How The iPad Mini Is Defining Tim Cook's Apple - Forbes

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Tim Cook and the new iPad mini (Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife)

At the start of the month I discussed five key features of the iPad Mini launch that would define Tim Cook’s Apple and illustrate the strategic direction that Apple would be taking in 2013 and beyond under his leadership. Now the details are confirmed, let’s revisit them.

Before I do, a quick thought. There’s no doubt in my mind that short-term the iPad Mini is going to be a hit, sell by the millions, and be the must have gadget for Christmas 2012. But selling lots of devices is the result of a strategy, not a strategy itself. Apple’s long-term health is just as important as the sales figures on the new hardware.

Historically the decisions and choices that eventually damaged weakened companies like Nokia, Kodak, and Sony all took place while sales were good and the corporate outlook was optimistic. Will Apple continue to grow and innovate? That’s what I want to look, rather than quantifying the upcoming success of the iPad Mini.

Allure: Tim Cook Doesn’t Have A Distortion Field.

How well did Apple sell the iPad Mini to the world? To be honest not very well. They trash talked the competition and specifically attacked  the Nexus 7. They talked about the delight and wonder of retina screens before arguing you didn’t need one on the new iPad. And they updated March’s iPad for a new model, breaking an unspoken covenant that the iPad would be updated once per year.

More importantly, everyone noticed all this and wrote about it in relatively scathing terms. The mystique and power that made you want an Apple device simply because the man on stage told you… that’s all gone.

Aggression: Pricing Is Set To Remain High

Apple has traditionally priced their hardware at a higher point than the competition, but they always balanced this out by providing better hardware, more capability, and a better return on investment. The pricing of the first iPad was not a case of “how much is that tablet” but “how cheap!”

The situation is now reversed with the iPad Mini. It’s a smaller resolution screen, with less memory, and a larger physical footprint than the Nexus 7. Yes it has a stronger ecosystem but is that enough to justify almost double the price of the competition? Part of the presentation should have been to justify this luxury positioning, and I don’t think ‘thin’ is a long term strategy you can count on.

Acknowledgment: What about Maps?

Did I blink and miss the explanation of the issues around maps in iOS 6? I was hoping Tim Cook would have taken clear leadership of this issue. Instead it was airbrushed away as if it never mentioned â€" apart from everyone on Twitter pointing out that the iPad Mini and the Nexus 7 side-by-side comparisons failed to compare mapping, which is probably one of the key smartphone battlegrounds of the next few years.