iPad Mini Rumours: What’s Real And What’s False

What do you do after releasing a new iPhone, a new iPod, and a new iOS in September? And you want to distract from the flaws in your crumbling relationship with Google because you released Apple Maps in iOS 6, which was not fit for human consumption, as well as steal the thunder from your number one competitor? Why, you release a new iPad just three days before Windows 8 drops, of course.

Since the iPad 3 came out in March, what else could be crammed into the spectrum of Apple mobile products? For those living under a tech rock, we have the iPods Shuffle, Nano, Classic, and Touch, along with the iPhone and the iPad. However, since Australian-based Sonny Dickson, a writer for 9to5Mac.com,  leaked pictures via his Twitter account, we now know what Apple has up its sleeves to go against Google’s Nexus 7, Microsoft’s Surface, and Amazon’s Kindle Fire. – the much-talked-about iPad Mini.

Rumors of the iPad Mini have been out there for a while. The device was written about as far back as August 2010 when iLounge.com wrote about it. The Wall Street Journal mentioned the iPad Mini in February 2012. In March, a Samsung official mentioned that the company had been in talks with Apple about a 7″ model, something which was reinforced during Apple and Samsung’s court fracas in August when an Apple internal email was discussed. Giz-China.com found iPad Mini cases for sale in China, with spaces for a camera and lightning port.

With so many accurate rumors abounding about Apple’s latest products, we’ve collated and distilled some of the more salient points we could find:

• The iPad Mini may come in black. In fact, the device may come in colors. Some pictures that have bubbled up from UkranianiPhone.com have shown one iPad Mini possibly with an anodized black aluminum backing or with a white face. This may be an adhesive plastic film, but the idea of mini iPads in colors other than black and white? Intriguing.

Source: UkrainianiPhone.com via 9to5Mac.com

• The price points we’ve found range from $250 to $500, with Business Insider suggesting $250 to $350 and Gizmodo giving a price point up to $499.
  Given that the iPod retails for $300, the higher price is more feasible. But — and this is simply conjecture at this point — seeing how Apple likes to manipulate the price points of its hardware to define the marketplace, it wouldn’t be outlandish to suggest the iPod Touch might see a pre-Christmas price cut and the iPad Mini crushing the competition at $350. This could be especially true with a 32 GB Microsoft Surface costing around $500. What Apple also has to contend with is the possibility of Google releasing an Asus-built 32 GB Nexus 7 at that $350 price point this Christmas and even a slimmed down 8 GB model at around $100 from Quanta.

• Memory is tricky to determine, but the iPad Mini will most likely be available in 16 GB and 32 GB versions. If Google comes out with an 8 GB $100 device, it’s unlikely Apple will dip down into that price point or a device with that little memory. Similarly, it’s also unlikely that an iPad Mini will chip into the iPad’s domain with a 64 GB device any time soon. If, however, the iPad Mini is launched with just 8 GB at the price points listed above, it will be laughable.

• The screen is 7.85” diagonally. I could waffle on about aspect ratios and the like, but at around 4:3, this works for most TV shows and standard screen movies. Doubtful you’d watch a wide-screen movie on a tablet, though.

Source: Sonny Dickson

• An iPad Mini will rock the dual-core A5 chipset, possibly an A5X. The chipset will most likely be the A5 with 512 MB RAM, maintaining the A5 production life as it’s used in the Apple TV and iPod Touch. This also serves to keep costs down. However, there’s a clear drawback to this method.
• The iPad Mini won’t have a Retina display. The screens will be produced by LG and AU Optronics, which reinforces the non-Retina rumor. This will help keep costs down and battery life up, though.
• The space and battery possible in the unit may only allow for WiFi connectivity. This will keep costs down further and the iPad as the exclusive roaming device for power users. Also, the Nexus 7 and Kindle only boast WiFi connectivity. However, this doesn’t mean that Apple couldn’t surprise us with 3G and 4G connectivity.
• Will it have FaceTime? More importantly, will it have a camera? Given that people have used iPads as cameras, and Apple loves FaceTime as part of iOS 6, it’s likely the iPad Mini will have both. However, Apple has had a history of treating cameras in iPads as afterthoughts rather than an integral part of the product. If the rumored device does have a camera, it will have to at least rival the iPad 3’s (paltry) 5 MP offering. Because Apple has been pushing the notion of one less device in your pocket with each new product it launches, and the smaller size of the iPad Mini, this could be a chance to not have to carry an expensive, bulky camera around with me on top of my phone, music player, and computer. However, Apple’s treatment so far of its products’ cameras makes that an unlikely scenario any time before 2014.

• Know what else Apple loves? Siri. It looks like the iPad Mini will have Siri support. Let’s ask her.”Siri? Does the iPad Mini have Siri support?”
  “I can’t answer that. But I can search the web for it, if you like.”Well played, Apple. Well played.

• Apple is looking forward to market domination over Amazon, Microsoft, and Google this Christmas. The company’s retail profits have allowed it to physically expand its stores’ stockrooms and with good reason; Apple has given the go-ahead for 10 million iPad Minis to be built. Speculation is that the release date will be November 2 in the U.S., UK, and select other countries based on comments from at least one UK-based major retailer.
• The iPad Mini will have a Lightning connector. This will be a blow to many long-time Apple fans with a plethora of 30-pin devices who want the simplicity of one connector to rule them all, but Apple looks like it’s going ahead with Lightning for all of its mobile devices.

Source: Sonny Dickson

• The iPad Mini will run iOS 6. This is less of a rumor and more of a statistical fact at this point. There is no way Apple will go back to iOS 5 on any of its machines.
• The iPad Mini may not necessarily be called the iPad Mini. Apple hasn’t said anything about what the device will or won’t be called. The press event on October 23 is advertised with, “We’ve got a little more to show you,” but with another product called the Mac Mini, it’s an appellation that has stuck in all the articles and would be bad marketing to call it anything else. Especially if it’s iPod Grande.
• It may not even exist at all. Sonny Dickson, who originally started this whole ball rolling via Twitter and Instagram, has admitted it was a stunt to get 5,000 followers. This could all be the work of one Weener trying to make Fetch happen.

Of course, there’s the possibility that the announcement on October 23 may skip the iPad Mini altogether, and focus on a Retina display for the 13” MacBook Pro, a slimmer iMac, and a more powerful Mac Mini. We’ll let you know what Apple has up its large sleeves for the possible release of an iPad Mini or any other device.