Without much fanfare, Apple has discontinued the Original iPad Mini; the device can no longer be found on the company’s official website and is no longer available on Apple’s online store.
Apple discontinues the Original iPad Mini
Apple introduced the original iPad Mini around late 2012 which seems to go against the company’s previous claims that smaller tablets were useless. Analysts went even further to predict a 7.9-inch tablet would eat into the market share of the 9.7-inch Original iPad (they were right); which has also been discontinued.
At one point the tablet was the most popular iPad accounting for around 60 percent of the company’s shipment, but this figure has dropped to around 17 percent this year. The 7.9-inch iPad Mini had a 1024 x 768 resolution on an IPS LCD panel, a low pixel density of 162 ppi, powered by the Apple A5 chipset, 5MP rear camera, front 1.2MP camera and 512MB of RAM.
Those looking for the lowest iPad Mini can now turn their their attention to the 16GB Wi-Fi model of the iPad Mini 2 which starts for $209. New iPad Minis wouldn’t be available from Apple but the company would continue to see refurbished starting at $209 and new ones could be found on third-party resellers such as Amazon until stock lasts.
With the iPad Mini out of the way, Apple is left with the iPad Mini 2, iPad Mini 3, iPad Air and iPad Air 2. All four have at least a 64-bit Apple designed processors (either the Apple A7 or A8X processors), high resolution Retina displays and unified Wi-Fi plus Cellular models.
Lets not forget those who have the iPad Mini would also take advantage of the already announced iOS 9 which should be the last for them.
Source: 9to5mac.com
iPads are very overrated; it is long overdue.