Edible Apple

Now that the iPhone 5 launch is behind us, it’s high time that we turn our attention towards the rumored iPad Mini. Indeed, reports have been circulating for some time that Apple plans to launch a 7.85-inch version of the iPad sometime later this year, certainly before the busy and always lucrative holiday shopping season.

And now we have a date to work with, sort of.

Fortune is reporting, via a major Apple investor, that Apple will mail out invitations for an iPad Mini special event on October 10.

According to our source, who asked not be named, there appears to be some truth to the widespread rumors that Apple is preparing to launch a smaller and cheaper version of the iPad — often called the iPad mini or iPad air and usually described as having a 7.85-inch screen.

What our source adds is the specificity of a date: The press, he says, can expect invitations to go out on Oct. 10,

The report goes on to speculate that if the product is launched on October 17, a launch day of Friday, November 2 might be in the cards.

Of course, this is all highly speculative. After all, since when, or why, would a major Apple investor know when Apple is planning to send out invitations for a heretofore unofficial event?

Regardless, it does appear likely that Apple will release an iPad Mini type device sometime in 2012, and October serves as good a time as any for Apple to unveil it.