Marco Arment, the developer of Instapaper, noticed a few interesting entries tonight in his app server logs, first on twitter:

Well that’s interesting, iPad2,6.

— Marco Arment (@marcoarment) August 31, 2012

Later, he goes on to explain further about what he believes these new entries relate to:

I saw two curious entries in Instapaper’s device stats today: one iPad2,5 and one iPad2,6.

(There were also a few iPhone5,1 devices, but that’s not a surprise — that’s almost certainly next month’s new GSM iPhone.)

Arment notes the possibility these model numbers could be spoofed by a jail breakers but for the majority he has seen all devices in log histories come to life. His prediction is that these are most likely the ‘iPad Mini’:

The much more likely explanation is that iPad2,5 and iPad2,6 are the new “iPad Mini” in Wi-Fi and GSM, and I haven’t recorded the likely iPad2,7 CDMA version yet.

If so, this suggests that the iPad Mini is, effectively, an iPad 2: an A5 with 512 MB of RAM and enough GPU power to drive the Gruber Display, but not a Retina Display.

The Gruber Display is a reference to John Gruber’s recent analysis of what the next smaller iPad could entail. Arment notes such a move to sell a smaller iPad using older generation hard is a classic supply chain move a la Apple CEO Tim Cook, as this lower price point would ensure expanded marketshare.

Housing the smaller 32nm A5 in the cheaper $399 iPad 2, this smaller ‘iPad Mini’ would utilize non-Retina displays from the iPhone 3GS along with a lower power LTE modem, most likely the same from the upcoming iPhone.

Of course, this is all speculation but if true and priced within the $200-250 range (which we’ve long heard from iMore), Apple would make a huge dent in the 7-inch tablet space. What do you think? We’re going to find out in October. Stay tuned.

Posted under: iPad News