No, the Nexus 7 came out a few months before the Mini,and is much better (IMHO).
What? Samsung Galaxy Tab 7" came out in November 2010 and I'm pretty sure there were a couple more before that as well.
Mini is way better, depending on what you do with it. The 7's screen is nicer, but lack of LTE and the 16:10 aspect ratio was deal breaker for me (I was looking for a "work" device).
Of course not. I thought it was common knowledge that it was Apple who had to "copy" everyone else, strategy wise at least, with a mini tablet.