Apple to lose out on one full-size iPad sale for every five iPad minis

For every five ‘iPad mini’s Apple sells, the company will lose one full-size iPad sale, an analyst has predicted.

Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster says that Apple’s smaller iPad, which is expected to be unveiled at Apple’s special event next week, could reach more than 5 million sales in the December quarter, assuming that the device hits the shops on 2 November as speculated. 

Those sales figures would be enough to cannibalise one million 10in iPads during the Christmas shopping season, Munster believes.

Previously, Munster had forecasted that Apple would sell 21 million iPads in the December quarter, but the iPad mini event’s official announcement has lead the analyst to bump up that figure to 25 million.

Munster has also added 8.5 million iPad sales to his calendar year 2013 prediction, estimating a total of 95 million Apple tablet sales during that time, with a quarter of those sales being the upcoming smaller iPad.

Munster’s pricing prediction for the iPad mini is between $249 and $299 for the entry-level model of 8GB with no Retina display, which is likely to translate as around £249 here in the UK. However, our poll suggests that just 25 per cent of you would be willing to spend more than £200 on the smaller iPad.

The analyst believes that the Apple could be available in a variety of colours and capacities, and thinks that there could be a cellular version of the tablet available.

[ Via Apple Insider]