“Analysts are predicting that Apple will launch a smaller, more affordable iPad tablet in 2012 in addition to its high end iPad 3, due out next quarter,” Sylvie Barak reports for EE Times.
“Brett Simpson and Richard Kramer of Arete Research said they expected to see Apple launch ‘a 7-inch iPad with a low-end specification,’ in or around the third quarter of the year at a price point of about $299,” Barak reports. ““Given the iPad 3 aims to use higher spec parts (quad-core CPU, higher resolution display, LTE, and improved camera) there is plenty of scope to offer a cost down model supporting ~$100 lower bill of materials,” said the pair.
Barak reports, ““If offered at around $299, it will spur far greater adoption,” said Arete, noting that the educational and emerging market segments would be prime targets for such a device… ‘With Microsoft demanding a ~$10 royalty for every Android tablet, and Apple positioning its iPad mini to oust rivals in the low-end, we see little opportunity for OEMs to scale and make money this year,’ said Arete, giving a gloomy outlook to other tablet hopefuls.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Who and who from where?
Troll Bait! Where have I heard this before???!!
The analysts are setting up “disappointment” for Apple when they don’t release a 7″ iPad.
They will artificially depress the stock, then buy more when it bottoms out.
They are all liars.
Works for me. I cherish temporary artificial depressions of AAPL stock.
EXACTLY.
This is stock manipulation at is most plain and most simple.
Jobs said — while Cook was sitting right there — to a crowd that Apple thought 7″ pads were stupid and went on to talk about people having to file down their fingers to use them as effectively as the full size iPad.
Analysts then put out stories based upon ZERO facts to set up expectations that a 7″ iPad will be announced.
Next, on the day before (or even the morning before) the next iPad announcement they short the stock HEAVILY.
Then no 7″ iPad is announced. Expectations are not met. The stock falls significantly. They clean up on their shorts. And they buy more stock at an artificially reduced price.
If the FTC could prove it, they’d all go to jail over this. The problem is that the FTC can rarely force these guys to come forth with all their sources. Thus it is extremely rare that stock manipulation of this kind is prosecuted.
If a few of these guys spent a few years in jail this kind of thing would rarely happen. (It would only take a few.) But alas, almost none get even charged with this so this kind of thing is rampant in the financial industry.
Note that in order to short a stock, you just have to work through a broker. You don’t even have to own any stock at all. Thus an “analyst” stating a disclaimer that the own zero Apple stock has absolutely no relevance to what they may be doing.
…Hook. Line. Sinker…
What a bunch of maroons!! I think I have a better chance of curing cancer than this happening. When SJ says a smaller screen doesn’t work what part of this don’t they understand. These geniuses obviously know more/better than SJ. WHAT A TOTAL HIT PIECE!!
Steve Jobs also said video on an iPod wouldn’t work because the screen was to small when the iPod photo was released. A year later came the 5th gen iPod (w/video.) Just sayin 🙂
IDIOTIC.
I don’t see a 7″. 7.8″ or 8″, on the other hand, I could see. It would trounce the Kindle Fire with vastly superior capabilities, while being the perfect pocket size for reading books and navigation use.
Yes. The iPad mini will be more like an 8 inch tablet, the same way the iPad is closer to 10 inches than nine.
http://www.macrumors.com/2011/12/23/this-is-what-a-7-85-inch-ipad-looks-and-feels-like/
It will be whatever size Apple makes it, and you will like it like that and wonder how you ever imagined anything different!
Pure speculation. There will not be an iPad mini. There may be an iPod Touch Maxi @ 7″ targeted at gamers and books. But I doubt the notion of a 7″ iPad mini will ever come out of Apple. Steve was right when he said anything smaller than the original iPad is too small to deliver the proper user experience.
I agree shrinking an iPad to 7″ make no sense but expanding the iPod touch to 7″ may make sense. To me, what really make sense is the iPad 2 will continue at a lower price point after the 3 is released. An iPad 2 at $100-150 lower price point should finally kill this rumor (and the competition).
