“Bigger is not always better, and this may be the case for the feverish speculation surrounding a smaller version of Apple’s iPad,” Cadie Thompson reports for CNBC.

“At least for right now, the rumored ‘iPad mini’ is just that — a rumor. Still, it would be highly profitable for Apple if it comes to market, and would likely outsell its full size predecessor two to one, Patrick Moorhead, of Moor Insights and Strategy, said,” Thompson reports. “That, however, depends on whether the price is right. ‘If they would price it at $299 they would kill most of the 7-inch competitors,’ Moorhead said. ‘Apple’s iPad would probably be about an 8-inch tablet, but it’s going to catch on very quickly if nothing else because it says Apple and it’s priced at $299.’”

Thompson reports, “While Apple has not yet confirmed it will even be producing a smaller iPad, nor set any dates for coming product announcements, reports claim Apple will launch the iPad Mini in October. “‘Apple wants to dominate all form factors for this kind of device. If you look at overall market share, they have 90 percent of tablet share today, but they don’t want to give an inch or even leave an opening for a competitor, not an OS or an ecosystem,’ Moorhead said… Brian White, an analyst with Topeka Capital Markets, who prices a smaller iPad in the $200 to $250 range, said he also thinks a smaller iPad would likely outsell the full size tablet in the long-term and would cannibalize 10 to 20 percent of the full size iPad sales.”

Read more in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: For what it will do to the nascent non-iPad tablet market, Apple should name it “Little Boy.”

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader "Lynn Weiler" for the heads up.]