iPad Mini price in the UK
Apple has now confirmed the iPad mini price in the UK. Here are UK prices for the Wi-Fi and Cellular iPad mini tablets.
Update 24/10/12: The UK price for the iPad mini has now been confirmed by Apple, after several months of speculation leading up to its launch. See also iPad 4 preview.
The iPad mini price in the UK will start from £269 for the Wi-Fi only 16GB tablet. The iPad mini UK price then jumps up to £349 for the 32GB iPad mini and £429 for the 63GB model. The iPad mini will be available in black & slate, or white & silver from Friday, 2 November 2012. Take a look at iPad mini, new iPad launch: as it happened.
The iPad mini with Wi-Fi and Cellular will be offered for a UK price of £369 for the 16GB model, £449 for the 32GB model and £529 for the 64GB model. Apple says the iPad mini with Wi-Fi and Cellular will start shipping two weeks after the Wi-Fi only models. See Apple iPad Mini vs Google Nexus 7 tablet comparison review.
| iPad mini Wi-Fi price in UK | iPad mini Wi-Fi & Cellular price | |
| 16GB - £269 | 16GB - £369 | |
| 32GB - £349 | 16GB - £449 | |
| 64GB - £429 | 16GB - £529 |
From 9/10/12
iPad Mini is set to launch in mid October. Here's the latest information on the iPad Mini's UK price. See also iPad mini launch: live.
Apple is about to launch a 7in iPad (7.85in, to be exact), popularly known as the 'iPad Mini'. Right now despite all the leaked iPad Mini photos and the plethora of iPad Mini rumours little hard information is know about Apple's upcoming little iPad save for the fact that it exists, and Apple intends to sell 10 million of them before Christmas.
We'll know more when Apple announces the iPad Mini, which we're expecting next Tuesday or Wednesday, 16 or 17 October. You will of course be able to follow the iPad Mini launch live with PC Advisor, and we'll keep updating this story as we get more information, so bookmark this page and check back for the latest of the iPad Mini price here in the UK.
For now we'll analyse Apple's current product line up and make informed guesses about the iPad Mini's price. And we'll also round up some of the more credible rumours to see if they can shed any light on the price of Apple's upcoming tiny tablet.
iPad Mini price in UK: analysing Apple's current products
The third-generation iPad - known simply as 'iPad' - is of course a 9.7in device. It starts at £399 inc VAT for the 16GB model. Full iPad pricing is as follows:
Wi-Fi model:
- £399 for 16GB
- £479 for 32GB
- £559 for 64GB
Wi-Fi + 3G model:
- £499 for 16GB
- £579 for 32GB
- £659 for 64GB
Given that the iPad Mini will have a 7in screen, and be smaller than the current iPad, you might imagine that it would be cheaper. This may be the case - but it's not always so. When the first generation of post-iPad tablets surfaced devices such as the original Samsung Galaxy Tab cost the same as the bigger iPad, because cramming in similar performance to a smaller device is difficult, and 7in displays were rarer than 10in, costing a premium. (For an analogy, think back to when the challenge for mobile phone handset makers was to create ever smaller products: tiny devices had premium prices.)
This is now less of an issue. Technology has moved on so performance is less of an issue, and product makers can source screens of all sizes as customers now demand a range of portable gadgets ranging from 4in smartphone to 20in laptop and beyond.
With the Nexus 7 and Kindle Fire HD there are high-quality 7in tablets that retail for less than £200. In terms of the iPad Mini these are something of a red herring, however. Both Google and Amazon take a hit on the hardware in order to make their money through greater consumption of apps and media. Apple won't do this.
Apple sets the prices of its products with precision. It never makes a loss on anything, but it doesn't scalp its customers. Apple charges a premium price for a premium product and makes a similar percentage profit on everything. Given that we believe it costs Google and Asus at least £100 to source the parts for the 8GB Nexus 7, and therefore they must be making a loss on their £159 device once licensing and shipping costs are taken into consideration, we can assume that Apple will have to sell a 16GB iPad Mini for at least £249 to make its usual cut.
This would also fit in with the way Apple likes to overlap the prices of products in similar lines. With Apple gadgets there is always something you can afford and you are always tempted to upgrade.
