iPad Mini prices leaked, and they're anything but miniature

Apple has done a pretty good job so far keeping their secrets about the iPad Mini, the little new seven-or-eight-inch incarnation of the incredibly popular tablet. But now that the iPad Mini is getting ready to hit stores, more information is becoming forthcoming and secrets are harder to keep. Case in point—the prices were leaked over the weekend. It turns out that the price of the iPad Mini is not exactly "mini."

There is one big catch to these "leaked prices"—they're in euros, not US dollars. But various bloggers have gotten out their calculators, performed the euros-to-dollars conversion rates, and concluded that the iPad Mini will not come particularly cheap.

VentureBeat performed these very conversion calculations and has concluded that the iPad Mini will cost $250 for the most basic 8 GB version. Prices then go up to add cellular reception capability, or for models with 16 GB, 32 GB or 64 GB of memory. VentureBeat estimates that the highest-priced iPad Mini will come in at $650 for the 64 GB model with cellular capabilities.

For comparison, Google's most affordable Nexus 7 tablet costs $199, while Amazon's most affordable Kindle Fire starts at $159. So the iPad Mini will probably be the least affordable of the "most affordable" tablets this holiday shopping season.

Where do these leaked iPad Mini prices come from? A German tech blog called Flo's Weblog obtained iPad Mini price information from Media Markt, a large European retail electronics chain. (Can't read German? Try the Google-translated version.) The chain had circulated pricing information to its various franchise stores, and apparently this plucky blogger Flo got his or her hands on this pricing information.

When VentureBeat performed their euros-to-dollars conversion math, they went with current conversion rates, and then subtracted the 19 percent value-added tax used in Germany (the source of this pricing info). This formula basically made the American dollars price the exact same European euros price—just with a dollar sign in front instead of a euro sign. That's a pretty easy calculation! Gizmodo points out that this is not unreasonable, as Apple used the same pricing for dollars and euros for the latest version of the iPad.

The pricing document indicates that the iPad Mini will come in your choice of black or white casings. So if you're hoping for all kinds of crazy different color choices a la the iPod or iPod Nano, you will not have those color options on the iPad Mini.

It has already been reported that Apple expects to introduce the iPad Mini on Oct. 23.