Take this one with a grain of salt, but Ticonderoga Securities analyst Brian White tells clients — as reported by “AppleInsider” (http://www.appleinsider.com) — that Apple is planning an “iPad mini” for 2012 to compete with the Amazon Kindle Fire.

The “mini” name doesn’t necessarily refer to the size of the device, he said, but a lower entry-level price. White says such a device would allow Apple to tap into a “more price sensitive consumer segment,” and also fend off the Amazon Kindle Fire, the retailer’s first entrance into the touchscreen tablet market.

“We believe this lower priced iPad could be priced in the mid-to-high-$200 range,” White the analyst in a note to investors. “We expect this will be followed by a much more powerful, feature rich standard-priced iPad 3 in (the second quarter of 2012).”

— Dennis Sellers