“Although Apple has long dismissed the viability of 7-inch tablets, the company has been talking about a smaller iPad internally for some time — and Steve Jobs himself was ‘very receptive’ to the idea even though he had previously called 7-inch tablets ‘DOA’ on an October 2010 earnings call,” Nilay Patel repots for The Verge.

MacDailyNews Take: Yeah, as “DOA” as iPods that play video or electronic books.

Patel reports, “That’s the word from an email entered into evidence during Scott Forstall’s testimony in the ongoing Apple / Samsung trial. In January 2011 Apple VP Eddy Cue forwarded an article that compared the 7-inch Galaxy Tab and the iPad to Apple’s executive team — Tim Cook, Scott Forstall, and Phil Schiller — along with a note saying ‘I believe there will a 7-inch market and we should do one.’ Cue added that he’d ‘expressed this to Steve several times since Thanksgiving and he seemed very receptive the last time.’”

Read more in the full article here.

Poornima Gupta reports for Reuters, “Cue’s brief email was introduced on Friday as part of a high-wattage trial that will play out in a San Jose courtroom this summer and is expected to transfix the technology industry. ‘There will be a 7-inch market and we should do one. I expressed this to Steve several times since Thanksgiving and he seemed very receptive the last time,’ the executive wrote in the email. ‘I found email, books, Facebook, and video very compelling on a 7-inch. Web browsing is definitely the weakest point, but still usable.’”

Gupta reports, “Cue had previously forwarded an article entitled ‘Why I just dumped the iPad (hint: size matters).’ He wrote: ‘Having used a Samsung Galaxy, I tend to agree with many of the comments below (except actually moving off the iPad).’”

Read more in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: Many times, Steve Jobs denigrated something before he did it right and then released it.

And the difference between a 7-inch tablet in the wrong aspect ratio and a 7.85-inch iPad witb the proper aspect ratio is significant.