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SYDNEY/NEW YORK The launch of Apple Inc’s iPad mini attracted smaller crowds from Sydney to New York on Friday than have been typical for previous Apple product debuts, events marked by people lining up for hours or even days. A proliferation of comparable rival devices may have sapped some interest for the device, which is priced above rival gadgets from Google Inc and Amazon.com Inc. A few hundred people were in line at Apple’s Fifth Avenue flagship store in New York at about 8 a.m., days after the city was battered by Hurricane Sandy, one of the biggest storms to [...]

SAN FRANCISCO Apple Inc released the iPad mini to retail stores on Friday morning. Announced last week, the tablet comes in a 7.9-inch screen and starts at $ 329 — bigger than competing tablets like the Kindle Fire from Amazon.com [s:AMZN], which start at $ 199. Gene Munster of Piper Jaffray expects Apple to sell between 1 million and 1.5 million units of the iPad mini this weekend. “The reason we expect fewer iPad minis compared to the 3rd Gen (IPad) is because of the lack of the wireless option and newness of the smaller form factor for consumers, with [...]

Apple unveils the iPad Mini

SYDNEY Apple fans lined up in several Asian cities to get their hands on the iPad mini on Friday, but the device, priced above rival gadgets from Google and Amazon.com, attracted smaller crowds than at the company’s previous global rollouts. Apple Inc’s global gadget rollouts are typically high-energy affairs drawing droves of buyers who stand in line for hours. But a proliferation of comparable rival devices may have sapped some interest. About 50 people waited for the Apple store in Sydney, Australia, to open, where in the past the line had stretched for several blocks when the company debuted new [...]

SAN FRANCISCO Apple Inc’s entry in the accelerating mobile tablet race squeezes about 35 percent more viewing space onto a lighter package than rival devices from Google or Amazon.com Inc, but it sports inferior resolution and a lofty price tag, two influential reviewers wrote on Tuesday. The iPad mini, which starts at $ 329 versus the $ 199 for Google’s Nexus 7 and Amazon’s Kindle Fire HD, is easy to hold with one hand, eliminating a drawback of the 10-inch iPad, Wall Street Journal columnist Walt Mossberg wrote in one of the first major reviews of a gadget introduced last [...]

A comparison of some of the specs of smaller tablets. See the original Ars Technica story for the full graphic. STORY HIGHLIGHTS Apple’s iPad Mini joins the 7-inch tablet market Amazon’s Kindle Fire HD, Google’s Nexus 7 are among current leaders Apple’s display screen is bigger than the others, but $ 329 price tag is bigger, too (Ars Technica) — After months of rumor roundups and speculation, Apple’s iPad mini has finally been announced—and the 7-inch tablet market has just heated up. This growing product category now has more to offer than Android devices with differing UI skins and varying [...]

TOKYO Both Softbank Corp and KDDI Corp will offer Apple Inc’s 7.9-inch version of the iPad in Japan, Apple said on its Japanese website on Wednesday, competing with one another as well as with Google Inc’s Nexus 7 and Rakuten Inc’s Kobo e-reader here. Softbank is betting on a $ 20 billion bid to buy control of U.S. telco Sprint Nextel Corp and diversify away from Japan’s saturated market dominated by NTT Docomo. (Reporting by Reiji Murai, writing by Mayumi Negishi; Editing by Eric Meijer)

The new iPad Mini’s 7.9-inch screen dominates the device, but isn’t a “Retina Display”The thinner and lighter iPad is a more manageable size for reading and traveling Inside, the iPad Mini is similar to the older iPad 2Prices start at $ 329, which is high for the 7-inch tablet category The full-sized iPad is like a hardback book. The new iPad Mini is the paperback version many tablet users have been waiting for.Following Tuesday’s press conference, Apple ushered reporters into a crowded, narrow room in San Jose’s restored California Theater for some chaperoned hands-on time with the new devices.Of course, [...]

Apple Inc announced a new, smaller iPad tablet priced from $ 329 on Tuesday, well above the price of competing devices from Amazon.com and Google Inc. Its shares were down more than 2 percent in afternoon trading. Here is instant reaction from analysts and investors. SHANNON CROSS, ANALYST, CROSS RESEARCH “Definitely think they have another hit on their hands.” “Blanketing all price points with very compelling products and not leaving a pricing umbrella for the competition. Keep in mind, if you run through iPod Touch through the portable Macs, there’s clearly a price point for pretty much everyone, especially into [...]

Apple sent this invite to members of the media Tuesday. The graphics offer few clues as to what the company may announce.Apple sent invites to members of the press Tuesday for an October 23 eventThe event next week is widely expected to be the launch of a smaller iPad One of the worst-kept secrets in tech has been confirmed: Apple will hold an event October 23 in San Jose, California, at which the company is widely expected to unveil a smaller, cheaper version of its popular iPad.Apple sent e-mails to members of the press Tuesday that read simply, “We’ve got [...]