Apple will expand its iPad line next month and for the first time launch a version of the hit tablet with a 7" screen, the company said Tuesday.
The iPad Mini has a 7.9" screen and gives Apple a foothold in a new sector of the tablet market of 7-inch-class machines considered a step between a cellphone and full-size tablet. Competitors including Samsung and Amazon already offer such devices.
Getting a head start on the inevitable comparisons between the iPad Mini and Google’s Nexus 7, Apple marketing executive Phil Schiller showed comparisons of the two products side-by-side.
"There is a gigantic difference in these products," he said, highlighting a mode that provides greater screen space for Web browsing with the iPad Mini once all the bells and whistles around the screen are hidden.
The iPad Mini is based on a dual-core A5 processor and has the new Lightning connector, LTE compatibility and 802.11n Wi-Fi.
As for the all-important price, a base 16Gb model will start at $329 (€339).
That’s more expensive than Google’s Nexus 7 and Amazon’s Kindle Fire HD, which both cost $199, but that doesn’t necessarily mean Apple is at a disadvantage. A segment of consumers have always been willing to pay a premium for Apple products.
Apple will also launch an updated version of its full-size iPad. The fourth-generation model will be based on a new processor called the A6X, which Schiller said is twice as fast as the A5X chip used in the current iPad tablets. Battery life remains unchanged at 10 hours. It will feature the new Lightning accessory connector that debuted with the iPhone 5 and will cost $499.
The announcement comes just over seven months since Apple launched the third model in the full-size iPad lineup.
Apple has been phenomenally successful in selling tablets. The company sold its 100 millionth iPad two weeks ago – about two-and-a-half years after it first went on sale – and iPad sales in its most recent quarter surpassed PC sales of any of its competitors, according to Schiller, who didn’t detail sales figures.
Late Apple CEO Steve Jobs had originally dismissed the idea of a 7" tablet, but that was in October 2010 – an eternity in the technology industry and long before the tablet market had grown to the size it is today.
IPad mini with Wi-Fi models will be available for pre-order in black and slate or white and silver from Friday.
IDG News Service
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