Many of you will have been following developments about an Apple iPad Mini and although the talk is still very much based on rumor and speculation it does seem as though the evidence has built so much in recent weeks that an iPad Mini is inevitable. An Apple event on September 12 has been tipped as the time when the smaller iPad will finally be revealed, along with the new iPhone 5, so we may not have too much longer to wait for official news. However we have some information today about the iPad Mini from curious Instapaper findings that may interest readers.
We’ve already posted many articles about the iPad Mini including some purported photos of it but this new information seems to confirm that it is on the way although there are some questions to be answered. Many of you will know that developers often find hints and indications of new devices hidden in logs that they are delving into and also that many companies use prototypes of new products for internal testing. Apple is one such company that carries out internal testing on new products and it seems that one well-known iOS developer has discovered possible proof of the iPad Mini’s existence.
Marco Arment of Instapaper, as reported by Red Orbit, discovered this ‘proof’ with a look at daily stats. Entries in device stats read iPad 2,5 and iPad 2,6 as well as iPhone 5,1. The latter is of course likely to be the new iPhone 5 and Arment points out that whenever a new iOS device has turned up in stats it has ended up being a new and real Apple product. Now this is where it gets a little complicated so bear with me. Developers already know that the iPad 2 WiFi model is referred to as iPad 2,1 while the iPad 2 GSM model is the iPad 2,2 and the iPad 2 CDMA model is the iPad 2,3. A few months ago an iPad 2,4 also showed up at the same time as the iPad 3 was released, being the model with extended battery life.
With all this in mind Arment deducts that the iPad 2,5 and iPad 2,6 might be new iPad 2 models (WiFi and GSM) but at the same times acknowledges this would be curious considering it’s likely that a new iPad refresh will come in March or April. This raises the idea then that the much-rumored iPad Mini may be a smaller iPad 2 with an A5 chip, 512MB of RAM and a non-Retina display. It’s a good point, especially when considering that a smaller iPad using older iPad 2 parts would enable Apple to come up with a tablet at a much cheaper price.
At this time though this is all completely speculative but certainly intriguing and we can’t wait to find out more, hopefully very shortly. What are your thoughts on an iPad Mini being based on older iPad 2 parts to keep the price competitive? Do you think it would serve to further Apple’s dominance in the tablet market or do you think people wanting a smaller iPad would still prefer new top-end specs? Let us know with your comments.