Senior technology analyst Eric Bleeker analyzes what Apple's reported iPad Mini says about the company's tablet dominance. With Amazon.com succeeding in the 7-inch tablet market, and now Google attacking the same space, Apple seems to be responding to a competitive threat with a product, a smaller tablet, that Steve Jobs often derided as a poor form factor. Given the rollout of Siri in a beta stage uncommon for the company and its decision to boot Google's Maps application in favor of its own home-developed version, recent changes say a lot about Apple -- specifically, that the company is becoming more pragmatic about responding to competitive threats even if its products don't reach the level of perfection and user experience Jobs once strived for. Eric doesn't see this as a reason to run out and sell Apple, but he does think Apple investors should keep an eye on the situation to ensure Apple isn't betraying its core focus on providing the best user experience as it responds to challenges from its large tech competitors.
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