Apple will reportedly hold a special iPad Mini themed event on October 23.
October 10th – the rumored date Apple was supposed to send out invitations to a special iPad Mini event – came and went without a peep. Shortly thereafter a report emerged claiming that a last-minute design change to the iPad Mini, albeit a small one, prompted Apple to slightly delay its plans to unleash its miniaturized iPad onto the market.
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But now as we steadily approach mid-October, Apple’s iPad Mini plans are starting to take shape.
Citing sources familiar with Apple’s plans, All Things D is reporting that Apple will hold a special iPad Mini-themed event on Tuesday, October 23.
That’s a Tuesday, not a Wednesday, so this is a bit of a break with recent tradition. It also happens to be just three days prior to the street date for Microsoft’s new Surface tablet.
Sources declined to specify where the event is to be held, and I’ve not been able to confirm a location.
But it’s likely to be at Apple’s Town Hall Auditorium. The company has debuted a number of important products there in the past — OS X Lion, a next-generation MacBook Air and the iPhone 4S — so there’s plenty of precedent.
Apple has recently begun launching products about 10 days after introducing them. So if we assume that that holds true in this case, expect the iPad Mini to hit store shelves on Friday, November 2 – still plenty of time for Apple to capitalize on the lucrative holiday shopping season. The iPad Mini is being positioned to compete with smaller tablets like the Google Nexus 7 and the Amazon Kindle Fire so it will be interesting to see just how aggressively Apple chooses to price the iPad Mini. Thus far, analysts are expecting the price to fall somewhere in the $199 to $250 range.
The iPad Mini will by all accounts sport a 7.85-inch screen and Apple’s new lightning connector. A Retina Display will not be included due to price considerations most likely. And more recently, the Guardian reported that the iPad Mini will be a Wi-Fi only device.
