SAN FRANCISCO -- There's another new iPad in the works, and Apple is expected to unveil it next week.
The
iPad Mini, as analysts refer to it, will have a smaller screen, similar
to competing tablets from Samsung and Amazon - and a lower price.
The
tablet will sell for $299, have a screen between 7 and 8 inches (down
from 9.8 inches for the full-size iPad) and be available in a Wi-Fi only
version, predicts Gene Munster, an analyst at Piper Jaffray. Other
iPads have both Wi-Fi and cellular service plans available.
Apple declined to comment.
A
new smaller iPad would come at a time when many companies are
dramatically increasing their portfolio of smaller tablets - and finding
success with buyers. Amazon just unleashed several new Kindle tablets
including a beefed up $199 Kindle Fire; Google and Samsung have the $199
Nexus 7. Both have 7-inch screens.
Microsoft, however, is taking a
different path. It will launch its answer to the iPad, the Surface
tablet, at a splashy event in New York on Oct. 26. No price has been
announced for the Surface, which has a larger screen.
By not having a 7-inch model, "Apple is ceding 20% of the market to competitors," says Munster.
Apple
in the past has insisted that consumers prefer the large screen of its
iPad. But now, says Munster, "There are some people who just naturally
prefer having a smaller tablet," and Apple can satisfy them.
Munster
projects that Apple will sell 5 million to 10 million of the smaller
iPads by the end of the year, depending on whether it can meet the
expected demand. The new iPhone 5, which burst out of the gate three
weeks ago with sales of 5 million phones, has been plagued by supply
issues. Apple could sell way more phones if it had them, Munster says.
Apple
introduced a new iPad in March. That successor to the iPad 2 sports a
brighter, sharper screen and an improved video camera. Nearly 75 million
iPads have been sold since the tablet was introduced in 2010.
USA Today