iPad Mini: come see me

Already today, October 23, another Apple presentation will take place, to which representatives of the world's largest media have been invited.

Gossip as an informational occasion

All presentations of new products with “apple” symbolism, despite the indispensable mystery and intrigue surrounding them, follow the same pattern.

It all begins with rumors, the retransmission and replication of which with reference to “reliable and trusted sources” is dealt with by a rather large group of specialized media.
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As a rule, some of them draw information from Apple's chain of suppliers in Asia (Digitimes, Macotakara), while others were lucky to establish close contact with one of the top managers of the California corporation, who occasionally throws a sugar bone to his “mouthpiece” (All Things D, The Loop). And it is not at all possible that most of the so-called “leaks” are the work of Apple itself, which, with the seemingly imperturbableness, thus itself stirs up the interest of the public in its new products.

With the scale at which Apple works, it is unlikely that its headquarters in Cupertino does not have its own “Abwehr”, which carefully monitors (and, for sure, plans) the release in the media of the next dose of information.



As a result, when it comes to the presentation itself, and with crazy success and under the scrutiny of the mass media of the whole world, it turns out that practically everything that concerns the “carefully disguised” Apple news products itself was known in advance .

Steve Jobs was against

In the case of the event planned for today, the “main character” of which will be the iPad Mini, the situation is somewhat different.

The fact is that a smaller version of the iconic Apple tablet has never been a puzzle to the media. The network is teeming with its renderers, photos of parts and body, technical characteristics and opinions of analysts regarding its profitability. Yes, Apple has never stated directly about it, but any other Apple product produced by the company cannot boast such a huge amount of pre-release information about itself.



Such a “publicity” still unannounced Apple tablet is most likely due primarily to the fact that Apple is not interested in hiding it, but rather seeking the opposite effect. After all, it is not just about a new product running iOS and with an apple on the back cover, ao is a fundamentally new for Apple format of the tablet. The format, against which the founder of the company Steve Jobs has repeatedly spoken, which in itself gives the new tablet scandalous charm.

Fight for the redistribution of the market

There is no doubt that by choosing such a policy, Apple secretly announces to the world a new product, which is being released then in order to compete with other small tablets - the Kindle Fire from Amazon and Google Nexus 7, which have already demonstrated the commercial potential of small forms.

Apple products have always been in the elite status, was the lot of the elect. Now the following happens - the company begins its expansion into the lower price segment of the tablet market, while planning to retain the position of an elite class electronics manufacturer.

Already, analysts predict the iPad Mini serious commercial success, despite the fact that it will cost much more than its competitors. According to analyst Sterne Agee Shaw Wu, for the success of the new Apple does not need to lower its price to the level of Google and Amazon - $ 199. Even with a price of $ 350, the iPad Mini will find its buyers.



His colleague from RBC Capital Markets Amit Dariani believes that the new tablet will bring Apple 2 billion in net profit, and Pipper Jaffray expert Gene Munster has serious concerns that the popularity of the new tablet will negatively affect its “big brother” sales.

Rob Sira of Evercore Partners, a consulting company, agrees with him, believing that after the release of the novelty Apple will abandon the further production of the iPad 2 in order to “clear” the market for its more compact follower. A clear clear need to - according to insiders, in the fourth quarter, Apple ordered suppliers of 10 million tablets.

And to realize such a number of tablets in the next few months is quite possible, because there is an extensive holiday season ahead, in which Christmas in the USA and Europe, the Jewish Hanukkah, the meeting of the new 2013 year and the Chinese New Year in February successfully fit. Exit the sale of the iPad Mini is scheduled for November 2.

What to expect, what to believe

Compared to the indisputable political significance that the iPad Mini has entered the market, its technical characteristics are much more modest. So, what we already know about him. Its main and fundamental feature (of which the tablet owes its name, in fact) is a display (not Retina) with a diagonal of 7, 85 inches and with a resolution of 1024 x 768, protected by Corning Gorilla 2 glass.



In addition, it is known that the device will have two cameras, a dual-core A5X processor (32 nm), the new 8-pin Lightning connector first introduced by Apple on the iPhone 5, according to official information, it will be used in all Apple gadgets in the future. The thickness of the device will be 7.23 mm, a weight, according to some estimates will be around 300 grams. In all other respects, excluding a slightly different form factor, more reminiscent of the fifth-generation iPod Touch, the iPad Mini will be similar to the third-generation iPad.

The cost of the new device, according to KGI Research, will be $ 195 for the “youngest” 16GB Wi-Fi model and $ 254.50 for the most expensive, 64GB 4G LTE version.

The approximate price for a new Apple tablet for consumers will be from 299 to 349 dollars. Analysts point out the low profitability of the new tablet, to which Apple deliberately goes - the primary strategic task of the iPad Mini is not to make super-profits, but to conquer a new market.

What are other news?

Traditionally, from year to year, Apple is not limited to the presentation of a single product. The flagship release is always accompanied not so significant, but, nevertheless, important announcements. As a rule, these are new applications, updates of iOS and Mac OS operating systems and upgrades of laptops and computers.

This event will not be an exception. Moreover, Apple has prepared an enhanced, “large-caliber” set of various bonuses.

Two days ago, evidence was discovered that, in addition to the iPad Mini, an updated version of the “big” iPad — the third-generation iPad itself, equipped with the newest Lightning dock connector and global LTE support (I remember, its absence in the previous iPad Apple brought a lot of trouble in several countries of the world at once).

Any other changes in the updated iPad is not expected and therefore the new product will presumably be available at the price of a regular, “third” iPad.



In addition, the presentation is expected announcements of updated versions of computers iMac, Mac Mini and 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina - display, as well as an announcement of the release received a major update application iBooks 3.0.

As far as all this information is true, time will tell, which is not so much left before the start of the Apple media event in San José.



Read the text translation of the event on the “Planet iPhone” . Beginning at 21.00.