“There’s been increasing chatter in the rumor mill about the possibility of a smaller 7.85″ iPad that could be introduced sometime in 2012,” Arnold Kim reports for MacRumors.
“The supply chain has actually been very specific about the screen size of this rumored iPad. According to Chinese manufacturers, Apple is buying up 7.85″ screens for this upcoming mini iPad. So, we asked our friends at CiccareseDesign to put together these mockups of what a 7.85″ iPad would look like in comparison to the existing 9.7″ iPad,” Kim reports. “They also created [an] ‘actual size’ PDF that can be printed out so you can play with one yourself in real life… If you don’t have a printer handy, you can view it in actual size in an iPad web browser. If you save it as a web icon on your home screen, it will then launch without a menu bar so you can fully appreciate the size.”
Kim reports, “We should point out that Steve Jobs had been adamant that a 10-inch screen is the minimum necessary for a tablet, and in a conference call said that he didn’t believe a 7-inch tablet was a good user experience: ‘We’re not not making a 7-inch tablet because we don’t want to hit a lower price point. We just believe it’s too small to hit the user experience people want. When we make decisions, it’s not about cost, it’s about value when you factor in the software. We’re all about the best products at aggressive prices.’ So, based on that stance, it might seem unlikely that Apple would produce such a device, but they’ve been known to change their mind before.”
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Analyst: Don’t expect an ‘iPad mini’ with tiny 7-inch screen in 2012 – December 23, 2011