14 DAY TRIAL // A leak signed ZooGue, an accessory manufacturer, aims to depict the rumored iPad mini with a square-ish design, room for 3G-networking components, and cameras. Not the most credible leak, but so seemed the first-emerged iPhone 5 cases.
Whether or not analysts are shooting their mouths when they claim industry sources tell them Apple is working on a smaller version of the iPad, ZooGue (via the Cult) has something interesting that might corroborate such claims.
“Just days ahead of Apple’s WWDC 2012, our anonymous source has provided us with pictures of an iPad with miniature proportions,” the company reports on its blog. “Low resolution excused, the images give us a great look at the housing of what may be the ‘iPad Nano’, which has recently attracted so much speculative attention.”
The chassis is said to house a display that measures 7.58 inches on the diagonal, not the rumored 7.85-inch form factor that has been thrown around in various research notes.
Despite Apple’s vocal reluctance towards tablets under the 10-inch form factor, ZooGue has a key takeaway from Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, who stated at one point, “Whenever we can do fantastic products and they have different price points, we’ll do that, we don’t have a religion about making one product.”
So while there are few indications that Apple is making an iPad mini, one can’t dismiss any rumors, especially when they’re accompanied by such intriguing imagery.
“Instead of a six-pin dock connector, the ‘iPad Nano’ takes on a variant pictured only once elsewhere. The size difference between the six-pin and this new mysterious port is substantial, possibly suggesting a switch to microUSB by Apple amidst pushes for regulations that implement a universal charging solution for mobile technologies.”
Actually, there’s no mystery behind that port. If the leaked iPhone 5 cases are any indication, Apple is spreading these ports across its entire iLineup. That is, if the port is confirmed.
The case also shows the two speaker grills also found on the leaked iPhone cases. However, it looks a tad too toy-ish to be something designed by Jony Ive.
At this point, we can hardly call this a leak. What are your thoughts on this?
