Whenever Apple comes out with a new product, Apple receives lots of criticism along with praise. With the release of the iPad Mini, Apple took a turn for the worst. They released a product that was solely designed to compete rather than to innovate.

The iPad Mini was not a necessary product and is not an upgrade in any way other than size. The smaller size might have worked out if the features and screen resolution had stayed the same as the iPad Retina.
Screen resolution can make all the difference when using a device. It changes the overall feel of the device. That was the original intent of a retina display when it was first released by Apple. The iPad Mini doesn’t use a retina display. Instead, it uses a grainy low pixel-density display, making the general use of the device seem like a huge downgrade from the higher-class iPad Retina.
The smaller size could be an advantage over the iPad Retina, but the iPod Touch already fills this niche. The need to have something in-between is only due to the fact that other companies have tablets of comparable size. If Apple was truly trying to innovate, the iPad Mini would not exist as a separate entity. The iPad Retina would have been shrunken down to iPad Mini size while improving its internal hardware.
Price could have changed this all around as a much cheaper alternative. The iPad Mini starts at $329, and the iPad Retina starts at $499. That is only a $170 difference. The iPad Retina is well worth the $170 over the iPad Mini because of the gain in screen size, features and user experience. The price of the iPad Mini is not low enough to be considered comparable to the iPod Touch which starts at $299 and has better specs than that of the iPad Mini. If Apple’s goal was to compete, they missed the key price range of $99 to $199 for smaller tablets.
Apple’s lack of any additional innovation with the iPad Mini is a huge drawback and may be a sign that Apple is on a downward spiral or at least a stumble. The past trend with Apple has been to create an unexpected quality product that the consumer will learn to love. Now, Apple has went down the dark road that many companies take in creating a product that the consumer already knows and likes for the moment. If they continue down this dark path, the consumer is the real loser, as they are left with just the same boring products with no new innovations.
By John Gillis