On October 8, Apple released Press Conference invitations for the event set to be held on October 16. While it's still unknown, Apple's history suggests that the event will revolve around the iPad Mini 3 release.

As Apple fanatics can recall, the second generation iPad Mini was released in October of last year, and before that, the first iPad Mini launched October 2012.

Beyond release dates, what can be expected from the new device in terms of hardware and features?

First and foremost a rumor is a float saying the device may not actually be called iPad Mini 3, but the iPad Mini Air, according to Taiwan's Economic Daily News.

Additionally, there's a good chance Apple will launch the iPad Mini 3 in three different colors.

There have been lots of rumors and speculation about iPad Mini 3 and even some allegedly leaked images, but none of them have any strong credibility. The most prominent of all was the first leaked photo sent to a French website called, nowhereelse.fr, and the image was claiming to be of prototype iPad mini 3. Site editor Steve Hemmerstoffer stressed that he hadn't heard from the sender before and therefore can't vouch for its authenticity.

What may seem possible according to recent trends in Apple is that iPad Mini 3 may feature a TouchID; according to Ming Chi Kuo, an 8 MP iSight camera and a new, more powerful A8 processor will be seen on the iPad Mini 3.

iPad Mini 3 may also continue with 16, 32, 64 and 128 GB storage options like the iPad Mini 2. The possibility of a MicroSD card slot is again highly unlikely.

iPad Mini 3's price will be a hard call to predict, as iPad Mini 2 was relatively less costly than the original. However, that was mainly due to the Retina Display upgrade. So unless, Apple has planned a major change in the upcoming model, chances are that the new iPad Mini 3 will cost somewhere near to the price of its previous version.