Apple surprises with new iPad as it unveils iPad Mini

Apple unveiled its hotly anticipated 7.9-inch iPad Mini this afternoon, an “entirely new design” of its trail-blazing tablet. “There is nothing as amazing as this, this beautiful new iPad Mini,” said Apple’s top marketing officer Phil Schiller At 7.2 millimeters thick, it’s a quarter as thin as the fourth-generation iPad, also announced today. It weighs .68 pounds. “It’s as light as a pad of paper,” Schiller said. Available in Apple’s customary black and white, the iPad Mini fits in your palm and can be held in landscape or portrait mode. All 275,000 apps available for iPad are compatible. The wi-fi version of the iPad Mini starts at $329, the 32 GB version is $429 and the 64GB version is $529. Pre-order is available on Friday. “Others have tried to make tablets smaller than the iPad and they’ve failed miserably,” Schiller said, showing an iPad Mini beside an Android tablet on the movie screen behind him. In a surprise announcement, the company also announced a fourth-generation iPad, setting up a formidable product line for this year’s holiday shopping season. “It is a powerhouse,” said Schiller. “We’re so far ahead of the competition I can’t even see them in the rear-view mirror.” The new iPad includes 10 hours of battery life, an updated front-facing HD camera, LTE data speeds, faster wi-fi, and the new lightning connector that’s reversible and 80 percent smaller. The iPad 16GB version starts at $499, with the same pricing structure as the previous versions. Apple has sold a whopping 100 million iPads, Apple CEO Tim Cook announced. “This is unprecedented for a new product in a new category,” Cook said. In a veiled reference to Microsoft’s upcoming Surface tablet, which hits stores Friday, Cook said Apple sold more iPads in the June quarter than any PC manufacturer sold of their entire PC lineup. “This has attracted a fair amount of attention,” Cook said to subdued laughter. “It seems like every day there’s a new tablet shipping.”