In a screenshot published by the German website , prices for the iPad Mini begin at [euro]249, and top out at [euro]649. The screenshot purportedly is from the inventory system of Media Markt, Europe's largest electronics retail chain.

Apple typically keeps dollar and euro pricing closely in sync -- the least-expensive iPad, for example, is priced at $499 in the U.S., [euro]479 in Germany and [euro]489 in France -- which by the Media Markt screen would put the starting U.S. price around $249.

[Apple's prices are inclusive of taxes in some countries, particularly where a VAT, or "value-added tax," is applied. In Germany, for example, the VAT is 19%, and already included in the [euro]479 starting price of an iPad.]

But one analyst was a little leery of a price of $249.

Sameer Singh, the founder of Tech-Thoughts, and in his day job, an analyst with Finvista Advisors, an India-based mergers and acquisitions consulting group, in August based on a preliminary -- and sight-unseen -- estimate of the tablet's BOM, or "bill of materials."