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Why? Seriously - why buy the iPad mini now?

I just don't get it. The Nexus 7 and to a lesser extent, the Kindle Fire HD beat it on essentially every spec, especially price, but yet you would still rather have the iPad mini? At what price does name recognition and glamour pricing becomes the main selling point here?

I agree, the iPad mini 2 will surely correct the shortcomings present now. So if that's the case, why buy this device now? Is it because someone may be already heavily invested in the Apple walled garden they'd have to essentially throw away all their current inventory of purchased apps and iTunes music? Is that the main argument? If that is the case, throw out the window. Let's say someone has not invested any time into either ecosystem. Which device would you recommend then?

The iPad mini - or Nexus 7/Kindle Fire.

Also, the iPad mini is being advertised at the Apple store as being $329. Why is your price alert saying it is "as low as" $407?­/us­/buy­/home­/shop­_ipad­/family­/ipad­_...
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1. Specs are not everything. For example, I am a nexus 7 owner and I am fully aware the iOS facebook app is MUCH better then the android one we have (and facebook engineers know this too). The new iOS evernote app beats my current version. New stuff seems to hit the iTunes store before the Google Play store.

2. The Google Play Store has not evolved internationally at this point. iTunes is available in over 60 countries. Google Play Music allows you to buy only if you are in the USA (that is one country) So that ecosystem may be better for someone in England lets say.

3. The screen surface area IS in fact larger. This can be a feature beneficial to some. So is the option to have 64GB onboard.

So while the Nexus 7 was/is a better fit for me, I can understand why the ipad mini is better for some other users. Make sense?

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depending on the person i would recommend the Nexus 7 or the iPad Mini.

For my family the iPad . I think its still the easiest OS to use and the one least likely to confuse them or get them in trouble by installing something stupid or accidentally change their default browser or change the launcher to something custom.

For most of my friends Android. But they like to tweak and change their devices and are not scared to wipe it and start over if they screw it up.

Here is another example. my friend has started to build a Blue Ray movie collection. a lot of the movies he has bought have iTunes Digital Copy. he is looking at getting the Mini so his son can watch the movies on it while they travel this holiday season.
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You would buy it if you want a more portable device with iOS. Otherwise probably not. Since I like iOS and I travel, and I already have a ton of iOS content, I bought it. Easy decision.
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Easily answered... the App Store.
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Depends on what OS you like better. If you are an Apple person, the ipad mini is a great alternative to the much larger ipad. It is a lot more portable and comfortable to use for reading and web browsing. If you are not an apple person, then I would recommend going with the Nexus 7 or another similar tablet.

Like falleninsea and the others said, it comes down to personal preference. And honestly, as far as specs go on tablets these days, most people only care about two things, and that's reliability and speed. So what if another tablet is at a better price with better specs. The ipad mini handles great as far as speed goes and is much more reliable then most similar tablets out there. If your an apple person or even just looking into getting a solid tablet, you can't go wrong with the ipad mini.
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Yeah but, in case you missed it, Google appstore now has same number of apps as Apple store (700K):­/mobile­/google­-play­-now­-has­-7...
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I have both the Ipad Mini and the Nexus 7 and as far as I can see they are both fantastic units, although the Nexus 7 comes across to me more as a toy to play with (meaning jailbreak, games, alter, improve etc.) whereas the Ipad mini clearly comes across as a serious tool that can be used in many ways by me for music lyric prompting, automatic backing up and restoring ease, without any wires, etc. and Siri has got to be the greatest and best working voice control I have ever seen or used. The biggest factor for me is compatibility with other Apple units, it just works. This is important in music because my Ipad Mini can pair over Bluetooth and we can all be on the same music page as each other. If Nexus 7 was capable of pairing with Apple devices I think I would have purchased 2 Nexus 7's and been very happy because I also like to play with my device. Also, for teleprompting the bigger screen size on the Ipad mini is a real blessing. It is a very personal choice between the two devices, but, I truly feel that the Ipad Mini will get the serious work done better than the Nexus 7 and get it done quicker, but, that is just my opinion from my experiences with both units. To be honest I love them both.
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