Apple's make or break iPad Apple's iPad is widely expected to gain a baby brother on Tuesday. At an event in San Jose, the iPhone maker is expected to unveil what invitations called "A little more to show you." At 7in or so, the iPad Mini is likely to compete with tablets of similar sizes from Google and Amazon - and it will be, to adapt Apple's own slogan for the new iPhone 5, the biggest thing to happen to the iPad since the iPad. That's not just because it's a product that Apple founder Steve Jobs said the firm would never make with him at the helm. Nor is it because for the first time in a generation Apple is following a pack of excellent products. Rather, the iPad Mini, or whatever it's called, is a device that must revive Apple's surprisingly beleaguered reputation: after the release of the maps software that accompanied the iPhone 5, chief executive Tim Cook was forced to issue an unprecedented apology, acknowledging that the software was not as good as consumers had a right to expect - he even recommended users, for now at least, installed products made by rivals such as Google and Microsoft on their iPhones. Such damage limitation, by common consensus, meant the crisis did not cause catastrophic damage to a brand that is now more Goliath than David. But it added to a sense of increasing fallibility, and it underlined the impression that while the iPhone 5 was an excellent iPhone, it was no longer pre-eminently the best phone money could buy. So with its new iPad, likely to be accompanied by a range of updated iMacs and other more conventional products, Apple needs some reassuring wow factor. Its share price continues to ride at unprecedented levels as it sells ever more devices in ever more markets. But it was innovation, style, polish and perfection that drove the brand to its current heights, not merely massive volume. So what can prospective purchasers expect from the iPad Mini? There's debate as to whether it's really a smaller iPad or a larger iPod Touch - this distinction asks whether the device will be almost entirely for the consumption of movies, TV, music and games bought from the iTunes Store, or whether it will be a device that can offer a larger screen that make movies seem luxurious, makes typing easier and can lay claim to being the future of portable computing. Both Google's Nexus 7 and Amazon's Kindle Fire HD take the former approach - Google even renamed its store "Play" to remind users it sold books, films and TV for them to watch on their tablets. Amazon's Kindle Fire HD emphasises its excellent screen and its stereo sound. It's not that these aren't devices more than able to cope with advanced functions; it's merely that Steve Jobs" assessment was right: screens may get smaller but the size of our hands makes it harder to simply scale down a bigger canvas - proportionally, a lot less of it is visible as the diagonal length decreases. So on Tuesday evening, Apple has another - maybe final - chance to show that it can offer a new computing paradigm once again. It did it with the iPhone, with the iPad and, in a different way - with the iPod before that. It needs more than ever to confound its critics. Amazon and Google have both produced devices that, by their manufacturers" admission, strive to disappear. You should no more notice you're reading a book on a tablet than realise you are holding a paperback. Content is king - but that means tablet computers risk becoming commoditised. If anyone can make one that is, instead, surprising and delightful, it's Apple. Users will find out on Tuesday if it has done it again.