Fortune is reporting this morning that it has received word from an Apple investor with “multiple sources” that Apple is planning to send out invitations on October 10th for an iPad mini keynote event.
The source who wishes to remain anonymous said that the rumors floating around the Internet for the past few months are largely true. Apple is in fact preparing to release a miniature version of the iPad with a 7.85-inch display. The invitations should go out to the press and other invitees on October 10th. The keynote will supposedly take place a week after that on October 17th and lastly, the iPad mini will hit the market on November 2nd.
The iPad mini is expected to have an aforementioned smaller display with a 1024×768 resolution, which is the same resolution as the iPad and iPad 2 so all existing iPad apps will work perfectly with the mini. The design is said to be akin to an iPod touch, with a thin bezel on the right and left and more room for a home button and camera on the bottom and top. Pricing should be somewhere between $199 and $299, making it a cheap alternative to the 9.7-inch iPad that starts at $499.
The one rumor still up in the air is how Apple will name it. Most people are using the term “iPad mini” to refer to it currently, but some think it might be the “iPad Air” similar to the MacBook Air and a few have suggested “iPad nano,” which takes cues from the iPod line.