According to two separate reports from Bloomberg and The Wall Street Journal, Apple is planning to release a smaller iPad, with a screen between 7-8”. The tablet would directly compete with recently announced and expected tablets such as the Google Nexus 7 and Amazon Kindle Fire 2. Apple currently holds 61.4% of the tablet market with the company’s 9.7” iPad models, according to Gartner.
Bloomberg expects this new iPad model to be announced in October, to release the following March (the same time Apple releases new iPads annually). This is telling, as Apple typically doesn't announce new products so far in advance of release.
Pricing is still unknown, but analysts expect this smaller iPad to rival competitors pricing, though it would likely be slightly more expensive than the competition. The reports also indicate that the display will have a significantly lower resolution than the Retina display on the iPad.
Some reports suggest the smaller iPad will contain a 16:9 widescreen display instead of the current 4:3 on the iPad, with a lower resolution of 720p. This configuration would make it a prime competitor against other 7” tablets, but require developers to completely re-work previous iPad apps.
These reports may still prove false. The 7-inch tablet business has seen few victors, besides Amazon’s Kindle Fire, which subsidizes the low price for exclusive content available through the company’s Amazon Prime service. The Nexus 7 will likely prove to be another hot seller.
This isn’t the first time such reports have surfaced, but it is the first time two very similar reports have been released simultaneously from two completely different sources. We will continue to report on this as more information becomes available.
What do you think about a 7” iPad? Would you buy one, or get one over the current iPad? Or is it all fake?
Source : ign[dot]com
No comments:
Post a Comment