Apple Vs. Amazon: Don't Call It a Price War

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Investors annoy me (not you, but other ones).

After Apple (YHOO) rolled out new products, most notably the 13-inch Macbook Pro with Retina Display and new iPad mini, its stock dove (again), testing recent lows and settling around $615 during Tuesday's after-hours session.

I went on CNBC a couple of weeks ago and predicted exactly how Apple would approach iPad mini.

Apple did not give us a cheap knockoff; instead, it introduced a premium-priced smaller version of the iPad that outclasses everything in the same ...

But wait, they're not even in the same category.

Not Google's (GOOG) Nexus 7 or Amazon.com's (AMZN) Kindle Fire tablet.

In the video, Mashable's Lance Ulanoff rolled with assumptions that he -- and his sympathizers -- will probably still claim true today.

Primarily, the "sweet spot" for a 7-inch, budget tablet is the $199 price point. And Apple will lose if it prices iPad mini higher.

There's not a nicer way to say it -- that's crap.

I was off by $20. While I anticipated a $349 iPad mini, Apple enters the market with the 16GB WiFi model at $329, followed by 32 and 64GB WiFi versions at $429 and $529, respectively.

It did not sell itself out and blindly join the $199 hackfest. It produced an entirely different product, particularly from quality of construction and design standpoints.

As Apple's near-comical side-by-side comparison with the Nexus 7 shows, that tablet was thrown together with plastic and scant attention to detail.

Google made a lame attempt to compete.

And, because Jeff Bezos has a clue, Amazon set foot in the space only to further its e-commerce ecosystem. Nothing less, nothing more. Kindle Fire is little more than an Amazon credit card that just so happens to do a serviceable job playing music, streaming video and running apps.

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