@TheLostSwede is the A14 bionic chip slower than the A15 bionic chip? and if so, then why is the mini with the A15 chip still cheaper than this...
This should answer your question in relation to the performance. In short, it is quite a bit better.
The Apple A15 SoC Performance Review: Faster & More Efficient (anandtech.com)
It is hard to tell why the difference in price. The 2 products were launched at very different times, so the timing may have contributed to a lower cost and thus, price. We also don't know the BOM for each these devices. I believe if Apple chooses to launch this iPad Mini now, it is possible that it may cost more or about the same as this new base iPad model. In fact, I believe also increase the price of the newer iPad Mini over the 5th generation, though not as aggressively.
They will charge what the market is willing to pay.
When the market is supply constrained, the natural direction of pricing will be to go up.
To their credit, Apple rarely makes mid-cycle pricing changes. My iPad mini (6th generation) is still priced (at least here in the USA) the same when it launched in September 2021. Apple's usual behavior is to introduce price changes with new product announcements.
The PC graphics card market is far more cutthroat. Most of them took price increases at the beginning of 2022 on existing product SKUs. And the GPU chip makers didn't tell retailers to control their pricing. It turned into a free-for-all and scalpers used bots to vacuum up all inventory.
Apple doesn't let that happen. You don't need to spend $3000 on a new iPhone from Dodgy PhoneMart at fleeceBay.com.
Both AMD and NVIDIA are willing to let the GPU marketplace devolve into a lawless moshpit. And most tellingly, consumer GPU customers jump into that moshpit. They are willing to pay usuriously inflated retailer prices over MSRP and even more outrageous sums to scalpers. That sends a crystal clear message to AMD and NVIDIA that they are likely to do it again.
For Apple, I feel the first line don't apply. Basically they charge whatever is required to maintain their margin. People will generally buy it regardless of the price increase because they may be locked in the ecosystem and find it hard to get out of iOS. This is also a reason why their iPhone demand have been declining because they price what they want, and as a result, people don't upgrade as fast even though they continue to use an iPhone. In this case, the upgraded base iPad model is actually very costly when you figure that there are very attractive Android based tablets that offers decent performance and better screen (higher refresh rate).
I do agree that Apple products tend to maintain their value significantly better than its competitors because they don't officially offer discount on their products at any point in time. For example, I recently traded in my iPhone 12 Pro Max at about the same price as when I got it with a contract 1.5 years ago.
