New Delhi: Apple is expected to make its biggest product move on Tuesday since debuting the iPad two years ago. The company is highly expected to unveil the smaller version of it popular iPad tablet unofficially dubbed "iPad mini". Here's a round up of the rumours around the much-rumoured iPad mini.
1. In the case of the 'iPad Mini' (the real name is not known), tech bloggers and analysts expect a device with a screen measuring 7.85 inches on the diagonal. The device is expected by many experts to have a screen between 7 and 8 inches.
2. It would be slightly larger than the 7-inch tablets it's presumably designed to compete with, including Amazon.com's Kindle Fire and Google's Nexus 7.
3. The Kindle Fire starts at $159, and the Nexus 7 at $199. Meanwhile, Apple sells the iPad 2 for $399. Company watchers are pegging the price of the smaller iPad somewhere in between. Most of the guesses range from $249 to $299, but the blog 9to5Mac said on Monday that the price would be $329. That would make the iPad Mini twice the price of the cheapest Kindle Fire and leave plenty of room for other manufacturers to snap up value shoppers this holiday season.
4. Analysts such as Brian White of Topeka Capital Markets believe that Apple will also sell a step-up version of the iPad Mini, one with the ability to access 4G cellular networks for an additional monthly fee. That's a feature the cheaper, 7-inch tablets don't have.
5. The Cupertino-based company may go the way of the MacBook Air, and could introduce the smaller version of ipad with the name of 'iPad Air'.
6. Apple is expected to launch the same the same in various storage capacities such as 8GB, 16GB, 32GB, and the top-of-the-line model at 64GB of internal storage.
7. The smaller version of iPad is expected to come with the Lightning connector, which the company for the first introduced with the iPhone 5.
8. Some component suppliers to Apple in Asia say they have received orders to make more than 10 million units of the smaller tablets in the fourth quarter. It is roughly double the order that were placed for Amazon's Kindle Fire tablets in the same quarter, these suppliers say.
9. Reportedly, Asia-based LG Display and AU Optronics have manufactured the LCD screens for Apple's much-rumoured iPad mini.
10. Apart from the smaller iPad, Apple is also expected to refresh some other products. There's speculation that the MacBook will come in a version with a 13-inch, high-resolution Retina screen. The 15-inch MacBook got an option for a Retina screen this summer.
The launch of a smaller iPad is seen as Apple's move to stay competitive against rivals such as Google and Amazon, which have introduced 7-inch tablets at just $200. The cheapest iPad starts from nearly $400. A smaller tablet would help Apple further its lead in the tablet market. Apple has successfully fended off competitors who have tried to sell tablets in iPad's size range.
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