Apple Launches the Much-Hyped iPad Mini

Apple finally laid to rest all rumors and wild speculation concerning the iPad mini. At an Apple event on October 23 at California, the company unveiled the hugely anticipated mini version of its iconic iPad tablet, as was expected by industry gurus and Apple aficionados alike. What was not expected was that it would be launched as part of a group of a whole new range of Apple devices like laptops and desktops; no doubt to entice the holiday shoppers.`

The CEO and the Marketing Chief took center stage at the event, regaling the audience while introducing the new products.  Among the other products revealed to the public at the event were a Mac Mini, a MacBook Pro (13.3 inches), and a slim looking next gen iMac.


They informed the audience that over a hundred million iPads were sold all over the world, and displayed the new iPad, with its A6x chip, enhanced Wi-Fi and LTW support, and a 5MP camera in the rear.
Marketing head Schiller then dramatically unveiled the iPad mini, assuring everyone present that it is not just a scaled down iPad, though at first glance, that’s the impression one would get. The device measures 7.9 inches diagonally, and has an aluminum body that’s just over seven mm. It is lighter and slimmer than its predecessor, and has 10 hours of battery life.

The resolution remains the same as for the earlier iPad, at 1024 x 768 pixels. It has a 5 megapixel iSight camera which has the ability to record videos in HD. While not retaining the Retina display, the iPad mini will provide users with a similar experience. It will be powered by an A5 dual core processor, and will provide high quality, responsive graphics. For chatting with loved ones on FaceTime, there is a front camera. It includes the lightning connector, as in the regular iPad, and can support LTE radios. You can expect a data transfer speed of about 150Mb per second, thanks to the enhanced Wi-Fi functionality.

The iPad mini with only Wi-Fi and 16 GB memory will cost you around $330. Now this is still much higher than the cot of the Kindle Fire and Google Nexus 7. These two devices are the biggest competition to the iPad mini. It looks like Apple is confident that customer loyalty and people’s affinity for the iOS experience will help them overcome this big hurdle.

A lot of time in the presentation was taken up by the comparison between the iPad mini and Google Nexus 7, the most visible advantage of the mini being its bigger screen.

Now the issue is how Apple will sidestep or overcome the tricky fragmentation problems already plaguing Android developers. Of course this was the reason why Steve Jobs was against bringing out a small iPad in the first place. His opinion that software developers would not deal well with all the different sizes of products out there, is not too far from the truth. But the demand for a smaller and a less expensive iPad had become too strong for the company to ignore it any longer.

But for now, Apple has bridged the gap in its array and is taking Amazon and Google head on. What the outcome of this battle will be remains to be seen. For now, its Apple=1, Competition=0.

By-line:
This is a guest post by Tina Reeves. She is a writer who writes more about digital cable and high speed internet. To get more information, click here.