Apple could be launching a new iPad Mini 4 tablet this September if the latest web whisperings are accurate, and we honestly can’t see the point.
Last year’s iPad Mini 3 reveal was little more than a side-note, tacked on at the end of the iPad Air 2 launch event, and we weren’t too surprised when we saw the specs list. After all, the Mini 3 was barely even an update over the iPad Mini 2, with the most notable new feature being the addition of Apple’s Touch ID sensor.
We expected the iPad Mini 3 to be a rather sad end to Apple’s tiny tablet range, a trio of devices that would be put out to pasture now that Apple’s phones were growing almost as large. After all, the 5.7-inch iPhone 6 Plus is easily big enough to get busy with creative apps and enjoy hours of movie streaming. Why would you need a tablet that’s a wee bit bigger, especially the cellular model which is basically an iPhone 6 Plus Plus?
And yet, Japanese blog Mac Otakara is suggesting that Apple is readying the iPad Mini 4 for release later in 2015. The blog reckons this could be Apple’s final iPad Mini, and essentially a smaller version of the iPad Air 2, complete with an ultra-thin 6.1mm body and an 8-megapixel iSight camera. Great news for those idiots who like to take photos at gigs with their tablet.
If the rumours are true, it makes us wonder why Apple is bothering. After spending all of 17 seconds on the iPad Mini 3 at last year’s launch, it’s clearly lost interest as fast as consumers. And with iPad sales continuing to plummet (just 12.3 million iPads overall were shifted in the final quarter of 2014, less than half of the number recorded the previous year), news of a fresh Mini is all the more surprising.
Perhaps Apple is just settled into a state of ‘let’s do what we know’ by now, although the iPad Mini 4 really should be the curtain call for Apple’s dinky tabs if it ever sees the light of day. We’re much more interested in seeing the mighty iPad Pro, which should hopefully be launched later in 2015 too.
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