Apple set to unveil iPad Mini next week Apple hopes to maintain its dominance in the tablet market despite competition from Microsoft, Google and Amazon with a cheaper, smaller iPad, which is expected to be unveiled next week. The California-based technology giant sent out invitations to a press launch next Tuesday, which months of leaks suggest will include an 8-inch iPad "Mini." The Apple event comes in the same week that Microsoft launches its Windows 8 operating system, which is designed to work across tablets and PCs, the latest twist in the 25-year struggle between the two computing giants. Apple, which has seen its stock price fall in the aftermath of the iPhone 5"s release last month, is betting that a lower-priced iPad will head off a growing challenge from more portable tablets from Google, Amazon and Samsung ahead of the crucial Christmas shopping season. The iPad still dominates the tablet market in Europe and North America but analysts say a smaller and cheaper device would open up new opportunities for Apple in emerging markets, where its iPhone is being outsold many times over by low-cost smartphones based on Google's Android software. Rumoured pricing for the smaller tablet indicates that its cheapest version will cost about $250 and €250 - less than its new iPod touch and the $399 iPad 2, but about $50 more than Google's Nexus 7 and Amazon's Kindle Fire HD, both released over the past few months and running Android. Apple's late co-founder, Steve Jobs, once derided the idea of a touchscreen tablet any smaller than the existing 10-inch iPad. However, internal emails that emerged during the company's patent lawsuit against Samsung this summer revealed that senior Apple executives had won him over to the idea last year, after iTunes chief Eddy Cue found Samsung's Galaxy Tab 7 "very compelling." Rhoda Alexander, analyst at IHS iSuppli, a research group, said that Apple was usually unfazed by competition but had already left it late in the year to crack the Christmas market. "Apple to date in this market have made their mark really by defying what they "have" to do, per se, and have a record of charting their own course," she told the Financial Times last week. Ideally you want to have product on the shelf by November at the latest to take advantage of the holiday rush. Some would argue that is late. Despite reports that the so-called iPad Mini, which some say might be called the iPad Air after Apple's ultra-thin MacBook Air notebook, will only come with WiFi connectivity, Ms Alexander believes that a 3G or 4G tablet would sell well in Asia. "If we look at Apple's road map and where they've been doing well in expanding their market in iPads, they've been pushing into Asia and China," she said. Having 3G or 4G will greatly expand your sales effort if you have [cellular] wireless capability. It's more important in China in particular because of far less availability of free WiFi, and a lot of people in their homes don't have WiFi. Apple could still succeed with an iPad Mini costing $250 and up, analysts say, despite the basic Kindle Fire costing only $159. Amazon sells its Kindle hardware at little to no profit, making money instead from subsequent sales of books, movies and other content through the devices" inbuilt stores. "If Apple produce a product that is clearly superior on a performance level to what the competition has out there, they still have room to put a price premium on it," Ms Alexander said.