New iPad mini could debut by the end of the year

Tablet will not have retina display, and may only cost around $200

Sometimes rumors swirl around for so long that they begin to feel like one of those things that everyone talks about, but never actually happens. You’d hear a lot of “I wish they would…” or “wouldn’t it be cool if…” but nothing ever happens.

This was especially true of the iPad mini, given that Steve Jobs was pretty adamant about hating the idea. The iPad mini was said to be "around the corner" back in October 2011, and now, lo and behold, it just might actually happen.

Apple will be debuting an iPad with a seven to eight inch screen by the end of the year, sources told Bloomberg on Tuesday.

The new iPad will not have the 2048x1536 resolution and retina display that the new iPad came with when it debuted in March.

A smaller iPad would most likely cost around $200, Bloomberg was old, though an analyst at Pacific Crest is predicting that number will be closer to $300.

The Kindle Fire, and the upcoming Nexus 7 from Google, both come with a price tag of $199, and a cheaper iPad would be a major blow to other tablet retailers, who consistently relied on providing a cheaper alternative to Apple products. The new iPad costs from $499 to $829.

Apple is projected to sell nearly 73 million tablets this year, according to Gartner, which would account for 61.4% percent of the market.

In comparison, Android tablets are expected to sell less than 38 million. Microsoft, who recently announced their new Surface tablet, is expected to sell less than five million.

Pacific Crest is estimating that Apple will sell 35 million units in 2013.

The iPad mini is expected to debut in October, which will be around the same time that Apple unveils the iPhone 5 and iOS 6. 

Steve Jobs famously hated the idea of a smaller iPad, so much so that he called the idea of a seven-inch iPad “dead on arrival.”

“7-inch tablets are tweeners: too big to compete with a smartphone and too small to compete with the iPad,” Jobs said in an earnings call in October 2010, almost one year exactly before his death.

Increasing the resolution of the display to make up for the smaller size would be "meaningless, unless your tablet also includes sandpaper, so that the user can sand down their fingers to around one quarter of the present size,” Jobs said.

Apple was unavailable for comment

(Image source: allthingsd.com)