The creator of Instapaper, Marco Arment, took to his blog to describe what he noticed in Instapaper’s device stats. He says logs from two iPad mini prototypes were included, one named iPad2,5 and the other iPad 2,6.
According to Arment, these two iPads represent variations of the iPad mini device. He notes that the two devices could be faked by a very bored jailbreaker, but he has never actually seen a device show up there that didn’t end up being a real Apple device, like the iPad2,1 through iPad2,3 and the iPad 2’s original Wi-Fi, GSM, and CDMA models.
Arment goes on to say that the new iPad mini could have an A5 processor with 512 MB RAM, but will not have Retina display and suggests that the two variants relate to a Wi-Fi model and a low power 4G LTE model that could go for around $249-$299.
The new device is widely expected to launch this October, and not at the rumored September 12 Apple event, which was originally believed.
According to Arment:
It’s a textbook Tim Cook supply-chain move: selling the last generation’s hardware at a lower price point to expand marketshare.
But this time, it’s more dramatic. Rather than just sell the original iPad 2 with a price cut, they’ve made a new product design to be far less expensive from day one by combining old and new parts: the 32nm iPad 2’s guts, larger-cut iPhone 3GS screens, a smaller case and battery, and the new iPhone’s low-power LTE chip for $100 more.
Of course, this is all speculation on Arment’s part, but it does seem like a real possibility at this point. With the expected September 12 event, the release of the iPhone 5, and now the speculated iPad mini in October, the next two months are sure going to be interesting.
