It is without doubt that 2013 will be the year that Apple takes the wraps off their next-gen iPad mini, presumably the iPad mini 2, but how sure are we that it’s happening? Well according to the folks at Digitimes, they are reporting that Apple is looking to cut shipments of the first-gen iPad mini by 10-12 million units. While they did not state why Apple might be doing something like that, it has been speculated that it could mean that Apple is looking to ramp down production of the current iPad and make way for its successor, which is an entirely plausible scenario.
However on the flipside, some are speculating that perhaps it could be due to stiff competition from the likes of more affordable 7” offerings that could be causing Apple to cut back on shipments. Devices like the Amazon Kindle Fire HD and Google’s Nexus 7 offer users Android tablets at affordable prices, making Apple’s iPad and iPad mini seem a lot more expensive by comparison. It was suggested prior to the launch of the iPad mini that the reason behind its creation was to compete with the likes of the Kindle Fire and the Nexus 7. In any case the rumors are saying that the iPad mini 2 could be seeing a launch in Q3 of 2013, which makes sense since it would make it about a year from its previous release.
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