Apple quietly pulls original iPad mini from web site and Apple Store
Last week, above. Today, below.
The original iPad mini has quietly disappeared from Apple’s web site, and is no longer available to purchase new from the Apple Store. Introduced in October 2012, the first iPad mini established the industrial design that was subsequently used in the iPad mini 2 and iPad mini 3, as well as the larger but otherwise nearly identical iPad Air and iPad Air 2. Apple notably continued to sell the 16GB iPad mini as an entry-level model alongside two of its sequels, dropping its price to $299 in October 2013, then $249 in October 2014. In recent months, falling street prices for other models made the classic mini a tougher sell.
Apple’s discontinuation of the iPad mini leaves the remaining iPads as a completely 64-bit family, all using either A7 or A8X processors rather than the iPad mini’s aging A5. It also means that all remaining iPads have Retina displays and unified Wi-Fi + Cellular models. Refurbished iPad minis continue to be available from the Apple Store, and start at $209; new iPad minis will continue to be available at third-party resellers such as Amazon until they run out of stock.
Per 9to5Toys, Groupon currently has original iPads for $180 ‘New’ and Walmart offers them at a $50 discount over yesterday’s price. Meanwhile Best Buy’s CowBoom has used models for $115.
