The rumours are thick about an iPad Mini. Apple may come out soon with the news of a cheaper and smaller iPad within the next six months. Is Apple finally going to sell a smaller iPad? Two different sources have been cited by Bloomberg to hint that Apple is planning to present an iPad with a seven-inch screen diagonally but it will not have a retina display.
This move will be inspired by competition in the tablet market from Google Inc. and Microsoft Corporation. Both these rivals are busy preparing hand-held devices to heat up the competition. For Apple, the result of going small and with a non-retina display will be to get the price lower to a level that will be competitive. Apple is planning it somewhere in the range of two hundred dollars.
A low priced version of the iPad will challenge rivals like Google, Microsoft and Amazon in Apple’s attempt to gain a stronghold in the emerging tablet market. The competitors are likely to go through nightmares once this is announced by Apple. They are all waiting for Apple to make the move. The pricing is likely to trouble Google’s Nexus 7 and Amazon’s Kindle Fire.
The strongest motivation that Apple may have for going after the seven-inch screen category will be to slow down the momentum gained by Google with its Nexus 7 tablet and Microsoft’s new Surface tablet. Amazon’s Kindle Fire has not been able to grab much ground with its sales despite its smaller size. It is very much possible that Apple is taking both the Surface and the Nexus 7 as a serious threat.