None Apple suppliers are gearing up for the iPad mini release, by producing their own iPad Mini “Protective Case”. We rumors also circulating last week that Apple may have altered the form of the iPad Mini hopefully the company made the correct cases.
A search on Alibaba.com, China’s biggest business-to-business e-commerce site, turns up many postings of “iPad Mini” cases in various colors and materials. Some of the postings even say the cases are for “iPad Mini 7.85-inch tablet.”
Alibaba.com is a website that connects many Chinese manufacturers with buyers in China or overseas. Potential buyers of the cases could be retail stores that want to sell them as soon as Apple launches the new tablet.
Ahead of every new product launch by Apple, Alibaba.com usually becomes the trading platform for cases purportedly made for the upcoming Apple product. Before the U.S. company released the iPhone 5 on Sept. 21, there were already many iPhone 5 cases sold on Alibaba.com. Many of the manufacturers of those cases are based in or around Shenzhen, where Foxconn 2038.HK 0.00%’s factories assemble Apple products.
Earlier this month, the Wall Street Journal reported that Apple’s Asian component suppliers have started manufacturing a new tablet with a 7.85-inch screen, compared with the 9.7-inch screen for the existing iPad. The size of the iPad’s screen has never changed since the first model came out in 2010.
