On Friday, All Things D said that its sources have told them that Apple would hold an "invitation-only" event on October 23rd where the long rumored mini version of Apple's tablet will finally be made official. As far back as December 2010, a picture showed what was rumored to be a miniature version of the Apple iPad although it was never confirmed. Now, 22 months later, the device looks to be a reality. One Wall Street analyst, who got to play with the device while touring Asian component suppliers, called it a more mobile version of Apple's tablet that easily slipped into the pocket on his sports coat while fitting his palm like a glove.
In pricing the device at around the same price point where the low priced 7 inch Android tablets reside, Apple will be giving up some of its profit margin in order to defend its extremely high market share in the tablet market. A recent survey from IDC showed the Apple iPad with a commanding 68.2% of the global tablet market. During the recent patent trial with Samsung, Apple said that its profit margin on U.S. sales of the iPad ranged from 23% to 32% from October 2010 through March 2012. Considering that Amazon has said that it sells its $199 tablet at cost, there is not going to be much room for Apple to make money. This could be the beginning of a crack in the company's earnings that the bears on Apple's stock have been looking for. Apple's shares have recently tumbled from the $700 level hit after the release of the Apple iPhone 5 to the current price near $630, a 10% decline.
Sterne Agee analyst Shaw Wu says that if Apple prices the Apple iPad mini in the $299-$349 range, it will keep the same profit margins as it has with the larger version of the tablet. Even if it prices the tablet below $299, Wu says that the Cupertino based firm can still make a decent profit by limiting native storage on the device to 8GB instead of the 16GB on the larger model. The Apple iPad mini is rumored to be Wi-Fi only with Apple keeping data connectivity for its higher priced models.
