THERE is never a smoke without a fire; as the talks about the iPAD Mini began unravelling, many people could not differentiate truths from rumours. Anyone with an eye toward upcoming equipment and devices has been preoccupied with the possibility of a smaller iPAD devices and this applies to many of us.

Now that we are receiving reports that the iPAD Mini is in production, the gadget-hungry masses may be forced to sharpen their appetites for the ever-growing variety at their disposal of the collection of jewels. If it’s true that the new Apple tablet’s release is inevitability, what will we find inside it and how will it do on the market? A number of times, has been discussion of the possibility of a mini iPad, when it might emerge (if it emerged at all), what would it contain and how it might stand up to competition from other products already on the market. It was mentioned that profit margins in the 7-inch tablet space were not robust enough to entice Apple to offer up a product in that category. It was also suggested that perhaps the Cupertino-based company wished to take a look at how Google’s Nexus 7 fared before it pulled the trigger on a smaller iPad. Did Apple find a way to grow its margins with a 7-inch tablet? Did it look to Google’s offering to decide whether to jump into the fray? (If so, if tooled up for production incredibly fast). Or, did Apple plan this all along? Possible Features? A Forbes contributor, Anthony Wing Kosner, noted that OSX Daily listed a number of possible features for the new product, including A5X CPU from the current iPad 3, 8GB of storage, iOS6 and a price of about $299, all of this with a 7.85” display and 1024×768 resolution.  A commenter for a previous piece on the possibility of a new tablet speculated that Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) could use a 163 pixel-per-inch screen and then laud it as ‘50% higher resolution.’ Other readers felt that the company would not likely release a smaller iPad for less than about $349. Others commented that though Apple could be successful with a higher price tag with some consumers but Nexus 7’s lower cost would make it a winner with businesses, developers and professionals.  Areas Apple could improve upon the Nexus is in expandable storage. Google’s tablet doesn’t have it. Integration of a virtual PA, a la Siri (likely to happen), well-developed magazine and newspaper reading experience and HDMI compatibility would all be features improving upon areas where critics found the Nexus 7 lacking. As far as the Kindle Fire is concerned, a Forbes reader suggested that the Nexus has replaced the Amazon product as the 7-inch tablet to have. If this is so, iPad Mini will be going head to head with Google in that space. It will make for an exciting showdown. Should the small tablet space continue to develop more compelling products from more competitors, we all are looking at the, Microsoft Surface for an alternative of the same!