iPad Mini 7: Apple’s Little Secret
How new hardware was overtaken by AI hype
Apple unveiled the new iPad Mini 7 on 15 October, by press release. A niche product at the best of times, the story of the iPad Mini 7 is Apple’s story written in miniature: gorgeous hardware that has become so mainstream it is struggling to gain attention. Apple’s response? Reposition the iPad Mini as a device that was ‘built for Apple Intelligence’. I want to argue that the iPad Mini is a synecdoche for much of Apple’s product line: it’s a bit long in the tooth and more effective as a vehicle to get consumers to pay for services than devices in their own right. Over a decade after its first launch, the iPad Mini, much like Apple, is having an identity crisis.
With over one thousand days elapsing between now and the release of the iPad Mini 6, one cannot argue that the iPad Mini is key part of Apple’s hardware line up. It has its dedicated followers, but its updates are few and far between and high-end hardware features are limited to Apple’s Pro iPad models. The iPad Mini is about filling a gap in a product matrix and bringing more users into the Apple ecosystem. Many of us love the form factor, but one perhaps shouldn’t expect massive updates to a device with this sort of audience.
Nevertheless, the updates to the iPad Mini 7 are surprisingly slight. Here are the…
