Smaller tablets like Google’s just-announced Nexus 7 or Amazon’s Kindle Fire have been making headway against the i-“Big Daddy”Pad. Even grandpa Microsoft is jumping into the tablet game with the Surface.  Apparently Apple is about to order the new kids on the block back into the kiddie pool, as rumors abound that a smaller, cheaper iPad is just around the corner.

Bloomberg cites a couple people with black bars over their eyes on the story:

The new model will have a screen that’s 7 inches to 8 inches diagonally, less than the current 9.7-inch version, said the people, who asked not to be identified because Apple hasn’t made its plans public. The product, which Apple may announce by October, won’t have the high-definition screen featured on the iPad that was released in March, one of the people said.

Both Google and Amazon’s offerings are priced at $199. Microsoft hasn’t yet revealed the price of a Surface, however most people think it’s going to be as much, if not more, expensive than the current iPad. As far as getting tablets into hands, Apple will have the upper hand (as usual). Apple has over 360 stores, compared to Microsoft’s 20. Google, at least initially, will only offer the Nexus 7 online, and even though you can get the Kindle Fire in some stores, big retailers like Target have taken them off the shelves.