AS EVERYONE KNOWS,the iPad is 10-inches wide, slick as hell, and, at $500, pretty pricey. Conversely the Kindle Fire – like the soon-to-be-released Google Nexus – is smaller, less cool, less slick, and, well … just two hundred bucks. Apparently that last detail makes up for everything, as the Fire has indeed sold well. So speculation has long percolated that Apple might roll out a smaller and cheaper iPad, and even CNN has now jumped on the rumor bandwagon. Will it happen? Simple rules of capitalism would call for Apple to get aggressive before the opposition gains too much steam. But this is Apple – and Apple can be insanely stubborn. The hitch is that apparently Steve Jobs never liked the smaller form factor, as it didn’t provide an “optimal tablet experience” – to him the icons got too small and the whole thing didn’t sit right with the human hand. That’s not something the post-Jobs Apple can ever easily explain away, so if they want to roll out a smaller tablet, they’ll have to go against the word of the Great Master himself. We suspect the internal debates are raging, and it’s anyone’s guess what we’ll see this fall.

Note: Apple generally makes its final product announcements for the year before the end of October, well ahead of the holiday season. Thereore we’ll close and judge this topic on Oct. 15.