Click to Skip Ad
Closing in...

Apple’s ‘iPad mini’ may be even more mini than you thought

Updated Dec 19th, 2018 7:49PM EST
BGR

If you buy through a BGR link, we may earn an affiliate commission, helping support our expert product labs.

A new report suggests Apple’s upcoming “iPad mini” will be even smaller than earlier rumors suggested. Venturebeat is one of a number of sites that recently reported Apple’s upcoming next-generation iPad will be named “iPad HD.” The pixel-count certainly justifies the moniker — Apple’s new tablet will supposedly feature a high-definition 2,048 x 1,536-pixel display — and the rumors started with a leaked parts list that surfaced last week. The site also claims that Apple’s often rumored iPad mini, which is expected to launch some time in the second half this year, will feature a 7.1-inch display rather than a 7.85-inch display as we’ve heard numerous times in the past. Read on for more.

A 7.1-inch display would pit Apple’s tiny tablet against the likes of Amazon’s Kindle Fire and Barnes & Noble’s Nook Tablet, and it would also be exactly the size Apple co-founder Steve Jobs said Apple would never touch.

“One naturally thinks that a 7-inch screen would offer 70 percent of the benefits of a 10-inch screen,” Jobs said in 2010 on an earnings call. “Unfortunately, this is far from the truth. The reason we won’t make a 7-inch tablet isn’t because we don’t want to hit a lower price point, it’s because we think the screen is too small to express the software.”

This wouldn’t be the first time Apple launched a device with features it had previously criticized, however. There are numerous examples of Apple backtracking over the years, but the most famous is perhaps Apple’s insistance that the iPhone didn’t need to support third-party apps and that web apps were the answer. Fast-forward to March 2012, and Apple just announced that its App Store has now served more than 25 billion downloads.

Apple’s “iPad mini” will reportedly launch in the third quarter ahead of Apple’s next-generation iPhone, which is expected to launch this fall.

Zach Epstein
Zach Epstein Executive Editor

Zach Epstein has been the Executive Editor at BGR for more than 10 years. He manages BGR’s editorial team and ensures that best practices are adhered to. He also oversees the Ecommerce team and directs the daily flow of all content. Zach first joined BGR in 2007 as a Staff Writer covering business, technology, and entertainment.

His work has been quoted by countless top news organizations, and he was recently named one of the world's top 10 “power mobile influencers” by Forbes. Prior to BGR, Zach worked as an executive in marketing and business development with two private telcos.