Component Prices/Retail Prices: iPad Mini, Surface, and Kindle

Apple sold three (3) million iPads in three days. (Apple did not provide separate iPad and iPad mini numbers.)

This was double the first weekend sales of 1.5 million for Wi-Fi only models for the third generation iPad sold in March, Apple said on Monday.

"Demand for iPad mini exceeded the initial supply and while many of the pre-orders have been shipped to customers, some are scheduled to be shipped later this month," Apple said.

"We're working hard to build more quickly to meet the incredible demand," CEO Tim Cook said in a statement.

(When I arrived at the Apple store on Boylston Street in Boston last Friday, 43 minutes after their early opening, they had already sold out their allotment of iPad minis for the day.)

For newbies, the iPad Mini is an Apple product; the Surface is a Microsoft product; and the Kindle is an Amazon product.

The WSJ compares the component prices of these three products (at similar memory level: 16-32-16 gigabytes for the three, respectively).

Link here to: what's in an iPad mini?

Component costs come in at:

• iPad Mini 16 GB: $188 (retail: $329)
• Surface 32 GB: $271 (retail: $599 -- wow) -- so, almost twice as much as an iPad mini?
• Kindle 16 GB: $165 (retail: $199)

Apple's battery at $13.50 is significantly cheaper than Microsoft's at $20.

Apple puts in a much better camera, $11.00 vs $5.00 cheapie for Microsoft and $2.50 for the Kindle. You get what you pay for.

The cost of memory is inconsequential ($15.50, $34, and $23, respectively). Microsoft is twice as much but the article compares Apple's 16GB wtih Microsoft's 32GB.

If anything, the biggest difference is the cost of the touchscreen, $80 for Apple and $101 for Microsoft. Interesting.

Comparing the iPad Mini and the Kindle is comparing an apple (no pun intended) and an orange.

At $599 for the surface, it's hard to complain about the $329 price point for the iPad Mini.