Having kicked off the modern tablet market single handily back in 2010 with the iPad – Apple has always accounted for the lions share of interest and sales. You hardly have to be an Apple fanboy to describe this as essentially defined by Apple, certainly in the early days.
A few years later however, Apple’s dominance in this market was being (very slightly) chipped away by rivals.
The equivalent sized and priced products, of which there are a few, never managed to tear away much from the original Apple iPad. But in 2012 a new wave of smaller tablets (with around a 7 inch screen) managed to get a bit of a foothold.
Particularly successful were the Google Nexus 7 (made by Asus) and the Amazon Kindle Fire, which as well as being small enough to take out of the house – as opposed to the bulky iPad which is more at home on your coffee table – were also a darn sight cheaper at about $/£150.
The lesson seemed to have been learned – compete with Apple in the tablet space at a similar price point to the iPad, and you might find yourself running into a brick wall.
A string of similar smaller, cheaper devices from firms like Sony and Samsung – which started releasing tablets at every conceivable size – suddenly made it look like tablets were a more competitive, vibrant market.
It also seemed to highlight a division between the larger, more expensive end still totally run by the iPad, and a newer, smaller, cheaper end of the market in which it was possible to make significant in-roads.
You might have thought Apple would be happy with this arrangement – hovering up the profits at the more expensive end of the shop. Instead, it’s response was to launch the iPad Mini and compete at the other end as well– and very well it did out of it too.
This inevitably has led to speculation as to what Apple has up its sleeve for the next iteration – which we can only logically assume will be called the iPad Mini 2.
iPad Mini 2 case
Pictures have a tendency to leak, and sometimes they can be faked. Disseminating the former from the latter is a task the tech press often finds itself concerned with.
FanaticFone unveiled a few recently – but they don’t tell much of a story. They look precisely like iPad Mini and iPad 4 cases, which considering the design apple rarely falls far from the tree (feel free to play around with your own pun here) that’s probably exactly what they’ll look like.
Though maybe a bit thinner.
iPad Mini 2 release date
Most commentators seem, if not agreed, then happy to say it’s likely, that there will be some form of new iPhone released in September – whether that’s the iPhone 6, the iPhone 5S, both, or neither.
We do know that iOS 7 will be out around that time, bolstering such rumours.
Could it be possible we’ll see a mega-launch from Apple, in which they update the iPad Mini 2 and iPad 5 as well?
Well, it’s hard to say. But it doesn’t seem unlikely.
Certainly, you’d expect the iPad Mini 2 to be available by Christmas 2013.
iPad Mini specs
The biggest rumour, and certainly one you can believe, is that the iPad Mini 2 would be a Retina display – Apple’s HD screen found on the iPhone 5.
Elsewhere, a quad core processor and more RAM is suspected – but you could probably have guessed that.
iPad Mini colours
As well as speculation that Apple will make a range of iPhones in different colours, there is talk of the next iPads coming in colour options too.
You want proof? You can’t handle the proof!
Ok, there isn’t any really – but there is a speculation that you’ll be able to get the ipad Mini 2 in your choice of colours. Reams of it.
As a counter point, we’d highlight the fact Apple tends to keep it’s products to a fairly tight colour scheme – i.e. black and white.
Except the iPods, which you can get in various colours.
So, erm, could go either way that one.
iPad Mini 2 price
This is the smaller, cheaper arm of Apple’s iPad operation – so you can probably expect it to be in the £270 region at launch, as was the iPad Mini, we’d say.

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