Is the iPad Mini 2 better than the iPad Air?

Apple have not been known to be a company that offers users an array of choices, going by the motto: “What we offer is better than what anyone else offers because we’re Apple”. So when the iPad Mini 2 and iPad Air were announced simultaneously on October 22, it begged the question as to why Apple would release two different products with literally the same hardware – save for the screen size – and at a 100 USD price difference.
See, the iPad Air is called exactly so because it is lighter and smaller in overall, than its predecessor. The iPad Mini 2 is even smaller, lighter, thus giving users the inevitable choice that Apple lacked or perhaps did not want to give.
In a perfect Apple world (the one under Steve Jobs), the Mini would have never happened. Much less the Mini 2 because Apple would have never bucked to the trend of creating a product in which they need to cut down on profit margins, as was the case with the initial Mini. Adding to that, it was a product they released based on the warm reception a rival company had produced: the Nexus 7.
Actually, the term rival company could also be disputed according to the Apple philosophy as the Cupertino giant has always marched to its own beat. Just take the original iPhone, iPad and even the new iPhone 5S for example. The iPhone 5S has a small screen in comparison to today’s flagships and a fingerprint scanner: something that has not proven very successful with the Motorola Atrix in the past but this is Apple we are talking about and when they talk, people (well, mostly their fans) listen.
But now, in the current Apple reality, they have forced themselves to compete with the Nexus 7, the Kindle Fire and a plethora of small Android tablets. The second quarter results also show what Apple feared: Android overtook Apple’s iPad and iPad Mini in the tablet market share according to ABI Research. Even though the iPad and iPad Mini were the most popular tablets in the market, and will continue to be for the foreseeable future.
The main issue with the iPad 4 was its size and heft and the iPad Mini simply looked inferior specs-wise against the Nexus 7 while expectedly costing more. Apple again, improved on that with the iPad Mini with Retina display while rightfully increasing its price to 400 USD for the base unit.
But herein lies a problem for Apple as well. Many fear the iPad Air could also suffer from self-cannibalisation from the iPad Mini 2. The Mini 2 almost automatically seems like the better choice than the iPad Air, being cheaper, lighter and smaller.The Air’s only saving grace is the 1.8 inch bigger screen with the same resolution (unfortunately also meaning lower pixel density). One thing is for sure, Tim Cook’s Apple is philosophically different from the one led by Steve Jobs.