Plenty of sites, including iLounge, are reporting (based, as usual, on no confirmed facts whatsoever) that 2011 will see an iPad mini. Frankly, I think this is bullshit, and if it does come to pass, something is badly wrong at Apple. Here’s why:

An iPad mini already exists: it’s called the iPod touch

If you want everything that’s great about the iPad but in a smaller form factor, buy an iPod touch. It really is that simple.

Complicating product lines confuses consumers

Right now, people are all “I want an iPad”. All they need to do is decide if they want 3G and then pick a storage size. Add screen sizes to the mix and you magnify existing ‘worry’ on purchase—adding “What if I buy the wrong screen?” to “What if I need 3G in the future?” and “What if I need more storage?”—and this could ultimately cost sales. People dislike making a bad and costly mistake; many will instead hang on to their money.

Complicating product lines is expensive

Apple’s pretty cunning when it comes to materials. Off-cuts from MacBook Pros become Apple keyboards, for example. With mobile goods, Apple has shared components between the iPhone and iPod touch. Importantly, though, it’s of late had fewer units to deal with than during the bad times of the mid-1990s. Fewer units means less design work, more focus, lower tooling costs, and simpler marketing. Throw more types of iPad into the mix and costs go up everywhere.

Complicating product lines is what everyone else does

Part of the success of the iPhone is down to the lack of options. Elsewhere, product lines are fragmented and individual units from a manufacturer find it harder to stand out. More iPads would dilute iPad as a brand, and it’ll just make everyone bitch about the fact there isn’t a 12-inch one, one with a USB port, or one made of unicorns. Sticking with one main design and saying “This is the iPad—deal with it” is a better direction.

Developers will go nuts

Developers already have to cater for the iPhone, the iPhone with Retina Display and the iPad. Adding another screen resolution would probably cause many of them to lose it entirely and march on Cupertino armed with sharpened iPod shuffles, aiming to put some really nasty scratches down the side of Steve Jobs’s car.

There’s just no need

How many people are sitting there with an iPad going: “You know? I really wish this thing was very slightly smaller?” Seriously. The iPad’s form factor is fine. The screen is big enough to differentiate it from the iPod touch, and it enables apps to become more advanced than those found on other iOS devices. The unit’s perhaps a little heavy, but a 7-inch iPad wouldn’t be much lighter. It would, however, have less room for a battery, meaning its most important feature—long battery life—would lag substantially behind the existing model.

So I’m calling bullshit on this rumour, and if I’m wrong within the next year, I’m going to wear my ‘concerned face’ about the direction Apple’s heading in. Apple’s ethos is keeping it simple, and we don’t need an iPad mini.