iPad enthusiasts can now get their hands on Apple's latest gadget, the iPad Mini with a retina display ABC News reported Tuesday.
"We continue to view the tablet market as 'huge,' Tim Cook, Apple chief executive officer said in a call regarding the company's earnings last month ABC News reported. "We see it as a large opportunity for us. We are not solely focused on unit share, as we've said many times, but on usage and customer satisfaction and other things that are very important to us."
The iPad Minis are available in the Apple online store, and will not be in its physical stores as customers will need to order the device online and say they want to pick it up in a store. The product will also be in AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless, and certain resell stores of Apple products.
The new $399 device has a 2048 x 1536 screen which shows photos, videos, and text more defined. The screen also measures 7.9 inches. This is less than the company's regular sized iPad Air at 9.7 according to information on the Apple website.
"At $399, the new iPad Mini is certainly one of the more expensive 8-inch tablets on the market and a few multiples of the price beyond the least expensive Android tablets," Ross Rubin, principal analyst for Reticle Research, told ABC News. "However, it includes premium components including the high-resolution display and high-end A7 processor."
The iPad Mini's release comes after the iPad Air was launched Nov. 1. The company unveiled both products at a media event in San Francisco last month.
"This is just the beginning for iPad," Cook said in a statement at the time. "We have been busy working on the next generation of iPad."
Apple expects to bring the iPad Mini to China while also unveiling it in other markets in an attempt to adapt to a time when people prefer mobile devices instead of desktops Bloomberg reported. According to technology research firm Gartner, desktop and laptop computer sales have decreased 11.2 percent at other companies including Microsoft, Intel, and Hewlett Packard so far this year.
