Nice advice on the "pros" side. ;-) So, I guess you don't take much stock in Prosser's recent claims that the next mini will be considerably more retrofitted (and without a Home button?), then.
I don't place any value on the predictions of any industry prognosticators. Maybe I'm cynical. Maybe I've been in the industry too long. But I've seen time and again how companies will deliberately and selectively leak information to these people for their own purposes. Some of the info is correct. Some of it is disinformation. I make decisions based on what I know, what history shows, and my gut feel. This has served me well so I'm sticking with what works. ?
Why do you expect a price hike for the mini? It would seem to appeal to a lot of students and kids as well, not to mention its e-reader aspect, so it seems to me that they wouldn't do much with the price so that they can continue to appeal to that market.
As it stands, the mini is already pushing the limits for its product type in terms of price. Any further price hikes would bring it into a competitive price range with the iPad Air, which wouldn't make much sense for Apple.
Perhaps you believe that the purported larger display size would account for the extra price? Still, if they do away with Touch ID/the Home button, that would actually reduce the number of components, you would think... ?
The thing that many people misunderstand about the target market for the iPad Mini is that it ISN'T for the general consumer. Yes, consumers can purchase an iPad Mini but they are not the primary market that Apple intends for the Mini.
The "vertical markets" heavily use the iPad Mini in numbers much higher than general consumers. Vertical markets are those specialized uses like, warehouse workers, delivery drivers, medical professionals, point-of-sales terminals in retail outlets, pilots, drone operators, musicians, lab work, etc.
These vertical markets buy iPad Minis in large quantities so they have a large investment in the platform. They often have custom-made kiosks, countertops, cases, holders, and peripherals that are specific to that specialized market.
This is why Apple has retained the general chassis and form-factor of the Mini. Changing the body as significantly and as often as Apple does for models like the iPad Pro would result in a significant cost to those vertical markets as they would have to re-tool and refit those custom holders for the Mini. The result would be that they wouldn't be so quick to upgrade to a newer model if the model changed size.
Apple can't update the Mini too frequently, even if they perfectly retain the physical body from the previous gen, because it would cause the generation of Minis that they have deployed to become closer to obsolete quicker than if there was a slower upgrade cycle.
With the introduction of support for the Apple Pencil 1 in the Mini 5, the Mini had become even MORE desirable in those markets.
These markets rely on things like a headphone jack, lightning port, and home button.
If Apple were to produce an Air/Pro style Mini, I expect that they would continue to sell a version of the Mini with the current form-factor. (In the same way that the 8th gen iPad retains those elements)
All that to say, the pricing of the Mini is not for consumers, but for those vertical markets. Yes, single unit prices are high, but bulk purchases can then be heavily discounted.
