Today, rivals of the Boston-based company said that trade-in volume continued to climb, with owners of 7-in. tablets from the likes of Google and Amazon joining the bandwagon.

A week and a half ago, Anthony Scarsella, chief gadget officer at Gazelle, noted that tablet trade-in volume was up 80% in the previous 30 days over the same stretch before that.

"Volumes started going up in mid-September, when they doubled in one day," said Scarsella. "Since then, they've stayed pretty stable."

Although rumors of a smaller iPad -- usually pegged as a tablet with a 7.85-in. display, considerably smaller in total area than the 9.7-in. iPad -- have circulated for years, talk in mid-September centered around the at a major Apple supplier.

Follow-up speculation a few weeks later as a launch date, with a Nov. 2 on-sale debut. Those rumors did not pan out; last week, to an event tomorrow, Tuesday, Oct. 23, where virtually everyone expects it to reveal the small "iPad Mini" -- the name most have used as its until-launch label.