Apple is refusing to stoop to the level of its rivals in the tablet market, in pricing its new, smaller iPad well above the competition.

On Tuesday, the company revealed the iPad Mini, with a screen that's about two-thirds the size of the full-size model, and said it will cost $329 and up.

Apple starts taking orders for the new model on Friday, said marketing chief Phil Schiller at an event in San Jose, California. Wi-Fi-only models on Nov. 2.

Later, the company will add models capable of accessing ``LTE'' wireless data networks.

The price fits into the Apple product lineup between the iPad 2 at $399 and the latest version of the iPod touch at $299. But company watchers had been expecting Apple to price the iPad Mini at $250 to $300 to counter the threat of less expensive tablets like Amazon.com Inc.'s Kindle Fire, which starts at $159. Google Inc. sells its Nexus 7 tablet for $199 and up.

The screen of the iPad Mini is 20 centimetres on the diagonal, making it larger than the screens of the competitors. It also sports two cameras, on the front and on the back, which the competitors don't.

The iPad mini is as thin as a pencil and weighs 0.31 kilograms, half as much as the full-size iPad with its 24.6-centimetre screen, Schiller said.

The screen resolution is 1024 by 768 pixels, the same as the iPad 2 and a quarter of the resolution of the flagship iPad, which starts at $499.

Photo: AP