• Apple has released the iPad Mini Gen 7, which breaks away from past hardware precedents and homogenizes in pursuit of Apple Intelligence.
• Apple’s efforts to democratize AI among its device offerings blur the gap in its low-cost iPad offerings.
• Sustained AI popularity is expected to transform existing offerings from tablet brands.

Apple introduced the iPad Mini Gen 7 in October this year, marking its first update in three years since the release of the iPad Mini Gen 6 in 2021 – which has seen shipment share of Apple’s overall tablet portfolio decline from its peak in 2022 to low single digits in Q3 2024, according to Counterpoint’s Q3 2024 Global Tablet Market Tracker. While the new model maintains a design language similar to its predecessor, it features upgrades to support Apple’s AI features. The most notable improvements include an enhanced SoC, and increased storage capacity and RAM, aligning with Apple’s push for Apple Intelligence on smartphones and across all its device offerings. These improvements, however, have produced unintended challenges for Apple’s lower-priced iPad lineup, with future iterations facing increasing difficulties in standing out on their own.

Source: Counterpoint Research

Apple’s iPad Mini Gen 7 breaks tradition
While meeting the minimum hardware requirements of 8GB of RAM and the A17 Pro chip necessary to support GenAI features, the Mini Gen 7 has broken away from the precedent of incorporating the same SoC as the iPhone Pro series released in the same year. In this case, the A17 Pro of the previous year has been favored over this year’s A18 Pro from the iPhone 16 Pro series.

This departure represents a strategic compromise from Apple, likely attributed to two scenarios – (1) Lack of A18 Pro inventory to support both the iPhone 16 Pro series and iPad Mini. (2) Apple’s need to focus on improving other hardware aspects while retaining the original base price of $499.
Although this upward diffusion of hardware standards brought about by AI is always a welcome change to the end user, it presents greater challenges for Apple’s positioning of its iPads of a similar caliber. Despite the iPad Mini still retaining its appeal as the most compact iPad, its superiority in performance over basic iPads has narrowed.

Democratization of Apple Intelligence and the iPad dilemma
As Apple continues to democratize AI features across all its devices, therein lies a dilemma. AI’s baseline hardware requirements have had the unintended consequence of blurring the lines dividing previously distinct model variations such as the iPad Minis and base model iPads. First rumored to release alongside the Mini, the base model iPad was pushed to a further release date, as in the case of the base model receiving Apple Intelligence would likely make the two models indistinguishable in terms of hardware, save for display size. This would split consumers and increase the risk of cannibalizing demand for one over the other. With the release of the iPad 11th Gen now expected in H1 2025, Apple is left with a choice – support AI on the new base model iPad, relegating the Mini as a gambit, or adopt lower specs for the base iPad and remove AI access from Apple’s largest tablet volume mover. Meanwhile, rumours of a foldable iPhone set to debut in 2026 with a 10-inch tablet-sized display when unfolded raise further questions about the future of Apple’s Mini and Base iPads.

Greater implications for tablet market as a whole
Apple’s dilemma is not an isolated incident as other brands have experienced similar circumstances. If some have reworked their offerings, others have even outrightly removed models due to narrowing gaps in model positioning and hardware specs. One prominent example of the latter category is Samsung’s decision to remove its base model from the recently released Galaxy Tab S10 series, reducing the number of models in the series from three to two. As the pursuit of AI continues to persist and specs standardize upwards, we can expect to see evolving paradigm shifts in how brands approach their product portfolios in the near future.