Old rumor back again: Apple is building a 7-inch iPad, says the rumor mill
Posted on 19. Dec, 2011 by Albert Madison in Tablets
Image: Reuters
That old rumor is back, Apple is going to release a 7-inch iPad tablet for 2012 according to the rumor mill. Prior to the unveiling of the 9.7-inch Apple iPad 2 the rumor mill claimed Apple would have a smaller iPad with a 7-inch screen for 2011, but the iPad 2 smashed that rumor to bits because it featured a 9.7-inch screen just like the first generation iPad that was revealed in 2010.
Why would anyone think that Apple would release a 7-inch tablet in the first place, though? Apple’s late CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs openly mocked 7-inch tablets as being too small and products destined only for failure in 2010. Is Apple going to seriously relegate from the words of Steve Jobs? At this time the 7-inch tablet market is only being held up by the $199 Amazon Kindle Fire tablet, all other 7-inch tablets have made no major splash in the overall tablet market which is dominated by Apple’s 9.7-inch iPads.
–on the Amazon Kindle Fire it’s been said, and undisputed by Amazon, that each Kindle Fire sold losses money for Amazon as a company because the tablet costs more than $199 to manufacture each unit. Apple’s iPad line has never been associated with revenue loss for Apple as a company and I don’t think Apple wants to start down that road by launching a low-cost 7-inch tablet to compete with Amazon either.–
Apple appears content with offering more portable devices like the iPod Touch or iPhone to folks looking for more compact devices that work similarly to the big iPad.
A possible reason for Apple keeping their tablet to only large 9.7-inch displays is they want to offer as little compromise as possible for tablet users who mostly want an iPad for web browsing, eBook and/or magazine reading. As many reviewers have pointed out about the successful Amazon Kindle Fire 7-inch tablet, the 7-inch form-factor offers only a sub-standard user experience for web browsing, eBook and/or magazine reading due to it’s small screen. It’s impossible to fit both text and graphics for web pages/eBook/magazines on a small 7-inch display and have everything be readable/viewable to an acceptable degree.
Apple is obsessed with offering their customers the best user experience they can, and with the cons of having a 7-inch screen I just can see them releasing a 7-inch iPad.
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