That is merely nomenclature fluff. Please elucidate on the differences between an iPod touch maxi and an iPad mini of equal display size…how would the user experience change? Why not start calling the iPod touch the iPad nano? It fits just as well.
As far as I am concerned, nitpicking over the name of the device is a waste of time – as if “iPod” or “iPad” were such great names to start with…
To me the big distinction is the software. Software on an iPod touch would scale to a larger screen but there is definatly software for the iPad that would loose functionality if scaled down to a smaller screen. This software would be for higher function operations such as I can remote into my desktop at work on the iPad. Even on the iPad the screen is a little small but serviceable. On anything smaller it is impractical.
I can think of a few other examples of where software makes sence on the iPad but not the iPod/iPhone.
I will give you that it is symantics of where to draw a line between iPod/iPhone class and iPad. My measure is the class of software I can run on the device. I think of the iPod as a handheld gaming device where the iPad is capable of some heavier lifting.
The Maxipad sounds familiar, hope that name is not trademarked.
Anal-ysts. One day they’ll be right.
I mean, even a stopped clock is correct twice a day.
Not if it’s digital. 😉
Not a 24-hour clock, analog or digital.
Not a sun dial on a cloudy day
There WILL be
(fat fingers! Doh!) There WILL be a 7-incher that’ll have a modem AND play flash. And it will come with a stylus. There!
“…a 7-inch iPad with a low-end specification..” None of this makes any sense. (1) Steve had already mentioned that they weren’t going there because it won’t fit in the pocket. They mocked their competitors for doing this as it is about the same as an iPad cut in half. (2) They already have the iPod Touch and iPhone that FITS in your pocket. And the #1 reason why this is pure BS from out-of-work Microsoft pundits: (3) Apple has NEVER done anything “low-end” in their life! Why? The current iPad is blowing the doors off of every market it touches. When iPad 3 comes out, just buy an iPad 2. I get so mad at idiots making a too much $$ at writing this slop.
Cheapskate kiddies: You can either buy an Apple iPod Touch 4 (which I personally love) or you can buy limited capability OtherPads from the OtherCompanies.
Maybe reading eBooks is all you need to do! Have at it, as long as it does what you need it to do. But if it doesn’t, then why are you buying it:?:
Steve Jobs: “”Let’s talk about the avalanche of tablets. First, there are only a few credible competitors. And they all have seven-inch screen. This size isn’t sufficient to create great tablet apps. And this size is useless unless you include sandpaper so users can sand their fingers down to a quarter of their size. We’ve done extensive testing and 10 inches is the minimum tablet size. Given that tablet users will have a smartphone in their pocket, there’s no point in giving up screen size. Seven inch tablets are tweeners — too big to be a phone, and too small to compete with the iPad.”
Steve Jobs in 2004 on the concept of a video iPod:
“Mr. Jobs also offered a more substantive answer as to why Apple had heretofore not added too many features to the iPod. “One of the things we say around Apple, and I paraphrase Bill Clinton from the 1992 presidential race, is ‘It’s about the music, stupid.'” Mr. Jobs says that there is a big difference between the way people listen to music and other activities like watching videos. Specifically, he said, you can listen to music in the background, while movies require that you actually watch them. “You can’t watch a video and drive a car,” he said. “We’re focused on music.”
Was at the yacht club on Sunday. Had a question about the club website. A person picked up a PlayBook and started stabbing at it. After awhile, got tired of waiting and pulled out my iPhone. Got the club website and found what I was looking. Meanwhile the other guy was stopped struggling with the PlayBook and left.
Picked up the PlayBook and tried to navigate the club website. The small display made it difficult to hit the desired item on the drop down menu. Kept stabbing at it. Then the whole thing crashed with a yellow screen and some kind of fatal error.
PlayBook is junk. Small screen on PlayBook (or anything else) does not compare to large screen on iPad.
