LG And Apple Are In Talks For 7.35-Inch iPad mini Displays

According to rumors from Apple’s back office, the company is developing a larger iPhone display and a smaller display for iPad. An insider said to The Korea Times that Apple is engineering a shrunken version of the 9.7-inch iPad. According to the IDG, which translated the publication from Korean, a new iPad called iPad mini will feature a 7.35-inch display.

If it is true, iPad mini would be slightly larger than 7-inch $199 Kindle Fire tablet from Amazon, which went on sale yesterday. Reportedly LG Display and Apple are negotiating a $1.1 billion long-term deal for supply of displays for iOS devices between 2012 and 2016 years.

“A meeting between Apple and LG Display is reportedly due to take place in the next few days and one of the topics of conversation will be Apple’s plans to introduce a 7.35in tablet”.

The article corroborates a last month’s story from Unwired View that mentioned both AU Optronics and LG Display as sending samples of 7.85-inch displays for smaller iPad. Also yesterday Bill Shope, analyst from Goldman Sachs, reported that in the wake of launch of more affordable Amazon’s and Barnes & Noble’s tablets demand for iPads will start fading ahead of the holiday shopping season.

In addition, Amazon is reportedly close to launch a 8.9-inch tablet in the end of this year and has commissioned Quanta Computers to manufacture a Kindle Fire successor scheduled for the second quarter of the next year.

The unnamed manager cited by the Korea Times publication mentioned a 4-inch iPhone 5 with the same 960 x 640 Retina Display, which is certainly good news for application developers who needn’t deal with another fragmented platform.