This is the sad life cycle of a product. Everything begins with an advertisement, marketing, then everything ends several years later with obsolescence. According to iGeneration, the 2012 iPad mini will join the long list of products considered obsolete by Apple.
From July 31, the first iPad Mini will no longer be repaired
If you have a repair to be done on the first-generation iPad mini, it’s time to make an appointment now . As of July 31, 2020, Apple’s after-sales service will refuse any repair on the iPad mini which was released in 2012.
Apple believes that it is time to move on, it is true that 7 and a half years of Apple’s support load is already huge and it is very rare among competitors!
The iPad mini was launched in 2012 for customers who wanted a smaller screen format to make it easier to carry the tablet during vacations or business trips.
An anecdote says that the iPad mini was unthinkable under the Jobs era, for Steve a smaller screen was inconvenient for internet browsing.
It was from 2011 that Eddy Cue (the vice president of Internet services and software at Apple) managed to convince Steve Jobs by providing him with details, diagrams and a lot of explanations on the potential of such model on the market.
Finally, the success that Apple expected. After the first version, Apple continued to renew its iPad mini every year that followed. The latest model is the iPad mini 5 which has been available since March 2019.
08/01/2020 Update: As expected, Apple has updated its “vintage” product page with the addition of the 2012 iPad Mini 1.