If you're an avid Apple consumer, this 2012 fall must have you giddy. Apple recently showed off the brand-new, redesigned iPhone 5 at a press conference on September 12 in San Francisco and it's all but official that the Cupertino-based company will have a smaller iPad Mini out in the coming months.
Apple did not reveal the iPad Mini along with the iPhone 5 and new iPods at their September 12 conference. Instead, most believe Apple will hold a second press event in October to showcase the smaller iPad as to not take attention away from the iPhone 5 launch on September 21.
The iPad Mini should then be in consumers' hands by the end of October.
Reports and rumors from around the internet state that the iPad Mini will probably come with a 7.85-inch screen and start at around $249. This would make it competitive in the small, budget tablet market against Google's Nexus 7 tablet and Amazon's upcoming line of Kindle Fires.
Amazon showed how lucrative and appealing smaller, cheaper (than the iPad's price range of $499 and up) tablets can be with the Kindle Fire. Now, competitors such as Google, and now Apple, are taking note and releasing their own smaller and cheaper tablets.
The iPad Mini should also be running iOS 6, which starts rolling out to Apple devices on September 19. Apple users will have even more cloud storage and streaming options, allowing them to utilize a number of Apple devices to access their content.
The iPad Mini upcoming release gives Apple fans plenty to be happy about. Not only is it one more device to access your iCloud, with a cheaper price tag it means that going Apple doesn't necessarily mean emptying your wallet.