Apple’s purported iPad mini has been the darling of the rumour mill for months and now a coupon outfit has released a rather interesting survey which seems to indicate that consumers are not going crazy over the baby iPad.

The survey, carried out by CouponCodes4u, revealed that most consumers would rather go for an iPhone 5 than an iPad mini. Almost 80 percent of 1873 people who participated in the survey said they would get the iPhone. An equal number described an iPad mini as “pointless,” as they already have a standard iPad.

This could prove a major issue for Apple. Google is virtually starting with a blank slate, pun intended, and for most consumers the Nexus 7 will be their first Android tablet, whereas Apple is basically a victim of its own success. A huge chunk of its consumer base already has 9.7-inch iPads, so getting them to go for a smaller version might not be as easy.

So, Apple’s traditional target audience seems to be covered already, so Cupertino will have to look somewhere else, i.e. it will have to steal some consumers away from Google and Amazon. However, this also means that the iPad mini would have to be competitively priced to take on the traditionally much cheaper Armdroid competition.