Now that iPhone 5 has been officially launched by Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) and its rumors have ended, it seems that the rumor world has shifted its focus towards the next hyped device – the iPad Mini. According to the Guardian, the iPad Mini may come with a WiFi only model.
The Guardian’s unnamed sources have reported that there would be a revised version of its larger iPad that would come with the Lightning dock connector, and it will run on the 4G LTE network run by U.K. Everything Everywhere.
Australian writer Sonny Dickson has tweeted this image, where he depicts the iPad Mini with Lightning I/O.
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s iPad Mini is reportedly going to be revealed at an event next week. Invitations for this event to the media could be out some time during next few days.
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s iPad Mini is its smaller and affordable version of the iPad, and it’s set to compete with tablets, such as Google’s Nexus 7 and Amazon’s Kindle Fire HD.
It seems that Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is applying this trick to keep the costs down. The company could be re-using some of the components of the iPad 2, and may skip on some features like the cellular networking.
Both Google and Amazon have omitted a 3G or 4G connection from their smaller tablets, and it won’t be a surprise if iPad Mini does not come with cellular networking. This is done mainly to keep the costs down, and to make this tablet more affordable. But, a question that comes to our mind, is can Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) really keep the costs down of iPad Mini and can it compete with Nexus 7 or the Kindle Fire HD? Apple is never known to manufacture affordable products, and the iPod touch 5th generation costs $299. Where would this take the price of iPad Mini?
We will have to wait till next week to get our questions answered by Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL). We’ll keep you informed about any information on Apple’s media event next week.