Section 1. Product Information

Ipad Mini

1. A. What is the history of your Product? What year was the product first introduced?

The Ipad is a line of tablets made by Apple Inc. On January 27, 2010, Steve Jobs took the stage at an Apple special event to give what was one of the most important keynotes of his life and, once again, in the history of consumer electronics. The Mac had been introduced decades before, the iPhone only a few years, yet on that stage, at that event, Jobs would make the case that there was room for a new category of device in between the two. A new category of device that, in order to exist, had to be not only better at certain key tasks, but significantly better at them. It had to be the iPad.

IPad is the most advanced technology and revolutionary device at an unbelievable price. IPad creates and defines an entirely new category of devices that will connect users with their apps and content in a much more intimate, intuitive and fun way than ever before.

The iPad project began at Apple even before the iPhone, but at some point the phone became a more important goal for 2007. The iPad was put on the shelf, and the iPhone shipped, changing the phone industry forever. By 2010, however, Apple was ready to launch their new tablet.

Importantly, the iPad included Apple's first branded processor, the Apple A4. It combined an 800MHz ARM Cortex A8 and a Power SGX535 graphics processor, along with a rather anemic 256MB of RAM. The original iPad came with 16, 32, and 64GB storage options, and a 25 watt hour that let it run for an impressive 10 hours. Like all iOS and iPod devices of its time, the original iPad could connect to a Mac or Windows PC, and charge, via the traditional 30-pin Dock connector.

1. B. Has your product changed over the years? List changes or major improvements. The first IPad was released on April 3, 2010. There have been five versions of the Ipad. The first generation had 9.7 inch screen size.

The iPad 2 added a dual core Apple A5 processor and VGA front-facing and 720p rear-facing cameras designed for FaceTime video calling.

The third generation added a Retina Display, the new Apple A5X processor with a quad-core graphics processor, a 5-megapixel camera, HD 1080p video recording, voice dictation, and 4G (LTE).

The fourth generation added the Apple A6X processor and replaces the 30-pin connector with an all-digital Lightning connector.

The iPad Air added the Apple A7 processor, the Apple M7 motion coprocessor and reduced the thickness for the first time since the iPad 2. iOS 6.0 added Siri to the third and fourth generations and the iPad Mini.

The first generation Ipad Mini was announced on October 23, 2012. Then it was released November 2, 2012.

1. C. Is your product a top brand name? Is the product ranked or recognized in any “ranking” or received any awards or endorsements?
In 2013 the IPad tablet received the Tablet Brand of the Year Award.

1. D. What is the brand’s market share?

2. What is the average retail price of your product?

When you are going to purchase the lastest version the iPad Mini which is the iPad Mini 3, they have different price ranges due to storage size as well as if the ipad is Wifi or Wifi and Cellular Connectivity.
Ipad Mini 3 16GB
$399.00 with only WIFI
$529.00 with WIFI and Cellular

Ipad Mini 3 64GB
$499.00 with only WIFI
$629.00 with WIFI and Cellular

Ipad Mini 3 128GB
$599.00 with only WIFI
$729.00 with WIFI and Cellular

3. A. Describe your product’s target market.
Apple’s Ipad target market are:
TEENAGERS

Teenagers are considered one of Apple Inc.'s target markets. Teenagers use iPods for many reasons. Some of these reasons are to socialize with friends, listen to music and go on Facebook, MSN, twitter etc. There are also many gaming apps that appeal to them. IPods have become quite a trend with teenagers.

COLLEGE AND UNIVERSITY STUDENTS:

College and university students are also targeted by Apple Inc. These students use Apple Inc. products such as iPad's, MacBook's, iPhone's etc to quickly record notes. These notes are kept organized in their devices. Also these products are light which makes carrying devices to and from school much easier.

BUSINESS PEOPLE :

Business people are very intrigued by Apple products. All Apple devices have a business quality that is very useful. These devices are used to finish work efficiently and to communicate with clients easily. In addition, sending documents is easy and organized.

YOUNG CHILDREN AND KIDS:

Apple products are also useful to young children and kids. The reason for this is that devices such as iPods and iPads are easy to use due to their touch screen quality which is good for children. Parents can download learning game apps on Apple devices to teach young children and kids.

ADULTS:

Adults are also one of Apple Inc.'s target markets. IPhone’s are useful to adults for their everyday needs such as phone calls, map directions, internet connection, documents and cameras. Carrying these small devices makes adults lives much easier for communicating daily.

