Apple unveiled a new smaller tablet the "iPad Mini" on Tuesday at an event in San Jose, California with a much higher price than expected and at least $129 dlrs more expensive than its main competitors Amazon's Kindle Fire and Google's Nexus 7.

The tech company said that it will sell the iPad Mini starting at $329 for the 16GB model. Both, the latest Kindle Fire and Nexus 7 start at $199.

The iPad Mini has a 7.9-inch screen and is 7.2mm thick, weighing .68 pounds. It has a dual-core A5 processor (same processor as the iPad 2), a front-facing HD camera for FaceTime, a 5-megapixel iSight camera on the back and Wi-Fi.

It is available on 16GB, 32 GB and 64 GB ranging from $329 to $519.  

Rumors that Apple was going to launch a mini iPad had been on the web for months. 

See the new iPad Mini in the Photo Gallery!