An iPad mini in October? New report fuels rumours

With the runaway success of the Kindle Fire prompting even Google to jump on the mini tablet bandwagon with its Nexus 7, is Apple also going to join the party? There have been a number of persistent rumours that a miniature version of the iPad is on the way, despite there being no signs from the company to this effect.

In March a comment by a Samsung executive to a Korean newspaper fueled rumours, while in February a report in the Wall Street Journal stated that Apple was testing out products with 7 to 8 inch screens. Then in April rumors resurfaced, this time on a Chinese blog.

And after a relative lull in the iPad mini expectations, an analyst report has got the tech world buzzing all over again. The report by Pacific Crest analyst Andy Hargreaves predicts that Apple will introduce a 7.85-inch version of its tablet in October.

The report quotes Hargreaves as saying,“We anticipate an entry-level 7.85″ iPad with 8GB of NAND capacity to price at $299 with an initial gross margin of 31%. We estimate Apple will sell 10.0 million 7.85″ iPads in FQ1 (Dec. 2012) and 35.2 million in all of F2013. Based on estimated component order volume, we believe our iPad mini unit estimates are well within Apple’s production capacity. We anticipate 25% cannibalization of the larger 9.7″ iPad (for every four 7.85″ iPads added, we reduced our 9.7″ iPad estimate by one), so our total F2013 iPad estimate increases to 91.6 million from 65.2 million.”

CNet added that Hargreaves suggested that Apple would kill the $399 iPad 2, and could introduce a 16GB iPad mini for a similar price.Steve Jobs is famously known to have been against the idea of a smaller iPad, but now as demand for smaller tablets increase, will Apple depart from the visionary’s opinion?

Why it’s a good idea: A smaller tablet would help Apple further its lead in the tablet market.“From a competitive standpoint, we believe an iPad mini with a lower price point would be the competition’s worst nightmare, says Shaw Wu, an analyst at Sterne Agee. “Most (competitors) already have a tough enough time competing against the iPad 2, as well as the new iPad.”

Apple has successfully fended off competitors who have tried to sell tablets in iPad’s size range. But last year, Amazon.com Inc. figured out how to crack Apple’s stranglehold on tablets by making a half-size, no-frills tablet. The result was the Kindle Fire, which sells for $199 —basically, the cost of production. Amazon has sold millions of them.

Apple sells the iPod Touch for $199, but its screen is about a quarter of the size of the Kindle Fire — a big disadvantage for people who want to enjoy books, movies and games. It also sells the older iPad model for $399. It has nothing in between.

Price isn’t the only reason customers might prefer a smaller tablet. A 7-inch model would fit in many handbags, unlike the current iPad.Wu says he’s seen evidence of Apple experimenting with both smaller and larger tablet screens since 2009, and doesn’t sense that the release of an iPad mini is “imminent.”

Why it’s a bad idea: A smaller iPad would be a headache for software developers.“Going to a different screen size ends up being a ton of work,” says Nate Weiner, the creator of Pocket, an application that stores Web pages and other material for later reading. “If you take, for an example, an interface built for the iPad and try to cram it into the Kindle Fire, it just doesn’t fit,” he says.

However, developers who have already adapted their programs to the Kindle Fire or other 7-inch tablets wouldn’t face a big hurdle in adapting to a third Apple screen size, Weiner say.


This article comes from:http://www.firstpost.com/tech/an-ipad-mini-in-october-new-report-fuels-rumours-363595.html