3. B. What CONSUMER sales promotions does your company use to promote your product to its consumer target market? Consumer Promos are incentives for the ultimate consumer.
Apple is not known for doing promotional gimmicks for customers like coupons, 2 for 1 sale, buy 1 get 1 free, rebates, etc. I do believe is to not lose the statues that the apple company holds. They want to be able to sell their product at a higher price and not have to worry about consumers waiting for products to go on sale in order to buy it.
3. C. Where does your company promote & advertise to reach the target market?
Apple works very hard on promotional activities. The apple logo has become one of the most recognizable symbols worldwide. The Apple Company uses two primary methods of promotional strategies towards the consumer.
The first promotional tool it uses is advertising. Investing in large amount of advertisements that can be found in television, networks, and magazines and all over the internet.
The second promotional tool that Apple uses is personal selling. The Apple Stores are home to many young and knowledgeable sales representatives who are trained thoroughly in both product information and customer service. With every new technology that comes out, all sales representatives are expected to pick up with the new information.
Today, the use of advertising has proven to be a strong aid in maintaining sales and popularity among consumers.

3. D. Is your product involved in sponsorship, events, sponsor teams, cause marketing?
Apple Inc. does not really advertise much. In my opinion their logo is so recognizable. Companies are willing to give them free advertisement just so they can attract customers. To not carry Apple product would be such a bad business decision.

4. Of what is your product made?
The iPad mini is an all anodized aluminum design, like the iPhone 5. The Google Nexus 7 is made of plastic, while the Kindle Fire HD has a rubberized back that is quite nice to grab. Like the iPhone too, it comes in black and white.
It's quite light and thin. It's comparable to a pad of paper, like Apple says: just 0.68 pounds and 7.2 millimeters thin. That's 53% lighter than the fourth-generation iPad. It compares very favorably to the Nexus 7 (0.75 pounds and 10.4 millimeters).

5.A. Describe your product’s style and design.
IPad mini was designed to be a concentration, rather than a reduction, of iPad. It’s small. But when you use it, it doesn’t feel small. In addition to the Retina display, we packed in a tremendous amount of power and capability. And yet iPad mini remains the perfect mini size. That’s because we engineered its components to be as thin and light as possible. It feels like an iPad in every way — only it’s mini.

Pad mini is amazing to hold. And behold. Every photo is incredibly detailed and vibrant, and every line of text is remarkably crisp and clear. With higher resolution than an HDTV, the gorgeous Retina display is a feast for the eyes.

To make the Retina display in iPad mini incredibly sharp and vivid, we had to find a way to pack every one of the 3.1 million pixels from the 9.7-inch iPad into a 7.9-inch display. Every pixel in a display has multiple signals telling it when to light up. And with a 2048-by-1536-resolution display, more pixels and more signals are placed closer together on the same plane, so signals can get crossed and image quality can suffer. To make sure everything on iPad mini looks crystal clear, Apple engineers elevated the pixels onto a different plane separating them from the signals. In the end, the pixel density jumped to 326 pixels per inch so dense the human eye can’t distinguish individual pixels making everything look incredibly detailed, vibrant, and razor sharp.

Something that performs this beautifully deserves an equally beautiful finish. IPad mini comes in silver, space gray, and for the first time, gold.

5. B. Describe your product’s packaging.

Apple it’s also known for having clean sleek packaging. All products come in sleek white cases. In my opinion the packaging designs is very elegant and sophisticated. There are no gimmicks with the packaging. For me the simple design just stands out more to be. It is solely concentrated on the product.

5. C. Does your product have a recognizable, well-known logo?
The Apple Inc. logo is known worldwide. Apple’s first logo was designed by Ron Wayne which was Sir Isaac Newton sitting under an apple tree.

But it was almost immediate replaced by Rob Janoff’s Rainbow Apple. This is still known by a lot of people.

In August 27, 1999, Apple officially drops the rainbow scheme and began the monochromatic themes that are known today.

6. Does your product come with a warranty or guarantee?

Apple does offer warranties for their products. When you purpose an item, you may choose to buy insurance for it which extents your warranty. For those customers that do not get insurance, they still get one year warranty. Of course they have policies and limitations which apply.

7. List an abundant amount of features of your product and next to each feature state the benefit of the feature- in table format.