3. The iPad Goes 'Mini'
Two years ago, Steve Jobs famously said Apple would never produce a 7-inch tablet. The screen size, he argued, would be too small to fully capture the rich iOS experience.
But this year, Apple went ahead and made a smaller-sized tablet anyway, and, while its late CEO was hesitant to make the move himself, he would likely be pleased with the outcome.
The iPad mini, Apple's first 7-inch tablet, launched in October, took direct aim at Google's Nexus 7 and Amazon's 7-inch Kindle Fire HD. Despite its smaller package, the iPad mini packs a punch; it runs Apple's dual-core A5 processor, gets 10 hours of battery life and has a 1,024-by-768 HD display. Apple sold 3 million iPad minis within the first three days it was available.
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