Over the past few weeks and months leading up to today’s Apple event, we have reported that Apple was considering launching tablets that would have smaller screens. Not only would this offer more choice for Apple fans, but it would also address the growing threat put forward by smaller tablets.
As strong as these rumours were, the official word from Apple headquarters was essentially no comment. Still, behind the scenes, you had to know that Apple was looking at Amazon and their Kindle Fire and saying to themselves that we need to address this device with one of their own. The rumour now is that Apple’s new “mini” tablet will have a 7.1-inch display screen. This does contradict prior rumours which seemed to indicate that the small screen iPad would have a screen size of 7.85-inches, but the latest rumour does seem to make more sense.
The reason behind this is that the 7.85-inch tablet, if correct would be only 2 inches smaller then a regular size iPad whereas a 7.1-inch device would differentiate itself even further from the traditional screen size. In addition to this, a 7.1-inch device would also be able to better address itself towards the growing ranks of small screen Android tablets such as Amazon’s Kindle Fire. If the rumours are correct, we can see the mini iPad launch in the third quarter of this year at a price somewhere between $249-$299. To put it into perspective, the Amazon Kindle retails for $199.
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