According to DigiTimes works Apple to a smaller version of the iPad, with a diagonal screen size of 7.85″. Previously gave Apple still little to see in a smaller version of the iPad, but the competition would Apple be forced to.
DigiTimes says to rely on sources from the ‘supply chain’. Increased competition from smaller tablets such as the Kindle Fire from Amazon with a 7″screen, would Apple decide to turn to yet with a smaller iPad. The smaller model would have a screen diagonal of 7.85″; the current model has a 9.7″screen.
Apple would be the 7.85″panels from the smaller iPad from LG and AU Optronics to buy. Production of the smaller model would be somewhere at the end of the spring should begin. For that time, Apple probably already has a successor for the iPad 2 on the market; previously reported to DigiTimes that in march or april would come, which is a logical timing would be. The first iPad came out in april 2010; the iPad 2 arrived in march of this year.
Said earlier, the now deceased Apple-ceo Steve Jobs to shareholders that a screen with a diagonal screen size of 7″ is of little use, since it is very small for a tablet. Apple has the rumors is not confirmed.