If you're shopping for an iPad, you can shell out $329 to get the iPad Mini -- the least expensive iPad ever produced. Or you can go online and get a first-generation iPad. You'll get a bulky device with no cameras, an old operating system, and a slower main processor. But you'll save about $100 and end up with a nice big screen.
The iPad mini starts shipping today, but it turns out that a lot of people -- and businesses -- are happy to pay less to get the original iPad. According to a study prepared at Wired's request, used versions of the first iPad are still selling pretty well in online marketplaces.
"We are shocked at how well the iPad has held its value thus far," says Nicholas Fiorentino, CEO of Totem, a San Diego company that resells mobile devices to business users. His company is still doing a brisk original iPad business. "There are a lot of people who don't need all the bells and whistles that the iPad 2 and iPad 3 have," he says.
Corporate users have often written custom software for the large-screened iPads, and that makes the iPad mini a non-starter for many in the corporate world, Fiorentino says. "A lot of them don't need a front-facing camera or a Retina Display," he says of his iPad 1 buyers. "All of them just need a mobile screen."
Though the iPad is marketed to consumers, it's also taking the corporate world by storm. Almost all of the Fortune 500 is testing or deploying the iPad, Apple CEO Tim Cook said during the company's quarterly earnings call last week.
A first-generation Wi-Fi-only iPad with 16 gigabytes of memory typically sells for an average price of $236 in used marketplaces, says Frank Muscarello, CEO of refurbished hardware marketplace Markitx, who did the analysis of his own company's data and also looked at publicly available data from eBay.
That device sold for $499 back in April 2010, which means that it's retained nearly half of its value since it was introduced. Compare that to a Lenovo T410 ThinkPad, which also came on the market in early 2010. The ThinkPad goes for about $300 on eBay these days, Muscarello says, less than a quarter of the $1,270 it once commanded.
Apple's slick marketing efforts have helped the iPad keep its shine, but the data also illustrates the declining fortunes of the laptop, which is being edged out somewhat by Apple's tablet. "It's almost like the iPad is replacing the laptop," says Muscarello.
Things aren't looking great for PCs these days, but the laptop isn't exactly going away. Market researcher NPD DisplaySearch predicts that notebook sales will nearly double between 2012 and 2016 -- going from 208 million units this year to 393 million in 2016. But four years from now, companies like Apple will finally start selling more tablets than PCs. Tablet sales will hit 121 million units this year, and jump to 416 million four years from now, NPD estimates.
What the original iPad will sell for then is anyone's guess. Markitx says the original iPad is dropping by about $3 to $5 per month. Judging from that rate, the price will drop to around $50.
We bet that even four years from now, somebody will still consider that a deal.
Christina Bonnington contributed to this story.
