Apple’s Oktoberfest is over and the hangover is starting to set it. Apple really did raise the bar with the new iPad Air, it’s insanely thin and light, yet it costs no more than its predecessor. It’s hard to find anything to complain about.

However, comment sections on most Mac news sites are ablaze with furious fanboys who were hoping for an iPad mini on the cheap – and for once they are right.

The new iPad mini is ridiculously expensive and the fact that just $100 more will get you a proper iPad Air doesn’t bode well for it, either. To be honest, it does feature practically the same spec as the Air, while the original mini was basically a smaller iPad 2.

However, $399 for the basic 16GB model and up to $829 for the 128GB 4G version seems to be too much for most fans. It will still sell well, there’s no doubt about that, but then again it just won’t have the same mass market appeal of last year’s $329 iPad mini.

What’s more, people who were expecting to get the old iPad mini with a hefty discount are just as disappointed. Paying $299 for the old iPad mini doesn’t sound like a very good deal to say the least, especially not when it was widely expected to launch at $299 last year, since it featured outdated components at launch.

However, it’s still better than paying $399 for an iPad 2, which wouldn’t even be funny – it would be disturbing. In some jurisdictions people could even be adjudicated mentally ill for getting one. (In Farellistan? Ed)