New reports add to the existing rumours that Apple is toying with the idea of launching a smaller ‘iPad Mini’, with industry insider and Apple expert John Gruber recently speaking about the product during a podcast.
Although such a product may never actually make it to the shops, Gruber claims that several of his knowledgeable sources have seen a mini iPad hanging around in Apple’s Cupertino labs. While the latest iPad, and the two models before it, sports a 9.7-inch screen, the iPad Mini is said to have a 7.85-inch display.
While many tablet makers are busy creating more rectangular tablets to accommodate widescreen displays, Apple has always bucked the trend with its iPad featuring a 4:3 inch display and a more squared design. The iPad Mini follows the same rule, and is apparently as tall as the regular iPad is wide, which is exactly 7.31-inches.
We feel that tablets around the 8.9 – 9.7 inch mark fit the average hand perfectly, and Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 8.9 and Apple’s iPad are two excellent examples of this. Steve Jobs agreed, always publically rubbishing the idea of a smaller iPad, saying that anything between the size of the iPad and the iPhone was “unsuitable for human fingers”.
The current prototypes of the iPad Mini are thought to have the same 1024 x 768 resolution as the iPad and iPad 2, despite having a smaller screen size. This would result in the iPad Mini having a higher pixel density than the iPad and iPad 2, around 163ppi rather than 132ppi, which would result in a crisper, clearer picture.
John Gruber was keen to stress during the podcast that he has heard from nobody that such a product was due to go into mass production, so don’t get your hopes up for a cheaper, smaller iPad just yet.
Many manufacturers have created tablets around the 7-inch mark, including Samsung’s Galaxy Tab and RIM’s BlackBerry PlayBook, but the size hasn’t yet proved to be too popular. Gruber hints that perhaps Apple is toying with the idea just in case this type of product becomes popular, letting Android tablet manufacturers test the water before it launches, in effect.
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Via: Apple Insider