Apple’s iPad Mini Event to Have Strong iBooks Focus ⇥ thenextweb.com

This iPad Mini thing fascinates me. It’s a long-rumoured Apple product that has a perennial “coming soon” component (like the iPhone Mini, Apple Tablet of yore, and iPhone of 2001-2006), except this year, it seems like it’s going to be a real product.

The structure of such an event would be difficult to create, though. To introduce refreshed iMacs or Retina 13-inch MacBook Pros alongside an iOS device would likely be messy1, but demoing a slightly smaller iPad would be boring.

Matthew Panzarino of The Next Web has heard from “multiple sources” that the event is going to have a strong iBooks component. This makes much more sense, and is definitely something Eddy Cue can demo.

Also, count on a confirmed shipping date for iTunes 11. I think it’s going to be launched alongside the smaller iPad model, with some unannounced features. Note how the demo in September didn’t include a thorough walkthrough of the whole app. Only the music browser, music store, and mini player were demoed, and nothing else has been shown on the iTunes 11 page on Apple’s website. Some sort of desktop iBook viewer might be integrated, alongside a better syncing experience, and more information about a Windows version.

  1. I still think there’s a chance a refreshed iMac would be introduced, just not at the event. Spec bumps don’t need a demo. A Retina 13-inch MacBook Pro would likely need some sort of mention in the keynote, though, so I’m not sure how this is going to play out. ↥︎