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Samsung Says that There Will be a 7.85-inch iPad

A smaller iPad for those with a taste for daintier tablets.

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Today it's all about iPad, iPad, iPad. Though the new iPad from Apple doesn't officially hit stores until tomorrow, the NDA for reviews has just expired so the internet has been flooded with talk of the device. However, it's not just Apple that's perpetuating talk of all things iPad. Samsung got in on the act this week too when the company appeared to 'confirm' the existence of a smaller iPad.

Speaking to the Korea Times, a Sammy official apparently confirmed a 7.85-inch iPad. The piece itself discusses the amount of parts that Apple buys from Samsung despite the ongoing legal disputes between the two companies.

Last year, Apple bought $7.8 billion worth of parts from Samsung. This number is set to rise this year, and this unnamed Samsung official says it will hit $11 billion, thanks to a new iPad that has yet to be announced by Apple.

"The contract is expected to rise to $11 billion by the end of this year as Apple is planning to release a smaller iPad, probably with a 7.85-inch screen, and to sell more of its MacBook Air PCs using Samsung’s faster solid state drive (SSD) storage," the official said.

Apple buys a lot of its hardware from Samsung and this certainly isn't the first time we've heard rumors of a smaller iPad. Last we heard, Apple was working on the approximately 7.8-inch iPad already and that volume production could begin as early as the third quarter of 2012. This would put it right on track for a March launch in 2013.