Rumors about a larger Kindle Fire and smaller iPad are flying high in the blogosphere and a recent report from New York Times have added further traction to it.
After WSJ and Bloomberg, Times also reports that Apple is planning to produce a smaller, 7.85-inch screen iPad Mini and it will cost "significantly less than the latest $499 iPad," and "people with knowledge of the project," who wanted to remain anonymous, have informed the Times that the device will be released before the end of 2012.
Meantime, some other anonymous source has informed the agency about Amazon's plan to release a larger version of Kindle Fire which would compete more directly with the iPad. While the Times report does not specify the display size of next generation Fire, earlier reports claimed that the world's largest e-commerce platform has decided to launch a 10.1-inch Kindle Fire with 1280 x 800 pixel resolution, a major improvement over the 1024 x 600 display of the original 7-inch Kindle Fire. Moreover, the new Kindle Fire is expected to be thinner, lighter than the original device and is also expected to feature a built-in camera. And, the Amazon device is expected to come as soon as July 31.
On the other hand, GottaBeMobile reported that Apple's new Mini iPad will be the thinnest and about two-thirds the size of tabs produced by Apple till date, with 3.36mm height and 143.67mm width. The device will have a 7.85-inch IGZO display from Sharp, a smaller 19-pin dock connector and an 8 GB of flash memory. The new iPad Mini will be priced at a reasonable $299, various sources claimed earlier.
Pacific Crest analyst Andy Hargreaves has predicted that the Cupertino tech giant will sell 10 million of the Minis by the end of 2012.
Both the company, however, declined to comment.
