Did Samsung Spill the Beans on Apple iPad Mini Development?
Published reports say Apple chose Samsung to be the exclusive provider of the new iPad retina display, which is interesting since Samsung and Apple have been battling it out in the courtroom over patents. But Apple’s relationship with Samsung may get cozier, since “an anonymous Samsung executive” has claimed his company also will be delivering the screen for an iPad mini. I’m as surprised as you are …
A tip of the hat goes to SlashGear, which scooped up the story from The Korea Times. Apparently, this secretive Samsung executive alleged Apple will be spending almost $10 billion with his company on components, and the number will hit $11 billion soon. Why?
Apple is planning to release a smaller iPad, probably with a 7.85-inch screen, and [wants] to sell more of its MacBook Air PCs using Samsung’s faster solid state drive (SSD) storage …
Okay, so it’s hardly a confirmation of the mythical product, but this isn’t the first time we’ve heard whispers Apple is looking to build an iPad with a 7.85-inch screen. Considering Apple has agreed to use Samsung components through 2014 (plus reports Apple is eying Samsung’s OLED technology), it’s possible that Apple could pretty much build any size iPad it wanted.
I’ve already covered the pros and cons on the creation of such a device, but I think realistically, Apple doesn’t need to make it. And while Apple could be the one company that could avoid device fragmentation with different form factors, I think it may be dizzying for developers to keep up. Currently, only two major platforms exist: iPad and iPhone. An iPad mini would represent a third screen with an older resolution of 1024×768. Also, the internal components could be called into question: Will it be beefy like the new iPad, or simply have the internals of the iPad 2? Would (or should) developers build apps for the iPhone 4S and scale them up for the iPad mini? Or would (or should) developers scale down from the new iPad? Do they do nothing, or build for two devices and hope for the best?
My head hurts. But if you’ve got good ideas coming out of yours, be sure to leave them in the comments section. The future of Apple is a topic that is full of endless discussion and we welcome it all.
