Laughing all the way to the bank again.

First, a few links:

The Real iPad

24 Hours With The iPad Mini: This Is The Real iPad

Initial iPad mini stock selling out at various Apple Stores around the world

Near record turnout for iPad mini in the Big Apple

iPad mini review

I tweeted this earlier:

se acuerdan que le hacian burla al iPad por ser un iPhone mas grandote? Pues los de Apple se estan riendo de ustedes todo el camino al banco.

The iPad didn’t turn out to be a big iPhone, nor did they come out with the iBoard or the iMat. They have very clear use-cases between devices. Other manufacturers are coming out with humongous phones, or outright — *snort* — phablets. LTE chipset sizes may be to blame, but… other phones without LTE are damn big when they don’t have to.

Apple single-handedly created a valid market for tablets worldwide, not just in the US. Other hardware makers wanted in, but – except for Google and Asus, with the Nexus devices – no one can match what Apple is doing.

Now Apple has the iPad Mini. While people were initially underwhelmed by it, it looks like Apple is set to dominate the “small tablet” market; sooner or later this will be the tablet market. In the words of John Gruber, it’s the iPod story all over again. Within one or two versions they’ll have a retina version of the Mini and everybody else will be basically screwed. Again.