The PlayBook sucks because it’s a 7″ 16:9 widescreen tablet, just like all the other 7″ tabs such as the Kindle Fire. They’ve got the ratio all wrong. The big differentiator with the iPad mini would be its 7.85″ 4:3 screen.
http://www.macrumors.com/2011/12/23/this-is-what-a-7-85-inch-ipad-looks-and-feels-like/
Has anybody heard something about a 7” “iPod Touch Maxi” or the like? Maybe Apple is thinking on this, rather than a smaller iPad. In a certain way and from a certain point of view, it would make sense…
iPad…now Maxi…the jokes just keep rolling
I agree that it would more sense for the iPod to have 7″ screens for games since Apple needs to reinvigorate the product’s falling sales.
I think you guys are on the right track. No wants a smaller iPad but a lot would like a bigger iPod Touch I would bet.
All you naysayers are failing to take into account the introduction of the retina display. The doubling of the screen resolution makes it very possible to make the smaller version as it will display the same pixels the current iPad is capable of in a smaller format. It virtually becomes a shrunk down version of the current models. That isn’t so bad in my opinion.
Except that, as Steve Jobs pointed out, you’d have to file down the end of your fingers to reliably click on something on screen. Either that or Apple/Developers will have to create yet another layout for their apps, which fragments the platform further (like Android). Not saying it will never happen, but these guys provide absolutely NO proof. Just speculation.
I’m sorry but with all due respect to Steve Jobs, who I have nothing but admiration for, but his statement is pure salesmanship. Who knew full well that a smaller iPad would have been fine if, at the time, Apple were capable of similar real estate on the smaller screen.
They were not when he said this but now they are!
Exactly.
http://www.macrumors.com/2011/12/23/this-is-what-a-7-85-inch-ipad-looks-and-feels-like/
You’re joking, right?
You think you can shrink the iPad, leave the interface as is, and expect the touch controls will still work?
This iPad mini would really need to come with sandpaper, so users can file down their fingers.
A lot of the controls on the iPad are already too small, like that that X to clear out the search field. It would be impossible to use if they just shrunk the whole thing.
I think selling a 7′ iPad is like betraying SJ phylosophy.
If apple wants a low end version of the iPad they could keep selling the iPad2 this time for $399 while the iPad3 sells for $499. That’s what Apple is doing with the IPhone 3s, iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S.
If they do make it, it would be useless for education markets. All the iBooks 2 text booksare designed for full size iPads. Textbooks won’t be legible on mini-iPads, and publishers aren’t going to rush in and increase their workload to support a diminished screen size that currently has zero percent of the iPad market.
You are not going to lose ANY real estate on the screen therefore it will display exactly what the current iPad can display. Pixel to pixel the screens would be identical but one would be in a smaller format.
Why is this so hard to understand! Steve Jobs would not be betrayed with this idea.
Does anyone remember the Newton Message Pad?
Arguably one of the main reasons for its “failure” was its size. Too big to carry in a pocket
You are over simplifying it. Even with a pixel to pixel match, the screen itself is smaller 1/4 of the size. A button that was 1″ wide, will be be 1/2″ inch wide, and therefore harder to put a human finger on. Text that was 1cm tall, will be .5cm tall, and therefore much harder to read. Same number of pixels or not, shrinking everything makes everything harder significantly harder to see and touch. The same software simply will not work with the same shrunken down unless the user’s eyes and fingers are also shrunk.
Sorry, but some of us have a little trouble reading seven-point type. A smaller iPad page might have all the words there, but at the cost of eyestrain. Rendering the type large enough to see would destroy the layout.
“If offered at around $299, it will spur far greater adoption,”
Greater than what??!! 80% of the market is ALREADY pretty great, don’t you think? Sheesh. These guys…
Anyway, I grant that it’s “possible” that they might come out with a 7″, but I doubt it (SJ was dead set against it, but then he was dead set against a lot of things he later came out in favor of [remember him saying no one reads books anymore? How lame was that? He was just waiting for the iPad to come out, so maybe Apple will come out with a 7″).
