So Apple has a smaller iPad. The price is $329. This is what was predicted and this turned out to be the price. The question is why offer a product that is fairly close in price to the full size iPad and substantially different from other devices that offer a small form factor (the Nexus 7). I happen to like the Nexus 7 and see it as a quality device at a cost of $200.
Apple’s Phil Schiller offers an explanation.
This should be the Apple mantra say in the spirit of “do no evil”:
a premium product worth paying for