We don't know its real name, but the IT journalist community has settled on "iPad Mini" for the widely anticipated 7.85 inch baby brother to the iPad.
For the first time in quite a while, Apple has been forced to play catch-up. Despite Steve Jobs' widely reported antagonism towards a 7 inch tablet, the rest of the industry didn't agree; and now we have the reasonably successful Google Nexus and Amazon Kindle Fire HD carving out a niche without Apple. Not to mention of course a slew of "me too" models from just about every manufacturer in China (of which this writer is guilty of purchasing three units for the family to use).
In order to achieve a price-point that Apple is very unused to seeing, the anticipated device will NOT have a retina display.
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Other rumours state that invitations to the launch event will be sent to journalist and other invited parties tomorrow (October 10th) for an event in the next week or so, with early availability of the device around October 22nd.
In order to compete with the Nexus and Kindle Fire, the device is anticipated to be priced at $US200. Worse, it will likely take sales away from the far more profitable 10 inch model.
Fun times ahead for Apple.
