The minimum spec Apple iPad mini is likely to have a price point of 249 Euros according to a screenshot taken of Media Market’s inventory system. Media Market is Europe's largest electronics retailer with 70,000 employees. The screenshot was leaked via German website mobile geek website MobileGeeks. The inventory page lists 16 variants of the iPad mini in different colours, storage capacity and connectivity configurations.
For your convenience, here are the Euro prices converted to pounds.
249 Euros = £200 | 349 Euros = £280 | 449 Euros = £362 | 549 Euros = £442 | 649 Euros = £523
Looking at the price list screenshot above, you can see a very wide range of prices starting at 249 Euros all the way up to a wallet busting 649 Euros for the same model but with more storage and a different connectivity option. The premium for larger amounts of built-in flash memory is incredible, no wonder Apple shun SD-cards of any kind. Looking at the low end and top end prices of iPad minis, it costs buyers 300 Euros for 56GB of extra flash storage.
HEXUS reported, less than two weeks ago, that mass production of the iPad mini was underway. Sources in Taiwan speaking to the Wall Street Journal confirmed this. At the same time a pair of iPad mini protective cases manufactured by big name accessory company Cygnett was uncovered by an Australian tech blogger. If you want to know what may be inside the iPad mini we haven’t had any update on the rumoured specs from over a month ago, which proposed that the iPad mini was a “mashup of spare parts”.
Looking at the competition; the crucial entry level model of the iPad mini at £200 will go toe-to-toe with the ASUS Google NEXUS 7 at £159. If we assume that Apple’s and Google’s 7-inch tablets have a similar bill of materials then, as usual, Apple is making quite a tasty extra bit of profit from its gear. As buyers levitate to iPad minis with more storage or cellular radios then Apple makes even more money. The iPad mini is expected to be revealed on 23rd October, perhaps hoping to distract people a little from the Windows 8 launch shortly after.
What do readers think of the leaked iPad mini prices?
