Dubai: Apple’s newly launched iPad mini will be officially available in the UAE by the end of November, said a Dubai-based authorised distributor.
“The 7.9-inch iPad mini will really do well in the UAE as it is within the reach of people who couldn’t afford the larger iPad,” Neelesh Bhatnagar, CEO of Emax, told Gulf News.
He said, the time to market has gradually been reducing between the UAE and the US “and while we don’t have an exact date from Apple yet, I’m fairly optimistic it will be here by November”.
Since it is expected to be priced at around Dh1,400, “we expect it to do good sales as it is handy and a niche product from Apple plus it looks unique and a lot of thought has gone into designing the product”, Bhatnagar said.
“There is an aspirational value that Apple has managed to derive from consumers and this was somewhat expected to continue with the new iPad Mini as well,” he added.
Despite the steep pricing when compared to other branded 7-inch tablets, the iPad mini “should do well in the UAE”, he said. There will always be grey goods imported into the country earlier, but “my advice to customers is to wait for the official launch as prices are normally very high initially but once the official launch takes place, we can expect prices to be much more closely aligned to those in other countries”, said Bhatnagar.
Being an authorised Apple distributor [Emax], he said: “We refrain from selling Apple products in the grey market.”
The demand for iPad mini in the grey market is very unlikely to be a success because of the short gap between the official launch in the US and the UAE.
“Even the iPhone 5 launched two months ago in the grey market is not doing brisk business. People are ready to wait for the official launch as it has a warranty plus the support from an authorised distributor,” Bhatnagar said.
