If you are in the market for a smaller sized tablet, say with a screen around seven inches, you currently have a great selection.
The Nexus 7 from Google, running the companies own powerful and intuitive, Android, operating system at a cheap price it was a surprise hit when it was released last year.
After this it was the turn of Amazon with a serious update to the Kindle Fire, the Kindle Fire HD. The again 7 in tablet bought all of the companies services to the device with a significantly better display.
Next up it was the Apple iPad Mini, the 7.9 in display version of the already hugely successful iPad with the same Apple iOS.
All three of these models are due an update in the near future. According to industry insiders, Google will release the Nexus 7 2 and Amazon the Kindle Fire HD 2, as updates to the current models. Due to the habit that Apple Inc. has of delivering updates to their products at rigid intervals, we can be pretty sure that the iPad Mini 2 will be coming in the fall after a September WWD conference presentation.
It is difficult to know whether to buy one of the current models or to wait for the update. Externally, there are not a lot of changes that the manufacturers can make to their devices, only really cosmetic changes. The major changes, in most cases are internal. The processor, the graphics performance and the available memory, all need to keep up with the demands of the operating system. There is however likely to be little change in either the Google or Amazon products to worry about operating system upgrades so if the price is right there is little reason not to buy now. For the iPad Mini however, with the new iOS 7, many be a different matter.
