Now, though, competitors’ focus on the 7in segment of the market has started to pay off, most notably with growing sales of the Amazon Kindle Fire and the launch of Google’s Asus-made Nexus 7.
That has prompted Apple to get out a small tablet of it’s own, ABI suggested. “With the introduction of a smaller, lower-cost iPad Mini, Apple has acknowledged Android’s beachhead of 7in-class tablets,” said ABI senior practice director Jeff Orr.
Yet Apple doesn’t appear to have rushed the Mini to market. If the rumour-mill is anything to go by, Apple was working on the Mini during 2011, if only to have a design in the labs ready to release should the need arise.