Death of my iPad Mini

To be sitting here in a Starbucks writing this will seem a little too cliché. At my side is my iPhone 5s and I’m typing away on my MacBook Pro. Well aware that today Apple will have its second wave of fall unveils. Focusing its attention around the iPads and Macs.

I was an early adopter of the iPad Mini with my Grandparents buying me my first (and only) nearly two years ago after its fall launch. I remember being one of those people who for the first few years had an aversion to the bigger iPad, complaining that it was simply too big and heavy for me to want to use. And for a while it rang true. My stubborn insistence that everyone should share my views. I became someone who would go on autopilot when discussion the then recent technology news.

The iPad Mini was perfect for me. It solved all my complaints.

So it should be for you. Because when you are 21yrs old and coming of age into the world arrogance can take over and consume you.

Here I am two years later.

Sitting in a Starbucks with my iPhone 5s and MacBook Pro. With no iPad Mini at my side. Wonder just when the Mini became something of an afterthought within my technology essentials. Backtracking through my mind and seeing how my “P0st-PC” life has shifted its clear to see that the very traits that made the iPad Mini so appealing to my younger self (is this what getting old feels like?) are what made it so easy to put aside.

I saw the iPad Mini as a device that could bridge the gap between my (then iPhone 4s) and MacBook Pro. As things tend to work out that ended up making the Mini all but useless at both ends of my productivity spectrum. It was too large to use as a proper mobile device and too underpowered to be used as an alternate to the MacBook.

I still believe that there is a proper method to making the Mini work in a successful workflow but to do so means investing more time than may be worth the rewards for the sake of being practical. Compulsive centralization of all my essentials into the most minimalist flow left the iPad Mini cast aside as an afterthought. More along the lines of a brief five minutes on FlipBoard compared to using it as an extension for some Adobe programs. It’s here where when I need to get work done that I always reach for the MacBook. For all the fluff of living in a Post-PC era I still find the bulk of my life revolving around the prowess of a machine that has the muscle to handle the more intensive programs that simply cannot be replicated on the iPad hardware. Then when I am done I pick up my iPhone.

The iPhone; you’ve read enough and know enough about it. Yet I still cannot get over just how fast my mobile life has shifted within two years. Perhaps even more now that I switched to T-Mobile who exempts music services like Spotify from counting against your data cap. Which means that instead of having a limited amount of storage to worry about I can have all the music I need through streaming. Its a cool perk, but one that all but broke my iPad Mini since I could always rely on it (the iPad Mini) to have all my music backed up (I had the 64GB). Long bus-rides home to State College? I’d grab the Mini. Going out to explore some old factories or scout locations? The Mini would be with me. Now, with my most recent excursions, its become the iPhone and my Nikon.

That may get to the core of my shift away from the Mini. Is that as the iPhone screens got bigger from the 3.5in of the iPhone 4(s) to the 4in of the 5(s) and even to the 4.7in iPhone 6/5.4in iPhone 6 Plus the hardware got drastically better which made me more open to using one less device. As much as the Mini is nice to use for casual use I simply cannot take it outside the house without it becoming just a rectangle.

My iPhone became the Swiss Army Knife of my mobile world where it did everything just enough to make all the stronger products circling around it become non-essentials. Look at the impact on cameras, GPS, physical keyboard phones and gaming to see just how many waves it sent off. It’s a problem even Apple seems to understand. That they are trying to stop by shifting the iPhone away from the small portable size to something that can cannibalize its own product category in the same vein of the how the iPhone killed the iPod. It’s working.

As a consumer (and occasional producer) my usage habits simply changed alongside those of everyone else as my needs fluctuated from those of years past. I responded accordingly because I had no other choice. I know that could’ve been solved on the end of the iPad Mini if I had gotten one with a data connection. But what would that achieve besides another contract I’d be locked into for a limited data usage? It isn’t and wasn’t worth it.

Now. With regards to updates may be released at Apples press event. We already know. Thanks to this nice little leak on iTunes on Wednesday, October 15th.

Notice how little has changed physically on the newest iterations of the iPads. Software and hardware internals will be tweaked. The addition of Touch ID. But otherwise nothing exactly groundbreaking or revolutionary. And these certainly won’t be targeted towards schools and other sectors that use iPads.

This is Apple being safe while shifting its attention towards other areas that show potential and growth. As it does so does my attention and my interesting in having one. Instead I’m seriously debating the upside of ditching my iPhone 5s and iPad Mini altogether and just buying an iPhone 6 Plus. It’d be one less device and one more step towards reducing the amount of clutter on my desk.