iPad Mini coming Soon

Thursday, May 17, 2012 | AKRAMUZZAMAN at 9:20 AM |

Rumor: 7-Inch iPad Mini Coming in August, Next iPhone in September, New 10-inch iPad in Fourth Quarter

Analysts for Barclays said in a note to investors that a new 7-inch iPad will be released this fall, Business Insider reported on Wednesday. “Following up on comments made last week, recent research still leads us to believe that Apple may be planning to add another form factor to its iPad line in the 7″ range for the fall,” the note read. The banking firm states that a smaller iPad would be useful in promoting Apple’s education agenda and could also help the company’s gaming efforts. Rather than sullying the iPad brand and iOS ecosystem, Barclays states that a “lower priced iPad [is] a necessary entry point to make the tablet market the size of the PC market by 2015 in terms of units (over 350 million units) – a figure CEO Tim Cook repeatedly mentions.” Apple has long been rumored to be readying a 7.85-inch iPad mini to compete with Amazon’s Kindle Fire and Barnes & Noble’s Nook Tablet. The slate is expected to be priced between $249 and $299, and could launch as soon as the third quarter of 2012.

7-inch iPad mini in August:

While there have been several rumors that Apple will launch a smaller and cheaper iPad to compete with Android-based tablets like Amazon's Kindle Fire, we find it hard to believe that Apple will launch a variant of the iPad later this year. If Apple does decide to offer a smaller iPad, we expect Apple to launch it along with the next generation iPad.

Until now, most rumors have indicated a 7.85-inch iPad, will come with a 1024×768 resolution, which is the same resolution as the original iPad and iPad 2. So the possibility of a 7-inch iPad seems to be quite remote.

Next Generation iPhone in September:

Apple launched iPhone 4S in October last year instead of June, so we don't expect Apple to launch the next generation before October.

New 10-inch iPad in the fourth quarter:

We're not sure what they mean by a 10-inch iPad, as the current iPad is already 9.7-inch and we can't think of any benefits of launching a slightly bigger iPad.

It also seems highly unlikely that Apple will launch the next generation iPad in less than 9 months of launching iPad 3.

So, to summarize, take these rumors with a truckload of salt, especially since it is DigiTimes who has a patchy track record when it comes to Apple related rumors.

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