Amazon Kindle Fire HD

Many Apple fans were shocked by the $329 iPad mini price tag. Mostly because analysts predicted Apple would price the new tablet around $250 to $300 in order to compete with the Amazon Kindle Fire HD and Google Nexus 7. Phil Schiller defended the $329 price claiming shoppers will pay a little more for quality.

"The iPad is far and away the most successful product in its category. The most affordable product we've made so far was $399 and people were choosing that over those devices," Schiller told Reuters

But why did Apple really price the iPad mini higher than all the other 7-inch Android tablets on the market? According to the DigiTimes, the markup had nothing to do with "quality", but had to do with problems manufacturing the touch screen.

First time tablet buyers who are wondering if it's worth spending $329 to $659 on Apple's first 7.9-inch iPad, will probably want to consider why they want a tablet in the first place. Amazon kicked off the 7-inch tablet craze by introducing the Kindle Fire in 2011. The Kindle Fire didn't "kill" the iPad as some had predicted, but its decent sales did prove there was a market for smaller affordable devices. Google deciding to launch the $200 Nexus 7 earlier this year is what many believed led Apple to launch the iPad mini. It was widely believed Apple would crush the competition by pricing its own 7-inch iPad to compete with both the newly released Kindle Fire HD and Nexus 7, however its steeper $329 price tag and disappointing screen resolution have left some people scratching their heads. But what tablet is the better buy?

The Kindle Fire and Nexus 7 are glorified eReaders, and I don't mean that as an insult. The tablets are sold at cost to push more content through Google Play and Amazon's App Store. The Kindle Fire and Nexus 7 are geared towards people who want to watch movies or read books on the go, not tech addicts or users looking for a complete tablet experience. Buyers on a budget who are shopping for their first tablet may want to consider sticking with the more affordably priced Android tablets. Buyers who were hoping to get the full Apple experience for a more affordable price may want to consider the iPad mini, or grab an iPad 2 before they disappear. If size is your concern, and not dollars, then the iPad mini is a great choice.