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Tech Week Ahead: Apple To Unveil iPad Mini

MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:

From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Melissa Block. And it's time now for All Tech Considered.

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BLOCK: Joining me now for a look ahead to the week's tech news is NPR's Laura Sydell. And, Laura, Apple, I gather, has sent out an invitation for an event tomorrow. What's it about?

LAURA SYDELL, BYLINE: IPad mini. That is the word. And it's probably true. So this is going to be an iPad that's seven inches instead of the current approximately 10 inches.

BLOCK: OK, a seven-inch tablet. But the late CEO of Apple, Steve Jobs, said he didn't understand why people would want a seven-inch tablet. What's going on?

SYDELL: Well, I think what's going on is that Amazon released, you know, it's Kindles, and they were that size and they've done well. So Apple has gone from 80 percent in the market share in tablets back in 2010, and now, it's at 68 percent. So I think Apple had started to realize that people actually wanted the smaller tablet.

You can put it in your pocket. I think for a lot of women, it's easier to keep in your purse. And so they're looking around, and they're seeing people might want a smaller tablet.

BLOCK: And does that mean the end of the bigger tablet?

SYDELL: No. Interestingly enough, apparently, Amazon and Barnes & Noble are planning to put out larger tablets. And the other big news this week is that Microsoft will finally be releasing its Surface tablet. This is a larger tablet, and it is aimed at the enterprise market.

BLOCK: OK, that's the Week Ahead in tech news with NPR's Laura Sydell. Laura, thanks.

SYDELL: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.