Snippet: iPad mini Pulled From Apple Store ☇

Jeremy Horwitz for 9to5Mac:

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.

Although the A5 processor lives on with the Apple TV and the iPod touch, it sort of makes sense that there’s now one less iPad mini to choose from. For $50 more, you could have a 64-bit device with a Retina Display. I even know of a few people who are looking to get rid of their original minis, due to poor performance, yet it was still being sold as a new product.