Tonight, Apple is holding a live event to launch the oft-rumoured iPad mini (or iPad Air, or iPad diddly, or whatever). But the latest clues suggest it won’t get a UK launch this side of Christmas. Worried? You should be.

Apple’s event invite, which flooded inboxes late last week, is a ticket to a live event in the US, which Tim Cook will no doubt host. The usual list of Apple event stalwarts will all be ticked off: bigging up the sales figures, the iPad mini reveal, a video showing how amazing it is, Ive, launch date and price. But will all that be US only?

Normally, when Apple launches a product, the US keynote is beamed to a screen at a London location. UK journalists watch, blog and then have access to hands-ons with the new product(s). This time, there is no London stream.

iPad mini? Pah! How about a £60 Nexus 7?

And that’s got us wondering: will Apple pull an Amazon and keep the iPad mini US-only for now? One possible reason why this could be the case is sheer demand – the iPad mini is expected to sell like it’s the last hot cake ever made during the run up to Christmas, and Apple may have trouble producing enough to meet the needs of an international launch.

Naturally, this is speculation at this stage. We’ll know for sure once the event kicks off tonight, but it’ll be interesting to see how this pans out. Could Apple really keep the iPad mini an ocean away from us in the UK?

Let us know what you think in the comments section below.

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  • http://twitter.com/jonathonpm Jonathon Marks

    You guys might be on to something, though it will be a shame if Apple doesn’t launch it here as would love to have a play with it.

    It could benefit competitors coming up to xmas though as when they ask for the iPad mini in a shop they wil end up looking at other 7inch tablets instead.

  • http://twitter.com/PCSievers P.C. Sievers

    The Fire was US only because of licensing issues of their app store.

    APPL can create just about any number of these things as fast as they want, within reason, so it is unlikely they will be bottlenecked in production for a worldwide launch. After half a dozen years doing this a couple times a year since the iPad launch 3 years ago they are getting good at predicting and meeting worldwide demand within a reasonable wait period.

    Giving up the Xmas period outside the US to Amazon and Google just seems impossible to me.

  • Stephen Ellerington

    The Apple Store is now down! Check back tonight and I am sure you will find new iPads for sale in the UK.

  • applloverlover

    Idiots.
    it is being streamed on apple tv for the first time.
    typical hyperbolic reporting from a shabby bunch of net scapers.

    • Stephen Ellerington

      It’s also being streamed on Apple’s website.

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