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Apple iPad Mini Could Complicate Things For Windows 8 Tablets

Posted by Soulskill on from the or-keep-them-very-very-simple dept.

Nerval's Lobster writes "Current rumor suggests that Apple is gearing up to unveil its iPad Mini Oct. 17, with invitations to media arriving Oct. 10. That's according to Fortune, which obtained the information from an unnamed Apple investor who, in turn, heard those dates from other unnamed sources. While that attribution might prove a bit too vaporous for some people, it does align with earlier reports from AllThingsD that Apple is planning to reveal a smaller iPad sometime in October. If those rumors prove accurate, the unveiling of an iPad Mini in that timeframe could prove very bad news for the upcoming Windows 8 tablets. (Gizmodo offers a pretty complete rumor rundown on the iPad Mini's possible features here.) Unlike the traditional PC market, Microsoft doesn't dominate the market for mobile-device operating systems. Windows 7 tablets never gained much of a toehold among tablet users, who prefer iPads and Android-based devices by wide margins. When it comes to Windows 8 (and Windows RT, the version of next-generation Windows for ARM architecture), Microsoft is starting out as the underdog."

5 of 200 comments (clear)

  1. Next they'll make an iPad Nano by cervesaebraciator · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Oh, wait...

  2. Want bigger, not smaller! by busyqth · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Where's my ~14" A4/Letter sized tablet? Give me a full sized page of text please.

  3. Plant by MogNuts · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Always nice to know that Apple plant's stories (or exposes the media bias). I love how everytime some big iPad killer is announced, *someone* posts a story about the iPad mini. Remember the Nexus 7 launch? One week later there was a iPad mini that proved to be vaporware. At least this time it's BEFORE the launch of Win 8, so we'll see it was just a plant story of vaporware.

  4. Re:so? by Oliver+Wendell+Jones · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I'm just waiting for Apple to claim that they invented the concept of a ~7" tablet and that all of the ones that have been on the market for years are actually copying their design...

    --
    A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kick boxing -- Emo Phillips
  5. Re:Meh by NatasRevol · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Win 8 tablet: apps to use, plus a *real* OS when I need it. Tired of using bullshit dataviz office on the go? Fire up MS Office 2010. Don't want to play bullshit touch games? Fire up Dead Space, Mass Effect, etc. (limited to what a intel HD 4000 that can play)

    Yeah, that sold well last time around. When they called them WinXP tablets.

    --
    There are two types of people in the world: Those who crave closure