Sounds counter-intuitive to those of us who fell in love with retina displays and had been aching for retina in the mini since its introduction, but it makes sense that regular folks just look at the £250 price tag of the original mini and snap it up. It demonstrates that there's still a ton of demand for an iPad–any iPad–under $300, despite the massive competition from higher-specified Android tablets well below the price.

Any analysis of Apple's long-term tablet market share prospects that doesn't take the whole platform into account isn't worth paying attention to.

Sales of the non-Retina iPad mini may have nearly matched those of its higher-resolution sibling over the holidays as consumers chose the more diminutive tablet in equal proportions to Apple's full-size slates, according to a Friday report.