That said, I think it is FAR more likely that either the iPad3 = HD and will sell at a higher price or they will continue to sell the iPad 2 at $350-400. Either way, they will continue to dominate the market pretty much forever…
Oh my. Apple is really hurting for ‘adoption’ of the iPad. So let’s sell a wanting, hobbled little 7″ iPad ‘mini’ so Apple can compete in the 7″ cheap OtherPad market that has proven to be so lucrative.
I’m calling this “The August Factor”. It’s when TechTard journalists are on vacation, either figuratively or literally, resulting in fecal matter erupting out of their text editors. Good for you, you have something or other to hand the boss for publication. 😯
BS BS BS BS BS BS BS
Nice to see my alarm is working.
Apple doesn’t release new products with “low end” specifications. And I don’t think Steve Jobs could have been more clear that a 7″ tablet makes no sense. Plus, why? No 7″ tablet has gained ANY market traction whatsoever. Finally, Apple doesn’t need to go after the “low end” market because there’s no money in it.
File this one away with all the “iPhone nano” stupid rumors.
When have products failing to gain traction stopped Apple from making a version of their own? The fact that they haven’t taken off is irrelevant; they haven’t taken off because they’ve got it all wrong with the widescreen 16:9 ratio and smaller screen. The iPad mini will actually be more like an 8″ tablet and it will have the iPad’s same 4:3 screen.
http://www.macrumors.com/2011/12/23/this-is-what-a-7-85-inch-ipad-looks-and-feels-like/
All the pundits are wrong!!! What’s new about that eh? Anyway the IRC (Internet Rumor Control) says Apple will come out with a Nano sized wristwatch type iPhone with SIRI interface. This is a much better rumor, at least it’s new! 🙂
Here’s the thing:
When the iPad was first introduced, it was labeled a consumption-only device. The current size and capabilities (even in the first generation iPad) – when coupled with the right apps – has proven that the iPad can EASILY function as a powerful creation device. It has become my go-to device, with my MBP and iMacs doing only some heavy-lifting tasks. (They also serve as a device someone else can use when they cannot get the iPad out of my hands.)
So the current-size iPad is great as a consumption AND creation device. Will a 7″ size fit that description? I really don’t think so, so I feel that a mid-range device (unlikely due to Steve Jobs’ attitude) should NOT BE CALLED iPAD or connected with it at all. If anything it should be connected to the iPod touch instead, because it will more closely have the iPod Touch’s functionality.
Why does everyone put so much stock into Steve Jobs’ comments on 7 inch tablets? He said that well over a year ago. His words were merely a reflection of Apple’s current state; it didn’t mean that engineers still weren’t tasked to come up with a solution that fills the gap between the iPhone and iPad. If Jobs’ team brought him ideas that were stamped “Shit” up until that point, that doesn’t mean they couldn’t have eventually gotten it right before he finally gave his approval. That’s how it always worked.
He also scoffed at the concept of third party apps on the iPhone until Scott Forstall convinced him otherwise.
Of course software engineers could write usable apps for a 7″ device, but it wouldn’t run optimally on either a proper iPad or iPod touch.
Im either mobile, or on the couch.
A 7″ tablet is too big to carry around and why would I sacrifice screen space when Im sitting on the couch?
This product has no real place in everyday use.
I like my 27″ iMac screen. Multiple pages open and big. The iPad is as small as I’d buy. Of course the iPhone is a pocket necessity.
iPad mini, especially made for all you pre-teens out there.
Give me a break about the sandpaper already, I guess you don’t surf to just about any website on your iPhone already?
Pinch and zoom, it’s been that way for a few years now and it works just fine for detail items on screen.
7″ iPad (or whatever) would be ideal size for children in an educational setting:smaller hands, sharper eyes, lighter to carry.
I got it !! – How bout a 7 inch iPad , you know,
For those ” Light Days ”
LMAO !!!!!!!!!!!!!!