You could say the same about all Apple products, not just the iPad Mini. Cheap alternatives have always been there on the sidelines. I don't see it as being more of an issue for the iPad Mini. We all know Apple products cost more.
Apples and oranges comparison. The iPad mini is $400 and while it isn't the zippiest iOS device on the market, it is certainly more capable as a device than its nearest competition, a $50 Kindle Fire. The same isn't true of any other Apple Product and its nearest competitor. The one exception to that might be the iPod touch. Though the iPod touch and the iPad mini have in common that they're both running on an A8 processor and are extremely unlikely to be updated (as they're likely to be replaced by the iPhone SE and the fifth generation iPad or a direct successor thereof).
It should close to a discontinuation date for the Mini! September or March 2018!
Fixed that one for ya!
Two models, with 3 color options - so technically 6 models but let's not split hairs
That's x3 times as many models as the MBA (excluding configurations) and if you listen to those fanboys it's the greatest thing since coca colas new recipe and should live forever...
Heh...I was sorta waiting for someone to play the "well, it's technically six configurations" card.
Though, Apple, when getting ready to cull an iPad model, is typically not one to cull colors (save for maybe gold) nor cellular.
Though, I wouldn't compare it to the MacBook Air, which can be customized and is clearly being kept around to ease the transitions to (a) retina-only laptops and (b) USB-C/Thunderbolt 3 from USB-A and Thunderbolt 2/MiniDP, and (c) MagSafe-less charging (transitions that, aside from Retina, are also applicable to the 15-inch Mid 2015 MBP that is also still around).
I think that unlike the iPad mini 4, the 2015 MacBook Air and 15" MacBook Pro serves a precise function in Apple's lineup and is there as a transition product for users that don't want to or can't move to the newer designs. The iPad mini 4 doesn't exactly serve that kind of a function.
Though fanboys of all three products will argue about how they're all crucial and we know the writing for them is on the wall. I actually am a fan of all three of them (though I wish they retained the 2015 15" Retina that had a discrete GPU), but I know they're not there forever. Most people can't seem to divorce what they want reality to be and what they think it is from what it actually is.
Yes of course - but since Apple gave up before it happened it's impossible to know for certain. It's not like they decided to stop upgrading and marketing it after the new plus phones - it happened at the same time.
If they had upgraded it 'properly' and continued pushing it like the mini 2, things most likely would have been different - whether it would have still 'failed' is all guess work. It's hard to say if analyst were correct when it comes to Apple products imo - the rest of the mini tablet market would have failed purely because they weren't iPads.
I'd buy into the whole "it's hard to know whether or not it'd be successful because Apple never gave it a fair chance" song and dance were it not for the fact that literally every other mini tablet manufacturer has pulled out of the race. The Nexus 7 never had a successor and it was the iPad mini's most popular competitor. The current state of affairs for the Kindle Fire is a total joke. And Samsung only replaced the 9.7" Galaxy Tab S2 with a Galaxy Tab S3 version; they didn't do anything with the 8.0" model. That should tell you that it isn't that Apple didn't give the iPad mini a chance anywhere near as much as it was the mini tablet party winding down.
