Marco Arment “the developer of Instapaper” spotted two new iPad device codes in his logs that he believes represents the long rumored “iPad mini”. Macrumors explains “The new identifiers found were “iPad2,5” and “iPad2,6”. As Arment notes, the iPad2,1 through iPad 2,3 designations are known to represent the iPad 2’s WiFi, GSM and CDMA models. The iPad2,4 represents a die-shrunk/cheaper version of the iPad 2 that was released alongside the 3rd generation iPad. Finally, the 3rd Generation iPad carries a designation of iPad3,x“. Which means, “iPad2,5” and “iPad2,6” are new device codes and can possible be the “iPad mini”.

Apple is believed to be launching a smaller 7.85″ iPad in the coming months. Rumors have suggested we’ll see it launched as early as October. So Marco Arment said:

The much more likely explanation is that iPad2,5 and iPad2,6 are the new “iPad Mini” in Wi-Fi and GSM, and I haven’t recorded the likely iPad2,7 CDMA version yet.

If so, this suggests that the iPad Mini is, effectively, an iPad 2: an A5 with 512 MB of RAM and enough GPU power to drive the Gruber Display, but not a Retina Display.

It’s a textbook Tim Cook supply-chain move: selling the last generation’s hardware at a lower price point to expand marketshare.

Source [MacRumors]