Marco Arment, creator of , an iOS app for clipping and reformatting online content for reading later, deduced in Thursday that iPad Mini will be essentially an iPad 2 in a smaller package with the graphics chops to run a Gruber display but not Apple's eye-popping Retina display.

"Its a textbook Tim Cook supply-chain move: selling the last generations hardware at a lower price point to expand marketshare," Arment writes.

"But this time, it's more dramatic," he adds. "Rather than just sell the original iPad 2 with a price cut, they've made a new product designed to be far less expensive from day one by combining old and new parts: the 32nm iPad 2s guts, larger-cut iPhone 3GS screens, a smaller case and battery, and the new iPhones low-power LTE chip for $100 more. "

"I bet they could sell that for $249, and that would be a steal," he adds.

Armant reached his conclusions about the Mini after reviewing device statistics delivered to him by his Instapaper user base. Those stats showed two new iPad modelsiPad2,5 and iPad2,6.