Well, the rumors about Apple making a
7-inch ipad have been rattled for a long time, and now there’s an update about
this rumor. It is said that the new ipad mini would be released in second half
of this year, probably in August.
According to Digitimes, a Taiwan news
organization, Apple will release iphone 5 in September and a new ipad mini in
August. That’s because a Chinese manufacturer who’s been manufactured iphone
and ipad
parts for Apple has received orders from Apple for two products. And it
also reported that the 7-inch ipad would be assembled at Foxconn.
However, Analyst Shaw Wu says the "exact
timing" for an iPad mini release date "is difficult to predict",
but said its launch is a "question of when, not if." If the release
of ipad mini is just a question of time, then maybe Apple would talk about it
in the coming WWDC in next week.
Another evidence to prove the ipad mini to
be true is in the All Things Digital conference in this week. When Apple’s
present CEO Tim Cook was asked about ipad mini, he offered not a single word of
realistic value but smile and laugh on the subject. His attitude was translated
into silent confirmation by some optimistic analysts. Cook has been acting
quite honest and outright in audience, so this silent answer does give the ipad
mini some possibilities.
Although Steve Jobs had denied the value of
a 7-inch tablet in public, the success of 7-inch tablet like Nook and Amazon
Kindle have proved the market value of small tablet. Besides, a research by Barclays
analyst Ben Reitzes team has pointed that 7 inch Mini iPad coming in between
$200 and $250 would be attractive for users. And for ipad accessories manufactures,
a new ipad with smaller model means more orders from Apple for brand new cool ipad
accessories and ipad parts.
The most disappointing part is, we still
have no idea how the smaller ipad would be equipped. Users have confidence in the
design of Apple product, and most believe the ipad mini would look the same
with the present ipad module, just smaller maybe. But the specification would
be lower than the present one, so the price would be lower.