$369 for your new, smaller iPad

Gadget Girl Jen Dudley on why the iPad mini is cool, but not as cool as the big geeky stuff out there.

APPLE founder Steve Jobs once called them "tweeners'' and "dead on arrival'' but this morning Apple bit the bullet and launched its own 7-inch tablet called the iPad Mini.

But while the iPad Mini has grabbed all the attention, Apple has slipped some other major changes through "under the radar".

Most notably - it has released the iPad 4, five months early. The move is likely to leave "New" iPad owners miffed as the upgrade is a signficant one.

And the 13-inch Retina display MacBook Pro is also an eye-opener, squeezing a powerful punch in a diminutive package.

Most radical, however, was the changes to the iMac. Along with an incredibly thin display, it has a new hard-drive system inside its tiny box incorporating solid-state and traditional disc systems.

But everybody wants to know about the iPad Mini.

The new-look device is significantly smaller, weighs just 308 grams, and is a lot cheaper than the 9.7-inch iPad 3 launched in March, with a starting price of just $369. It will be available for pre-order from Apple Australia from Friday, and will hit the shelves on November 2.

The iPad Mini comes with an optional 4G mobile internet connection, the same dual-core chip as the iPad 2, two cameras including a 5-megapixel rear camera, and a 10-hour battery life.

Phil Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of worldwide product marketing, introduces the iPad Mini. AP/Marcio Jose Sanchez

Apple worldwide marketing senior vice-president Phil Schiller revealed the smallest iPad in San Jose this morning, saying "this isn't just a shrunken down iPad: it's an entirely new iPad."

The iPad Mini has the same screen resolution of the iPad 2 (crammed into half its size), but it doesn't match the power or $249 price of Google's current quad-core 7-inch tablet, the Nexus 7.

So how does the iPad Mini stack up against its competitors?

First, it comes in at almost double the price of the Google Nexus 7 and Kindle Fire HD. It has slightly lower screen resolution, is somewhat lighter and has much better 5 megapixel camera. While testing data is scarce, it would also appear the iPad Mini's dual-core A5 chip is inferior to that of the Nexus 7's quad-core CPU.

Apple went on to surprise the audience by revealing a new top-of-the-line fourth generation iPad with a powerful new chip promising twice the speed as the seven-month-old "new" iPad and twice the download speed with Wi-Fi.

Apple also used the event to launch new Macs including a new, much thinner iMac desktop computer and a new laptop, a 13-inch version of the MacBook Pro that Schiller named "the lightest MacBook Pro yet".

The new iMac desktop computer is now just 5mm thin, or 80 per cent thinner than the previous model, 3.2kg lighter, and it features an HD web camera, up to 3 terabytes of storage, four USB 3.0 ports, though it no longer features a DVD drive.

Apple's latest toy in an ad

"There's an entire computer in there," Mr Schiller said. "It's hard to believe there's even a display in here."

Apple's new 13-inch MacBook Pro will feature a high-resolution "Retina" display, redesigned battery compartments, three USB 3.0 ports but no DVD drive, and a weight of just 1.6kg. The new MacBook Pro will begin shipping today, though the new iMac will not be available until December.

Apple also revealed a new Mac Mini desktop unit for $US599 that has been upgraded with a faster, 2.5GHz chip and 4GB RAM.

But it is the iPad that stole the show in San Jose and will move the most product for Apple in the pre-Christmas rush.

Apple has sold more than 100 million iPads since its April 2010 launch, and remains the leader of the tablet market with Gartner estimating its market share at more than 60 per cent.

J.P. Morgan analyst Mark Moskowitz said the iPad Mini was designed to appeal to a fiscally conservative crowd and would sell well, but he warned it could eat into sales of pricier computers.

Apple has unveiled its latest high tech device

''In our view, the iPad Mini stands to target price-sensitive users and the e-reader crowd,'' he said. ''Given the global economic uncertainty, we think price-sensitive users could gravitate toward an iPad Mini instead of making a PC purchase.''

Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster said Apple risked sales of its larger iPad by introducing a cheaper tablet.

"For every five million smaller iPads, you lose one million standard iPads,'' he said.

Regardless, Piper Jaffray estimated that Apple would sell 25 million miniature iPads next year and 95 million larger models, up from an earlier forecast of 86.5 million.

Chris Griffith reports from San Jose as Apple unveils the iPad mini and a fourth-generation iPad.

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