News - iPad Mini due in October for $299?

[HEXUS]

Sporting a 7.85-inch IGZO LCD panel made by Sharp.

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[DeludedGuy]

Hope Samsung sue them for creating something which looks like the galaxy tab...

[pollaxe]

^^Ha ha!

I half hope this story is true. A 3G version would be splendid as I really don't get on with texting on my 4s due to my ape-like hands. Even the S3 feels a bit small and so I'm not convinced the iPhone 5 will be much better for me. If one of these comes along, colour me interested. Or I may have a look at the Note 2, for similar, hand-size reasons!

[Brewster0101]

Hope Samsung sue them for creating something which looks like the galaxy tab...

Hope every 7" tablet manufacture sues them for copying their design idea of a 7" table. How dare Apple copy the idea of making a smaller tablet.... The cheek...

Oh wait I bet a certain judge in California will ban the sale of the new Nexus tablet on the grounds it copies the ipad mini... Wouldn't surprise if same judge bans the Nexus when launched even before the ipad mini is even revealed.

[crossy]

Hmm, let me see $299 for an 8GB iPad(M) or 50 bucks less for a Nexus7 with double the memory? Normally I'd say "no contest" or "fail!" but then remembered it's an Apple device we're talking about - so sense has nothing to do with it.

Watch the queues form when it gets announced...

Maybe the next announcement after that will be an upsized iPhone - the "iPhone Maxx" - with a five inch Retina screen and a fancy digitizer?

[Repressor]

I want something bigger, not smaller! I think 14"+ tablet is enough. Something that's actually the size and aspect ratio of a piece of A4 paper when all the menus are showing too would be worth some attention.

[Biscuit]

i wonder what resolution they will squeeze into it

[mark22]

i wonder what resolution they will squeeze into it

Whatever the nexus 7 is +1

[saltyzip]

I assume iPad Mini will have same resolution as iPad 2 (1024-by-768) this makes it easier for App developers and limits fragmentation.

I am concerned Apple is so wealthy they could sell these mini's at cost and virtually kill off the tablet form factor competition. The main competitor for Apple will be Windows 8, assuming they do release a full blown OS on this surface thingy and it actually turns out to be quite good. At the entry level price of £600 Microsoft had better start praying that Windows OS is still something people want at home, and not only in the office.

Everywhere you look and listen the bloody iPad is mentioned, drives me nuts. Competitions, Supermarkets, Sky News and even on Talk Radio today. Most Joe Blogs wouldn't even know there was an alternate to it.

Google need to do some serious Nexus 7 advertising, like they did with the Chrome browser to ensure all Mummies and Daddies and Grannies and Grandpas are aware of it's existence and what it can do.

[Brewster0101]

The main competitor for Apple will be Windows 8,

Right, because Android is so unpopular

[mark22]

The main competitor for Apple will be Windows 8,

Right, because Android is so unpopular

I assume he means from a usability standpoint. Then I would still say google. I think Surface will stand out on it's own as a proper desktop replacement which nothing else truly is yet.

[crossy]

I am concerned Apple is so wealthy they could sell these mini's at cost and virtually kill off the tablet form factor competition.

They could sell at cost, but they won't as to do so is not "the Apple way" and - I would argue - nicely destroy the "premium" branding that they've very carefully cultivated.
I'm also going to state that if the iPm is being done "at cost" for $299 then Apple's getting screwed over by their suppliers - in light of the number of comparable (?) tablets that ship for less than that.

The main competitor for Apple will be Windows 8, assuming they do release a full blown OS on this surface thingy and it actually turns out to be quite good. At the entry level price of £600 Microsoft had better start praying that Windows OS is still something people want at home, and not only in the office.

Main competitor for Apple (iOS) in the tablet space is Windows 8? Erm, haven't you heard of a smallish company called Google that do something similar called Android?
As you say yourself, there's a lot of "ifs" on any serious Windows8 tablet adoption - although I'm going to argue that unless Microsoft do a half-assed job then surely the majority of businesses will automatically prefer something Windows-powered to something from Apple.
They (Microsoft) will also have to do some serious price-realignment, since if £600 is the entry level to Windows tablet ownership then that's going to seriously impede it's uptake - irrespective of how technically superior it may (or may not) be.

Google need to do some serious Nexus 7 advertising, like they did with the Chrome browser to ensure all Mummies and Daddies and Grannies and Grandpas are aware of it's existence and what it can do.

Ohh, so agree - it's still shocking to me that Google - a company that makes it's money from advertising - has been so shockingly inept in pushing their Android product. As you say, they must ensure that Nexus7 gets a strong push in the media, and more importantly in the sales outlets. Heck, in the UK, I'd even think about forgoing PC World, Comet, etc and try initial launches via supermarkets - while people don't usually browse around Comet etc, having a prominent stand in the local Tesco's is bound to get a lot of people thinking about your product.

[saltyzip]

Right, because Android is so unpopular

I was purely referring to Tablets in my response, we all know Android Phones rule the roost!

Android has an exceptional opportunity to capture the lower end of the Tablet market utilising it's price advantage and then work its way up, it can't compete pound for pound against the iPad at the moment. The Apps and the ecosystem just aren't as well featured, outside the US anyway. Hence I believe this is one of the main reasons the Android Tablets aren't selling like hot cakes, plus where is the advertising?

Also a tablet is a luxury item, it isn't essential, so price and features really matter to bring it in budget of a typical working family.

Google need to sell 10 to 20 million Nexus 7 tablets this year, this will give Google a foundation which will encourage the bean counters who fund the developers to support this platform. Android needs the numbers to show their is an opportunity for a good return on investment for Tablet based Apps.

I think Apple have sold over 50 million iPads where as Android Tablets are around 12 million, although I suspect a significant number of Droids are running something less than Honeycomb (Kindle Fire == Gingerbread) which has not helped the cause. We need all Android Tablets running Honeycomb or higher, so developers can use the fragment design approach (http://developer.android.com/guide/c...fragments.html) ensuring both phone and tablet interfaces can be supported within the same App source with little additional effort.

Microsoft's Surface offering is expensive, to me anyway, and will have to compete head to head with Apple, hence why I believe the main competitor for Apple iPad is Windows 8 Surface, for the moment at least.

Once Google have the tablet numbers on a tablet OS (Honeycomb, ICS or JB), that will act as the catalyst for the ecosystem to grow and grow and then as Chrome did to IE, it will surpass iPad sales numbers, my prediction is in the year 2015.

I for one will be buying another Android tablet come crimble this year, not sure if it will be a Nexus, probably Asus made though as I want a 10" screen.