Edible Apple

Marco Arment, of Instapaper and Tumblr fame, found a few interesting device data strings show up in his stat logs the other day. One was for an iPad2,5 while the other was for an iPad2,6.

As a quick refresher, when Apple introduces a major product revision, it increases the first number by a factor of one. For minor revisions, the second digit is increased by a factor of one. So are what are we to make of the iPad2,5 and iPad2,6 data strings?

Arment writes:

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.

But this time, it’s more dramatic. Rather than just sell the original iPad 2 with a price cut, they’ve made a new product designed to be far less expensive from day one by combining old and new parts: the 32nm iPad 2’s guts, larger-cut iPhone 3GS screens, a smaller case and battery, and the new iPhone’s low-power LTE chip for $100 more.

This is all speculation, of course, but I’m convinced: like the leaked Dock connector, this move is so ingenious that it’s most likely to be what Apple has really done.

Not a bad prediction at all.