8 inch iPad is being tested by Apple according to WSJ

It has been speculated for a while now that Apple will launch a smaller version of its highly successful iPad to got head to head against the cheaper Kindle Fire, which has eaten into its market share to some extent. The cheaper kindle offers significantly less functionality than the iPad, and so will this smaller iPad. According to the Wall Street Journal this Apple tablet would have the processing power, and screen resolution of the iPad 2 and not the upcoming iPad 3, as to reduce the cost of manufacturing the units, also the profit margin would be smaller with Apple hoping to regain their profits from the content distributed with the iPad.

With Apple’s success with the larger iPad is there a need to go into the discount market. In fact many times before Apple have stayed away from markets where margins are low, but since the success of selling older generation iPhones at lower prices maybe Apple has decided that this might work for them.

Whatever the truth is, I personally am more excited about the upcoming Retina iPad with a super high resolution display.

Source: WSJ