Continuing this year’s trend of announcing products that are the same as other products except for slight size modifications, Apple today announced the iPad Mini, a new iPad that’s smaller than the iPad 2. The idea behind the thing is that it’s small enough to fit in one hand but still big enough to not count as an iPhone. If you’re interested in the tech details, you can check out Apple’s official site, but there’s not much there to surprise you. It’s a smaller iPad. What were you expecting?
Anyway, the iPad Mini comes out November 2. In Asia, Japan, Hong Kong, Korea, and Singapore will see the device sold officially on day one. China, of course, won’t have the device officially for some time (there’s still not even a release date for the iPhone 5 in China) but Chinese Apple fanatics can expect the first gray market imports from Hong Kong to arrive in Zhongguancun and other tech centers nationwide sometime on the evening of November 2. Other Asian nations can probably expect similar phenomena.
It’s too early to know how most of Asia will react to the iPad Mini announcement since most of the continent is still asleep. If recent Apple launches are any indication, expect a lukewarm online reaction followed by record sales numbers. In China especially, this thing is going to sell like hotcakes. Has Apple finally figured out that changing the appearance slightly once a year is the key to netting even more massive sales numbers there? Or have I just become too cynical?
[via Apple.com]
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