Now that the iPhone 5 launch is behind us and rumors about the iPad mini are heating up, you may wonder where the iPad mini could fit in the Apple product line up. Some people think the entry price point for the iPad mini will be 299$. Some goes even lower than that and hope for 249$ because they think Apple will try to compete against Amazon’s smaller tablets or the Nexus 7 from Google. Personally, I don’t think Apple will come out with the iPad mini just for the sake of competing against the others but because they feel that a 7” form factor is something that will actually be nice to play with and provide a great user experience.

While the iPad mini’s smaller size could make it the best consumption device (books, movies, TV shows, magazines) and maybe the best case of “less is more”, on the pricing side it should fit somewhere between the current iPad and the iPod touch. The following graphic places the iPad mini where it will undoubtedly fit in.

As you can see, the only logical pricing bracket is around 399$ for a 16GB, Wifi model at a screen resolution of 1024x768 which is the same as the iPad 2 (the mini won’t have the retina display). There is no logical way for Apple to offer an iPod touch with 64Gb of storage and a much smaller screen while at the same time offering a tablet with a much bigger screen and faster processor but with only 16Gb of ram at lower price point. Someone wrote an article that goes along the same line here. My other  assumption is that the iPad 2 will go away when the iPad mini is announced as there is no logical reason to keep a lower resolution screen. 9To5Mac ran a poll on the subject of iPad mini pricing and the result are interesting:

55% of the people taking part of the poll think the price will be below 299$ while 25% think pricing will be above 299$ leaving only 20% who think the iPad mini will cost about 280-299$. In other words, 55% of people are going to deceived by Apple with an expected 399$ entry point for the iPad mini.

So there you have it. Don’t be fool and be honest with yourself: there is nothing on the table that garantee a price of 199$, 249$ or even 299$ for the iPad mini. The iPad mini is a sure thing at a 399$ entry level price point.