The Apple iPad Mini is waiting on the wings to launch into the market and (possibly) shake up all budget Android tablets and their market share that they are currently enjoying. The wait was long, but it seems that it's finally (almost) over. October 23rd is the date when Apple is set to unveil the Apple iPad Mini. Based off the highly successful (highly hardly does justice here) Apple iPad, the iPad Mini is being introduced to fill up that gaping hole left in the Apple lineup of products.
iPad Mini - Filling the Gap
Starting with the iPod, to the iPhone and then straight to the huge iPad, a big gap is left in the form of products with display size in the range of 5"-8". Android tablets already dominate this sphere with 7" tablets (Google's flagship tablet is a Nexus 7 for a reason). And the tablets in this range sell well and in volumes as people find it easier and more practical to buy a 7" tablet which is about half the cost of a 10" tablet. The iPad costs ~$500 and more, and so does the 10" Android tablets. Apple users and iOS lovers refuse to settle with an Android substitute. But that will change, real soon.
The iPad Mini: What We Know
The iPad Mini is rumored to have a 7.85" display of IPS make. The resolution is disappointingly less (according to rumors) at just 1024x768 pixels giving it a 163 ppi pixel density only. That will make the iPad Mini the only current generation iPad/iPhone product to have a retina-less display. Users will certainly miss the degree of sharpness enjoyed with the iPhone and the new iPad. Maybe Apple plans to refresh the iPad Mini sometime in the near future with a new model which would fix this (we strongly believe they would).
We can't say anything about the chipset to be used in the iPad Mini. It might be the same A5 processor as the iPhone 4S, or the new A6 like the iPhone 5 (we don't expect the A5X from the new iPad to make an appearance as the GPU is far too strong and the display resolution is far too less, leading to a mismatch).
Update: A fresh report puts the new iPad Mini's battery capacity at 4490 mAh / 16.7Wh, which is somewhere in between the iPhone 5's 5.45Wh and the new iPad's 42.5Wh battery ratings.
Different Models: Pricing Revealed
The iPad Mini, like the iPad will come in many configurations of storage and cellular radio. As always, adding storage or cellular radio will increase the cost of at every step. According to latest info, we gather the following:
- iPad Mini 8 GB WiFi - $249
- iPad Mini 16 GB WiFi - $349
- iPad Mini 32 GB WiFi - $449
- iPad Mini 8 GB Cellular+Wifi - $349
- iPad Mini 16 GB Cellular+Wifi - $449
- iPad Mini 32 GB Cellular+Wifi - $549
At $549 the iPad Mini will be tad too costly a product for with 7.85" display. But we already know of how Apple prices their products. And it's actually a big surprise that the iPad Mini base model would end up selling for as low as $250 only.
Google's Answer to the iPad
So how will competition (coughs, Google) fight the iPad? Well, simple! It doesn't have to. Google has already captured the market with it's Nexus 7 tablet (of which it plans a refresh having 32 GB of storage soon) running on the base of Android 4.1 Jelly Bean (to be upgraded to Android 4.2 Key Lime Pie) and packing a quad-core processor under the hood. It's Apple who is introducing a counter product. Google's being first to the market is a big plus for the company. What Google is really concentrating on is displacing the new iPad. And that is why they are working so closely and so hard with Samsung on the upcoming Nexus 10 tablet (which was covered only recently).