Comment by tommica

I usually like to buy these 1-2 years old off Craigslist / Marketplace and that's been a sweet spot for price and quality.

Apple has always been about premium price and quality but I agree that it's not for everyone and their needs.

What’s with the sour grapes? I can’t afford a Pagani. Doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate the engineering.

The iPad lineup starts at $350, and that's brand new, look used or refurbished and it becomes even cheaper. If that's too much for you, you'll be pressed to afford any computer.

True, but they last long enough that you can get them second hand, whereas used products from other vendors tend to be junk not worth spending money on even at a cheaper price point.

There is a definite lack of worthy competitors to the iPad Mini in the market. Most other tablets are 10" or larger. The only other contemporary tablets I've found in that size have had very low-end specs in comparison.

Apple products are not commodity, because there is very little fungibility due to network effects.

Maybe their hardware is commodity (arguable), but the product + integrations are not.

It's ok, lotsa people have the money for it.

They are hardly commodities. The build quality and lifetime of iPads is incredible compared to any other tablet I’ve ever used (typing this on a six year old iPad Pro that’s still going strong).

Its commodity you can buy from dozens of other vendors for much cheaper price.

Many of these devices aren’t actually fungible commodities though.I tried to buy a phone in the $200 range and Android phones were so much worse than used iPhones. I they would drop calls and freeze on the dial pad during long calls where I was on hold. Tried two different models and had the same issues. I could have tried a used $200 Android but I was not wanting to try for a third Android. All I wanted/needed was to make important calls.

So I guess I don’t see them as commodities which implies fungibility.