IPad Mini Release Officially Confirmed By Tim Cook At Apple Special Event (2012)

In probably the worst kept secret in tech, Apple CEO, Tim Cook announced the iPad Mini at a special event in San Jose, California on October 23, 2012. Speculation around the iPad Mini has been going on since February. The official iPad Mini 1 release date will be November 2, 2012, in nearly all of Apple’s current markets.

iPad Mini Release Details And Other Apple Product Announcements

Although several new computers were unveiled as well, the iPad Mini announcement clearly overshadowed the event. Here’s a rundown of the new Apple products that will be coming out in the next few months:

iPad Mini: A new smaller iPad that only weighs 0.68 pounds and has a 7.9-inch screen. The 16GB version is available starting at $329. People can preorder beginning this Friday. The iPad Mini 1 release date for the WiFi version is November 2. All pre-orders will ship that day. The iPad Mini cellular version ships two weeks after that.
Mac Mini: A new and improved Mac Mini starting at $599.
MacBook Pro: A new 13-inch MacBook Pro with a Retina display, weighing in at only 3.5 pounds. Starting at $1,699.
iMac: A new iMac, which will be available in two models: 27-inch ($1,800, December) and 21.5-inch ($1,299, November).

iPad Sales Update

In addition to announcing the new products above, Apple CEO Tim Cook also updated the audience with some new sales stats. There are over 200 million Apple devices currently running on iOS 6 and these devices have downloaded over 35 billion apps from the App Store. He also said that Apple sold its 100 millionth iPad a couple of weeks ago. To put that in perspective, if all 100 million of those iPads were in the United States, 1 out of every 3 Americans would have an iPad.