I am expecting it to come in around the £200 mark, which would enable Apple to compete with the avalanche of cheap tablets appearing in the shops from Google, Amazon and others. With Amazon selling a 7-inch tablet for just £129, though, Apple is going to going to have a real fight on its hands as it attempt to dominate the tablet market in Europe in the way it has until now.
It won't have a Retina display
The screen is one of the more difficult predictions to make, but most analysts seem to back Daring Fireball's John Gruber's early prediction that it will not be a Retina display. Images in circulation suggest that the screen size will be around 7.85 inches with a resolution of 1024 x 768. Rene Ritchie of iMore helps put that into context:
"On one hand, it's hard to imagine Apple releasing a non-Retina iOS device at this point. The current generation iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad are all running at Retina. On the other hand, no iOS device has ever been introduced with a Retina display. The original iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad were all launched with standard displays, and later received Retina displays as part of their upgrade cycle."
The problems with the inclusion of a Retina display are neatly summarised by Sam Byford at the Verge, who neatly concludes "the inclusion of a Retina display may well come with too many compromises for this year's model".
It will have a lightning dock connector
Apple's replacement for the 30-pin dock connector was unveiled at the iPhone 5 launch and it would be uncharacteristically inconsistent for the company not to include it in its new iPad mini. On Sunday Apple Insider reported that a pair of images thought to show an iPad mini Lightning dock connector appeared on online community Apple.pro.
It will be narrower and lighter
Holding an iPad with one hand isn't all that easy, but with a smaller, lighter tablet it becomes a possibility. A mockup by Seth Weintraub from 9to5Mac shows a narrower profile with a thinner size bezel. iMore has heard that the thickness will remain the same at around 7.2mm thin.
John Paczkowski of AllThingsD had this line from Topeka analyst Brian White, who's been travelling around Taipei talking to component suppliers:
Apple did not skimp on the aesthetics of the much anticipated 'iPad Mini,'" White says. "In fact, we believe the 'iPad Mini' could outshine the new iPad in terms of how the device feels in a consumer's hands."
It will have front and rear cameras
It's difficult to pinpoint the exact specs of the cameras, but leaked case images all show a front and rear camera.
It will have better battery life than the iPhone
An image leaked to MacRumors appears to show a 3.72V battery offering 16.7 watt-hour capacity, placing it between the iPhone 5 at 5.45 watt-hours and the third-generation full-size iPad at 42.5 watt-hours.
It may cannibalise iPad sales
Gene Munster, an analyst with Piper Jaffray, told AllThingsD:
We believe that the smaller iPad could cannibalize one million regular iPad units in December or a rate of cannibalization at 20 percent. [So] for every five million smaller iPads, you lose one million standard iPads."
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