Earlier this year Tim Cook said that Apple has a lot of cool stuff coming in 2012. We continue to get a taste of this as the iPad Mini rumours reach a fever pitch. Apple’s long rumoured 7-inch (7.85″ precisely) variant of the iPad has been on the rumour-mill for a long long time with the rumours now reaching a crescendo as the expected mid/late October announcement draws closer.
The latest in this being a report from the Wall Street Journal saying that component suppliers are cranking up to meet Apple’s requirement of 10 million iPad Minis.
Some component suppliers to Apple in Asia say they have received orders to make more than 10 million units of the smaller tablets in the fourth quarter. That is roughly double the order that were placed for Amazon’s Kindle Fire tablets in the same quarter, these suppliers say.
The figure indicates that Apple believes demand for the product will be strong, despite stiff competition in the market.
Understandably Apple is bracing itself for the holidays, a period where iDevices see extraordinary sales. The iPad Mini also aims at the low-end segment, a territory previously uncharted by the iPad. With the price expected to be anywhere between $199 – $399 we would buy Apple’s latest in a heartbeat.