If you follow the news about iPad from its start than you would know that Apple former CEO late Steve Jobs has mentioned several times that their is no use of any tablet less than the size of iPad and Apple do not have any intentions to launch smaller iPad in the future.Well but things can changes in the technology world as even after that many other companies continued to launch their smaller tablets and people also like that and one of the latest smaller tablet to be launched is Amazon Kindle which is expected to get good popularity because of its less price.
And looks like Apple also plans to launch smaller iPad in the coming future which I think will also can be little bit cheaper than the current one.So, this rumor actually comes from a report of Taiwans's United daily newspaper and according to them Apple has just received some sample 7,85 inch screens which will have the same resolution as of the current iPad which is 1024×768.Current samples are presented by two companies LG and AU Optronics.
So , may be if things go perfect for Apple in the production of the smaller iPad than we can see the smaller iPad in the early part of 2012.Although still their are concerns about smaller iPad that how developers will adjust to this thing.