With all the iPad Mini rumors that have been swirling around, the one thing we've been missing is info on price. Now, according to a leaked screenshot from Mobile Geeks, we have a potential price point we can sweat over and scrutinize: 249 Euro, or $320 US, for an 8GB, Wi-Fi only iPad Mini.
The image is a screencap of an inventory system used widely in both Europe and Asia. And if you account for the exchange rate, the purported pricing scheme goes like this: start with the $320 (249 Euro) 8GB baseline, and add another $120 (100 Euro) if you want to double the storage, and another $120 if you want cellular. It all culminates in a 64GB, cellular model that costs a whopping $840 (649 Euro).
There are two ways this could play out. If you convert the actual prices to US dollars, you get the crazy high prices listed above. But if you just change the currency to dollars, (kinda sorta what Apple does with the iPad 3) you get less ridiculous skew, but it's still way more than the competition.
At $250 (that's assuming the Euros will just morph into dollars), an 8GB iPad Mini would be the same price as a 32GB Kindle Fire HD, or 16GB Nexus 7, both of which are very solid tablets in their own rights. And with a 16GB Wi-Fi only model at $350 you're suddenly paying even more just to go Apple, when for a lot of people, a cheaper competing tablet would probably work just fine. And the high end of the purported Mini prices is high, but at least the capacities there exceed what other competing tablets pack. Not to mention Minis with prices that get almost as much as the full-size equivalents just seems off.
For the moment, there's no telling whether or not these price are accurate or how they might relate to the price in American dollars. But now, as the suspected October 23rd announcement date creeps forward, we've got a possibility to ponder, and stress about. If you're in the market for a tablet maybe its time to give some thought to how price sensitive you should be. [Mobile Geeks via GigaOm]