It’s not even a week after the new iPad was announced and hit-or-miss Asian site Digitimes is hard at work conjuring up more rumors about the iPad mini. According to the latest report, Apple is looking to adopt a slim bezel display for its rumored 7.85-inch iPad mini. Unlike its bigger brother, the tiny tablet is not expected to have a retina display which will help keep the price to an affordable $249-299. Digitimes believes this smaller size iPad will compete with Android tablets from Samsung and Amazon.
It wouldn’t surprise me to find out Apple was exploring the idea of a smaller, less expensive tablet. Companies often test out different designs, different features to hit a different target market. In this case, a cheaper iPad would appeal to education and developing markets, but rumors and conjecture like this are no guarantee that Apple is planning to release such a device. Knowing Apple’s history, it would only venture into the 7-inch tablet market if it could introduce a tablet with value beyond competing with Android. There would have to be a new angle or revolutionary technology that would drive Apple to add another tablet to its portfolio.
