The second version of the iPad Mini is available today through Apple's online store, ABC News reported. Interested buyers can arrange to pick up their next generation minis in one of Apple's many storefronts, but they have to order them online beforehand.
Customers won't be able to buy one directly from the physical store. Minis will also soon be available through AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless and other select Apple Authorized Resellers, according to ABC News.
Now that the Mini has an improved display, only size and price separate it from the recently launched iPad air, which is a touch thinner than the last iPad, the iPad 2. Both the Air and the Mini have the latest A7 processor and the same design, according to ABC News. Unlike previous minis, the latest shares the same high resolution retina display as the full sized iPad -- the reason why Apple advertises it as the "iPad Mini w/ retina display." The 2048 x 1536 resolution screen increases the sharpness of photos, video, text, and more on a 7.9 inch display. This mini is truly to scale.
For its smaller screen, the mini ($399) will cost $100 less than the Air ($499) and the same price as the iPad 2. The older mini fell from $329 to $299.
Apple's earnings are down only slightly from the same time last quarter ($14 million to $14.6 million), a difference that will easily be bridged if this holiday season is, as CEDO Tim Cook predicts, an "iPad Christmas," ABC News reported.
"We continue to view the tablet market as 'huge.' We see it as a large opportunity for us," Cook said last month. "We are not solely focused on unit share, as we've said many times, but on usage and customer satisfaction and other things that are very important to us."
Apple's four iPads will compete with Google's Nexus 7, Amazon's Kindle Fire HDX, and Microsoft Surface 2.
