Apple iPad mini targets Amazon and Google

Sizing up at 8 inches the new device is a little bigger than the 7 inch version provided by rivals Amazon and Google.

It also seems to be a little more expensive. Apple will begin selling a Wi-Fi version for around £200 ($329), which is higher than the Kindle Fire ($199).

Some experts are worried that the price will also lure people away from the iPads larger sibling – the 10 inch version sells for £300 ($499).

“Apple has always been a premium hardware manufacturer. It’s basically a hardware company and they don’t have Google advertising or Amazon’s online store to fall back on,” said Destination Wealth Management CEO Michael Yoshikami.

“But people are happy to pay a premium because it’s quality hardware, and the ecosystem (of content and apps) cannot be underestimated.”

In terms of what it offers though, it essentially provides the same functions as the 10 inch version, but only smaller.

‘Theirs is made of plastic’

Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook and marketing chief Phil Schiller took the wraps off the new tablet, and Schiller compared it with Google’s Nexus 7 tablet.

He cited feature by feature areas where he thought Apple’s new device was superior. Previously Apple has not singled out specific competitors this way.

Theirs is made of plastic,” Schiller said, referring to the Android tablet. “The entire Android product is thicker and heavier.

Apple’s smaller tablet is the first device to be added to Apple’s compact portfolio under Cook, who took over from Jobs just before his death a year ago.

“It’s very cool,” Cook said of the iPad mini. “We told you earlier this year you would see some incredible innovation from Apple across the year. We think we kept our promise.”

New iPad tablet

Apple also announced a fourth-generation full-sized iPad just six months after unveiling a third generation device to much fanfare. The latest tablet, which again goes for $499, is faster and slimmer and comes just days before Microsoft is due to show off its own “Surface” tablet.

Amazon sold more than a million Kindles a week during December, paving the way for others like Google with its Nexus 7 to try and beat Apple in a market the company created.

Apple has sold 100 million iPads so far, with the device accounting for 26 percent of Apple’s fiscal third-quarter revenue.

The release of the new tablet comes not long after Apple was forced to apologise over the disappointment its latest iOS 6 release caused, after Google Maps were removed from its devices.

Chief Executive Tim Cook said he was “extremely sorry” for the problems its own version of Maps was causing its users. Apple stopped including Google Maps as the default mapping tool because the two companies could not agree on licensing terms for Google’s voice directed turn-by-turn navigation tool.

The tool has been available on Android devices since December 2010.