iPad mini is the victim of a marketplace that couldnt decide what it wanted.
Market: "we want smaller, more portable tablets; we already have laptops for house based tasks"
Apple: Okay, here's iPad mini.
market: We don't care for portability, we all carry bags anyway, give us productivity
Apple: okay, here's iPad Pro 12.9
market: we want desktop-class features, not tablet features stretched to a bigger screen
apple: okay, here's iOS 11
what the market will likely say next: we hate feeling like we have our laptops with us everywhere, we want a tablet to be a tablet.
What apple will likely say next: iPad has been discontinued because you're all idiots and can't make up your minds. Here's a 6.5 inch iPhone and be done with it.
I loved Ipad mini, I owned multiple generations, but theres no place for it now I feel.
I'd like to respectfully say I couldn't agree with this assessment any less.
Apple has in recent times confused the notion about what different sized devices should mean. How much of this is deliberate strategy and how much is because they themselves are confused I'm unsure but I think mostly the former. They like to keep the market guessing, unsure of Apple's intentions (as opposed to their own) and enamoured by the new kid on the block.
It was Jobs who said size should be a personal preference and users shouldn't have to unduly sacrifice features or capabilities for simply preferring a larger or smaller device. Well we all know how that turned out! I don't think users are confused at all; they'll generally go for the most economical product they can afford that meets their needs and has the features they want. It's Apple that keeps confusing things and the iPad is the best example of this.
In the beginning there was the iPad. Then a successor. Easy so far right? Well they released an iPad Mini but didn't keep it up to spec with its larger sibling. At one stage it used an older or weaker chip, had less ram and a poor screen (or a combination of all the above, I can't remember which) thereby crippling its capability compared to the latest and greatest "real" iPad, so people complained. Apple to their credit eventually released an iPad Mini that was almost on par with the 9.7" and not unduly crippled, but then things took a massive turn for the worse (in terms of Jobs' vision)!
Apple released a massive 12.9" tablet dubbed the "Pro" that competed with the 9.7" not just for size but for features. Users who wanted the Pro's features in a smaller form factor couldn't have it; they had to get the big daddy iPad even if the size was unsuitable. Later though Apple introduced the 9.7" Pro but it trumped the 12.9" model (gaining P3 wide gamut and True Tone display) without updating its larger sibling.
Users were again stuck not being able to choose based on size alone but on how much they valued or needed the better screen. Apple then goes and brings them back to feature parity, except for the larger one not gaining efficient smaller bezels. Did they want people to jump from the 9.7" Air to the 12.9" to the 9.7" Pro and back to the 12.9" again? That's what you've had to do if you wanted the best features and screen!
All the while the Mini gets relegated to third-class citizen. I don't know if it needs a Pro version with Pencil support, but a P3 screen, slimmer bezels, processor and RAM upgrade would go a long way to making it attractive enough so that people aren't forced to go for a size that isn't ideal for their needs just to get the features they want.
From this it's pretty clear that Apple are playing games. It's not the public that's confused in the slightest about what they want. It's Apple selectively adding features to each size one at a time.
