).