There are already many rumors floating around claiming that Apple is working on a smaller iPad with 8-inch display. If that was enough, then now The New York Times has also confirmed from their confidential sources that the company is working on 7.85-inch iPad which will be significantly cheaper than the existing iPad 3 and this new iPad will be launched later this year.
The tablet market is very crowded by various Android tablets that are striving to cover the ground. But we also have iPad’s competitors from Amazon, Google and Microsoft. As we know that Google has launched their really affordable tablet – the Nexus 7 priced at $199 which comes with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, from Amazon’s camp we have the Kindle Fire and they are also working on a new version of Kindle Fire with a larger display and lastly, from Microsoft’s camp we have the Surface but the company has still not revealed its price nor availability details.
This smaller iPad can be named as iPad Mini. If all the rumors are true and there is really such a device that Apple launches at an affordable price, or at least $200-$300 less than the third generation of iPad, then Apple will hit the sweet pricing spot. This new device can then directly compete with $199 tablets like Amazon’s Kindle Fire and Google’s Nexus 7. Also Apple has got an added advantage of wide variety of apps (read 225,000) in their App Store which no other App store has even come closer.
Strangely, Steve Jobs made a comment on 7-inch tablets that the size “isn’t sufficient to create great tablet apps”. It seems the company has made a U turn from what was said earlier. But we must also note that that the screen size of this tablet is 7.85-inch which is closer to 8-inch, which means it offers 66% of screen area of existing 9.7-inch iPad vs. 45% if it were 7-inch.
There are no rumors or news whether iPad Mini will come with Retina display or not. We’re also not aware of the processor that Apple will be using in this small tablet. Now only the official announcement could clear out the air.
