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Report says iPad Mini will be priced to move

Will Apple get aggressive on price, reducing rivals to also-rans?

Brooke Crothers Former CNET contributor
Brooke Crothers writes about mobile computer systems, including laptops, tablets, smartphones: how they define the computing experience and the hardware that makes them tick. He has served as an editor at large at CNET News and a contributing reporter to The New York Times' Bits and Technology sections. His interest in things small began when living in Tokyo in a very small apartment for a very long time.
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Brooke Crothers
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With speculation pointing to not only a smaller iPad but a cheaper one too, will Apple try to crush rivals on price?

The New York Times chimed in today with a relatively tame report on the expected 7.85-inch iPad.

Nothing startlingly new was revealed -- and it follows a long line of reports including a recent CNET report.

But the Times report did state that smaller iPad "is likely to sell for significantly less than the latest $499 iPad."

Considering that Apple offers a $399 iPad 2, would Apple venture below $399?

Here's one way to look at it. If Apple wants to own the tablet category and fend off (i.e., crush) rivals like the $199 Google Nexus 7, aggressive pricing is one way to do it.

And the so-callled iPad Mini does seem very likely now. Back on July 3, Richard Shim of NPD DisplaySearch, commenting on the display for the iPad, told CNET that "there's a business plan for it, there's a mass production target for it. And we know that it's for Apple."