Apple iPad mini rumours heat up

Rumours surrounding Apple’s development of a smaller and more compact iPad have been floating around for a while now, although some of the rumours are starting to look credible.
Apple’s Asian component supplier is said to be preparing for mass production of a smaller-sized iPad, which is speculated to make a debut before the end of the year.
The Wall Street Journal’s two anonymous sources claim the new tablet will “likely come with a screen smaller than 8-inches,” compared to the iPad’s 9.7-inch screen. Since its launch in 2010, the iPad has not seen a screen size change, though the iPad 3 boasts a high-definition, pixel-packed Retina display.
A smaller, cheaper iPad to enter the low-end of the tablet market would be, according to Sterne Agee’s Shaw Wu, “the competitors’ worst nightmare.”
Initial iPad “mini” rumours kicked off when Daring Fireball’s John Gruber said in a podcast: “What I do know is that they have one in the lab, a 7.85″ iPad that runs at 1024 x 768. And it’s just like the 9.7-inch iPad shrunk down a little bit. The apps wouldn’t need to be redesigned or recompiled to work on it — it’s just the iPad smaller.”
Source: Cnet, CNN Money
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