Apple announced its smaller iPad, the iPad Mini, with a 7.9-in screen. (Image: Apple)

The company also revamped the 9.7-in iPad, calling it a "fourth-generation" tablet, but like the third iteration it launched just last March, it didn't bother to slap a number in the name.

Tuesday's event was in over two years, and just the third ever.

"I think I can tell from your excitement that you know what this is," said Philip Schiller, Apple's head of marketing, when he first showed the tablet to reporters and analysts today. "This is iPad Mini."

The new tablet is significantly lighter -- at 0.68 pounds, 53% lighter than the refreshed fourth-generation iPad -- and at just 7.2 millimeters, a quarter thinner than the full-sized iPad. Like its bigger brother, the iPad Mini comes in both black and white models, and in both Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi/cellular configurations.