NEW YORK (AP) — The price tag remains a big question mark as Apple prepares Tuesday to unveil what is expected to be a smaller iPad.

In the case of the ‘‘iPad Mini’’ (the real name is not known), tech bloggers and analysts expect a device with a screen measuring 7.85 inches on the diagonal, making it about half the size of the regular iPad. It would be slightly larger than the 7-inch tablets it’s presumably designed to compete with, including Amazon.com Inc.’s Kindle Fire and Google Inc.’s Nexus 7.