iPad Mini launch date ambiguity is causing all sorts of media panic

It is fascinating to behold the panicking media at the moment. They’ve now taken to posting genuine stories about a currently unannounced device. Only this morning I was flicking through smiling at the unabashed panic.

The major thrust is that since Apple has not yet sent out invites to an announcement keynote, they can’t benefit from all the click-throughs and page impression traffic. The next best thing is to rehash what you wrote yesterday quoting some analyst and general industry shenanigans, give it a headline like ‘iPad Mini Launch Date Mystery’ and boom, you’ve got a lot of the traffic you were hoping for.

I even read one overview of someone literally counting the minutes until they expected the invite to arrive last week I think it was.

When you’ve got a lot of competition thriving in the market and a me-too device like the ‘Mini’, it pays to use the media to your precise advantage. That’s one viewpoint (eg you’ve got Microsoft readying their Surface launch) so do your best to wrong foot them.

I’ve long long since lost any impatience or excitement that I used to feel — or wish to feel — about an impending Apple device launch. That is arguably a shame but it’s based on experience of ultimately never actually being surprised.

So when the Apple Mini arrives — for sure — I will take a look, of course.

I am a lot more excited at the consequences of the device’s arrival with respect to the rest of the industry.

Ever since I put a Nexus 7 tablet in my hand I have thought of my ‘new’ iPad as slightly rubbish. Any sheen of wow that I had retained until that date dissipated within seconds.

Why is it stupid heavy? Why is it really thick compared to the second generation? And why is the battery life poorer? This isn’t even evolution!

I now consider the ‘new’ iPad rather annoyingly unwieldy. I had to buy a flipping man bag for it.

Which means the new new iPad — the Mini — does have some relevance. A smaller lighter shape will play well with the consumer I think.

I also like the reality of this statement (guarantee to wind up the purists reading): Apple, having previously and highly publicly panned the 7″ form factor, has had to reverse this stance in the face of potentially damaging competition.

It’s not often you see Apple have to make such a direct change of course to a key product line eh?

Still. This is all conjecture at this point. Conjecture about conjecture? 😉