iPad Mini Sales Begin to Surpass Full-Sized Model

By Vincent Funaro, Christian Post Reporter Friday, March 01, 2013

iPad Mini sales are beginning to eclipse the full-sized model.

A recent NPD report shows that shipments of tablets that are between 7 and 9 inches surpassed the shipments of those with larger panels in January 2013, pointing to a general change in preference for consumers when it comes to the size of their slate.

Shipments of the full-sized iPad fell from 7.4 million in December to 1.3 million in January, while shipments of the iPad Mini rose to over 5 million. 7-inch tablets such as the Kindle Fire and Google Nexus also saw a significant sales increase in January, rising to around 14 million.

NPD predicted in Dec. that Apple would sell 40 million iPad Minis and 60 million iPads in 2013, however, based on this new data, it seems that iPad Mini will end up outselling the iPad by the end of the year.

Apple has stated in the past that it does not fear the iPad Mini outselling the full-sized version.

"Cannibalization is a huge opportunity for us," said an Apple exec. "We never fear it because if we do, someone else will do it. iPhone has cannibalized iPod, that doesn't worry us. iPad has on the Mac, and that doesn't concern us."

The iPad Mini will be even more attractive if Apple ends up launching a Retina version later on this year. The company is rumored to be releasing the device with a beefed up display and will also give the world the 5th generation iPad in 2013.

The new full sized iPad is rumored for a Q3 2013 release and the device will sport a new design that makes it thinner, and very similar to the current iPad Mini.