I broke down and bought an iPad Mini for Christmas!

Oh, not for me, instead it’s for my eight (soon to be nine) year old daughter!

As a frugal personal finance blogger that works in technology field, how could I justify the $129 increase in the price of a product that might be considered inferior to the Google Nexus 7?  After all, the Google Nexus 7 only cost $199 and is a very beefy, fast system?

An my answer is… I can’t.  From a personal finance perspective, the Google Nexus 7 is the more logical smart device to purchase.  Shoot, if I were to buy a 7 inch tablet for myself for Christmas, the Google Nexus 7 is what I would buy.  The Apple iPad mini is actually 7.9 inches, but that alone doesn’t warrant the 129 dollar price increase.

So again, why in the world would I buy an iPad mini for Christmas to give to my daughter?

The Apple culture and experience!

 

Yep, I’m buying my daughter the iPad mini, because all of the cool kids (and many adults) love Apple iPad minis (or really any Apple product).  I guess it’s the same reason that I bought my son an iPod touch.  In fact, he had such a great experience with his iPod touch that it was a no brainer to buy my daughter the iPad mini.

Vanity?  Yes to a certain extent, but much, much more too.

Why not buy my daughter an iPod Touch instead, after all I bought one for my son?

Because I can get an iPad mini for just $29 more.  Oh sure, the version I’m buying only has a storage capacity of 16G, but the rest of the system is decent enough!  Quite honestly, I’m getting the iPad mini for Christmas instead of the iPod touch because it’s a better experience…

Another big reason that I’m buying the iPad mini for Christmas is because of bragging right and for nostalgic reasons.  I want both of my kids to look back some day with fond memories 10 or 20 years down the road when the next big thing has replaced Apple from being the dominate smart device supplier that it is today.  There are thing in life that if you miss out on by not having such things in an earlier time period, you may never have.  Since I want my kids to be future digerati, I want to give them the best exposure to technology.

As for me, I’ve missed the Apple boat a long time ago.  I’m an Android guy and that’s a win too!

While we went with an iPad mini, there are definitely other choices that are worth consideration!  Look around and compare!

Happy Holidays,

Don