Microsoft Surface and the iPad Mini

The technology world was all a-buzz today with two very important announcements.  Apple will have another press conference next Tuesday, October 23 at 1pm Eastern. The invitation: "We've got a little more to show you." This most certainly means the official announcement of the iPad mini, although we know surprisingly little about the exact specifications (unlike the iPhone 5).  

We know the screen will be about 7.5 inches diagonal, but the screen resolution and thickness are unclear, as is the design of the body.  This will be a new direction for the company.  They have been pushed by competition from Amazon and Google into the 7 inch tablet market, even though Steve Jobs specifically denounced the idea of a smaller screen.  However, there have been reports that Jobs was never actually against the smaller tablet, but he simply wanted to throw off the competition.  In any case, there will be many rumors and predictions over this next week. I personally do not want anything to do with an iPad mini. I love my full size iPad and if I enter the 7 inch tablet market, I will do so with the Google Nexus 7 to get a change of scenery. 

                                                                   

In other news, Microsoft announced today that their own line of tablets, known as the Microsoft Surface, will open to pre-orders today and start at $499 for the base line 32 GB model.  If you want the Touch Cover, a keyboard built into a iPad Cover that doesn't fold into a triangle, the total cost is $599 for the 32 GB model. Finally there is a 64 GB model with the Touch Cover for $699. You can spend an extra $20 for a more colorful Touch Cover (the basic one is black) or an extra $30 for the Type Cover, which has actual keys that press down. 

The main aspect to point out is that the base model is the same price as the base model iPad but with double the internal memory. That might sway some people on the fence about which tablet to purchase. The functionality of Microsoft Windows software and the 'cool new thing' keyboard will also steal some swing voters.  But I (and the tech world) do not want to assume anything about how 'good' or 'bad' the device is until we can go through a full series of tests.  Up to this point, no objective observer has gotten a really good look at this magical device.  We will know how it stacks up to the iPad soon enough. 

For now, here are the comparable technical specifications of each device: 

Device
	Dimensions	Weight	Resolution
Surface (RT)	10.81 x 6.77 x 0.37 in	Less than 1.5 pounds, that's all it says online	1366 x 768
iPad (3rd gen)	9.50 x 7.31 x 0.37 in	1.44 pounds	2048 x 1536
	CPU	Battery
Surface (RT)	NVIDIA T30, 2 GB RAM	Up to 8 hours mixed
iPad (3rd gen)	A5X, 1 GB RAM	Up to 10 hours mixed

The fact that Apple and Microsoft made a major announcement on the same day is no coincidence by any stretch of the imagination.  These days, tech giants love to attack each other and leave us consumers with empty wallets and a touch of doubt.