As anticipated, Apple unveiled a smaller version of its popular iPad at a product launch event in San Jose yesterday. The new iPad mini starts at $329 and features a screen about a third smaller than the original iPad.
“But Apple’s smaller tablet is priced well above Amazon.com Inc.’s Kindle Fire HD and Google Inc.’s Nexus 7 — two tablets which are similar in size and some specs,” reports the Wall Street Journal. “Those devices cost $199 or $249 depending on the amount of memory.”
The screen of the iPad mini measures 7.9-inches diagonally. The tablet, designed to fit comfortably in one hand, weighs about half as much as the original iPad.
“A dual-core Apple A5 processor powers the iPad mini, and the device sports fast 4G LTE speeds like the most recent iPads,” reports VentureBeat in a related post. “It features the same 1,024 by 768 screen resolution as the iPad 2, but given its smaller screen that resolution will look much sharper on the iPad mini.”
Apple is offering more variety in an effort to maintain dominance in the tablet wars. “Rivals are releasing a flood of tablets and phones powered by Google’s Android operating system and other software,” notes WSJ. And Microsoft is expected to release its Surface tablet running Windows 8 on Friday.
“Others have tried to make tablets smaller than the iPad and they have failed miserably,” says Phil Schiller, Apple’s senior VP for worldwide marketing.
“He gave a side-by-side product comparison between the iPad mini and Google’s Nexus 7, and claimed that the mini offers two-thirds more space to surf the Web when turned on its side,” explains the article. “A Google spokeswoman declined to comment.”
Versions of Apple’s new iPad mini, along with the company’s fourth-generation iPad, will be available the first week of November.
As anticipated, Apple unveiled a smaller version of its popular iPad at a product launch event in San Jose yesterday. The new iPad mini starts at $329 and features a screen about a third smaller than the original iPad.
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