Smaller iPad tablet now confirmed

The US newspaper New York Times finally confirmed in an article the rumors of an upcoming iPad tablet with a smaller screen and a lower price after initial reports with the same information surfaced in The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg.

The upcoming tablet known so far as iPad mini or iPad nano will compete with the successful and cheap Amazon Kindle Fire and Google Nexus. Expected to feature a 7.85-inch display, which will still be larger than the ones found in competing tablets, the smaller iPad will sell for around 200 USD – a very competitive price.

Apple is now in a hurry to grab a big market share in the low-end tablet market – where the Kindle Fire is king nowadays. Surprisingly for the tech giant budget-oriented tablets captured the attention of more buyers than expected who now purchase them by the millions.

Interestingly enough a few years ago the late Steve Jobs rebuffed the idea of having an iPad with a small screen. Back then a 7-inch tablet was thought to be good enough to surf “in the bathroom” only. The later 9.7-inch size was released because Jobs and his tablet colleagues though the screen size would be sufficient enough to allow “great tablet apps” saying the smaller screen just compromised too much.

The iPad mini or whatever it will be called may become available later this year with the Christmas period being most likely to see a 7.85-inch iPad launch.