In relation to the existing iPads, then, it would make sense for a Wi-Fi-only 16GB iPad Mini to retail for around £250 to £299, with a 3G and Wi-Fi 32GB iPad Mini costing around the same as the current cheapest 'full' iPad at £399.
That's a lot of money, but then the current iPad starts at twice as much as the best Android tablet around (the Nexus 7), and that doesn't appear to have hurt its number one status.
And bear in mind Apple's recently released iPod touch. This costs £249 and is, in essence, both a cellular-free iPhone and a Wi-Fi only 4in iPad. If Apple releases a 7in iPad that is cheaper than the iPod touch, why would anyone ever buy the iPod? Why would Apple bother developing and releasing it? (Also remember that the iPad 2 is still available from Apple for £329.)
Apple does this kind of thing better than anyone, so I would take an informed guess on the cheapest iPad Mini starting somewhere between £249 and £299 - probably nearer the latter.
iPad Mini price in UK: the rumours
Our analysis is supported by a rumour reported by Electronista in April this year that the iPad Mini would sell for between $249 and $299 in the US, making it both more expensive than the Nexus 7, but cheaper than the iPad.
That the iPad Mini will be a premium product is supported by AllThingsD which reports that supply is likely to be constrained initially, in part because it will be a difficult device to manufacture but also to bolster demand against cheaper rivals.
UK tech site T3.com backs this up further, saying that 'Chinese sources' claim the iPad Mini will be priced between $250 and $300. T3 converts this to '£156-£187', but in most cases Apple products cost as many pounds in the UK as they do Dollars over the pond, so we'd take this to mean that the Mini will cost £250 to £300 over here, much as we speculate.
Meanwhile TechRadar is quoting multiple sources claiming the iPad Mini will cost around $250 to $300, but also converting this directly to pounds Sterling at around the £150 to £200. Again, we'd be cautious about this.
A counter argument is given by UK newspaper The Mirror, which baldly states that 'The pocket-sized tablet is believed to have a price tag of between £160 and £200.' There's no evidence to back this up, however, and it would seriously mess with Apple's pricing of other products. We shall see.
Keep popping back to this page for the latest information on iPad Mini pricing. Also check our our story iPad Mini release date, specs and rumours.
Comments
Khurshid said: LET US SEE THINGS IN THE RIGHT PERSPECTIVEIs it reasonable that single users will normally subscribe to two SIM cards The concept of 3G4G on a tablet mandates exactly that Everyone carries a mobile and it will be daft to think that users will regularly shift their only SIM if they have both a mobile and a network enabled tabletI am subscribed to one SIM that includes data subscription When I need internet on the tablet AND I have no WiFi then I create my own hotspot from the Mobile AP My current 3G allows me enough speed to watch movie on NetflixSo pray tell me why should I or for that matter anyone pay 100 for 4 grams of additional hardware Only to later realise that it is daft as well as a monthly expense It takes 15 seconds to create your own hotspot from the mobileWhat you really need isA smartphone with Mobile AP Access PointA good subscription for Data 4G will be better but definitely not necessaryA tablet they all come with WiFiGoogles Nexus has got it right One reasonable investment and your needs are all taken care of Save your 100 pounds
Turdboy said: Nexus must be laughing its virtual tits off at apple 100 quid more than other comparable tablets just to have the apple logoMade for fanboys bought by fanboys
Mathew Archer said: if apple charged 300 for the ipad mini then i dont see many people buying it as apple hopes for only 20 more you can get the ipad 2 now while this would mean a consumer upgrading but it also means that a loss of a sale on ipad mini is made apple does not like to canabalise sales to this degree so i think a price tag in the uk of 250 is more likely it costs apple about 130 to make the iphone 4s and an ipad mini would therefore have similar specs to an iphone 4s and will share the same components so i think they could produce the ipad mini for no more than 180 and could make about 50 - 60 profit per device which would be more than enough in my view plus it would help to still sell it as a premium device over the cheaper google and amazon tablets as its only 50 more than the nexus 7 16gb device because it has more features maybe and would have the ipad badge