iPad Mini On The Way The Same Size As The Galaxy Note??

How can you make the iPad an even better device? Shrink it! Well rumor is an iPad mini is on the way. Hit the jump to check out the rumor.

Apple could be taking a cue from frenemy Samsung with its next iOS device, offering a gadget that’s a bit larger than most cell phones, but about half the size of a tablet.
According to Japanese Apple news site Macotakara, Apple’s working with LCD suppliers to get a 5-inch panel with a pixel density high enough to be able to call it a Retina Display. That’s according to “a reliable Chinese source,” the site said.
That smaller device would arrive sometime next year, Macotakara suggested, and sport either a 1,600 by 960 pixel or 1,280 by 960 pixel resolution — either of which would be a first for an iOS device.
This is just the latest in a series of reports claiming Apple’s working on iOS device that falls somewhere between the iPhone and the iPad. Earlier this month, a report from the Korea Times cited an unnamed Samsung official saying Apple this year would be releasing an iPad with a 7.85-inch screen. That’s as opposed to the current iPad’s 9.7-inch display. Days before that, there was a report from VentureBeat saying Apple was eyeing a slightly-smaller 7.1-inch panel instead.
Muddying up both these claims is the idea that these panels could actually end up being for a next-generation smartphone instead. A report from Reuters last week suggested as much, claiming that Apple was vying to pick up a slightly smaller 4.6-inch display for a new crop of iPhones with screens larger than the 3.5-inch panel the iPhone’s shipped with since its introduction.

Apple is under considerably more scrutiny when it comes to the components it buys. The company has a very small variance in its product sizes, offering just a handful of configurations, and keeping sizes the same from generation to generation. This has been under particularly tight control with Apple’s iOS family, which just recently jumped to a fourth possible screen resolution with the third-generation iPad.
By comparison, most of Apple’s competitors — notably Samsung — have taken a different approach by building its notebooks, handsets and tablets at varying sizes. For instance, Samsung’s Galaxy Note device, which has a 5.3-inch display, pulls double duty as a phone and a tablet. Earlier today Samsung said it’s sold 5 million units of the Note globally since launching in February. Other such efforts include LG’s Optimus Vu, and the ill-fated line of Dell Streak devices.

CNET