Just days after a tech blogger said that Apple has a 7.85 inch iPad in the lab, a Chinese Web portal claims that a 'mini iPad' will be released later this year. According to Chinese web portal NetEase, the device will be released around the third quarter of this year to "counter attack" the upcoming Windows tablets. The report further claims that the devices will cost anywhere from $249 to $299 (U.S. dollars) and that there will be an initial 6 million units ready for launch, reports msnbc.

It is also reported that Foxconn and Pegatron are working on the mini iPad.

Some time back, Daring Fireball's John Gruber revealed that Apple is planning to launch a small, low-budget tablet that runs at the same 1024 x 768 resolution as the iPad 1 and 2.

If Apple decides to launch a mini-iPad it would be going against the wishes of late Apple founder Steve Jobs who quashed reports of iPad going the small tablet path.