WSJ: Apple to start producing iPad Mini from September

Apple will start mass production of a tablet with a smaller screen than the current iPad from September. The Wall Street Journal reports this. The ‘iPad Mini’ could be in stores this fall at the earliest.

Apple released the third generation of its tablet iPad a few months ago, but Apple is said to have asked suppliers only this week to start producing the smaller iPad from September, The Wall Street Journal reports. The Wall Street Journal is one of the media outlets Apple allegedly leaked information about announcements and new products to. In addition, the newspaper is rarely wrong with information about announcements and new products from Apple. The information about the ‘iPad Mini’ comes almost a week after Google announced its own small tablet Nexus 7.

The Wall Street Journal reports few details about the smaller iPad, other than that the screen would be smaller than 8″. It had previously been suggested that the smaller iPad would get a 7.85″ screen like a new Amazon Kindle Fire. If the screen size becomes 7.85″ and the resolution is 1024×768 pixels, Apple can probably use the iPhone 3GS screen production lines, which have exactly the same number of pixels per inch as the smaller tablet would have. Because screens are always made in large formats, manufactured and then custom-made, that would be obvious.

Apple announced its tablet iPad in 2010 and is still by far the market leader in tablet sales. The rumors of smaller iPhones and iPads have been going on almost since the devices were unveiled. Until now, Apple has stuck to the screen sizes of its mobile devices: 3.5″ for the iPhone and 9.7″ for the iPad. The late Apple CEO Steve Jobs opposed 7″ tablets in 2010.