“As Apple will reportedly launch a 7.85-inch iPad in the third quarter of 2012, other vendors are concerned because it would bring large competitive pressure on them, according to sources from upstream component makers,” Monica Chen and Joseph Tsai report for DigiTimes.
“The sources pointed out that non-Apple tablet PC vendors can still survive in the 7-inch tablet PC market because Apple has not yet entered the segment,” Chen and Tsai report. “However… the non-Apple vendors may soon have difficulty [surviving] if the rumors come turn.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: As if a $399 iPad 2 wasn’t enough to fear. Sweet dreams, derivative also-rans.
It’s from DigiTimes, nuff said.
Well BLN and I are holding out for a 7″ iPhone. And we prefer a 15″ tablet. Wie have sqiuinty little etes you see.
Boy, one can see those squinty little etes a hundred yards away. We’re not yet into Printemps and you’re getting into Ete already? viva la français!
What 7″ tablet market?
That would be those crappy e-readers that Amazon looses about $80 each on.
When Apple makes gaming iOS devices and controls for the AppleTV later this year these e-reader will die off. Apple should call them iPod touch controllers or Fat iPods. Not iPads! Never give up the high ground to those little e-readers and honor Steve Jobs comments about them.
I’m pretty sure they should be fearing the CURRENT crop of iPads, not some unicorn smaller one that will come “later.”
Oh, boy, here we go.
“Analysts” will report next month “Apple fans abuzz about reputed ‘Unicorn’ product. Wall of secrecy is in place.”
Followed later this year: “Apple disappoints by not shipping ‘Unicorn’ product as anticipated. Company’s future in doubt.”
+1 and lol!
Apple will not enter that segment. They cut them off at the knees with the bargain iPad2. That’s all they need to do.
There are only three reasons they make those silly little things anyway: Apple’s not in the segment; they can make them cheaply enough to have a slightly lower price than iPad; Apple bought up all the full-sized tablet screens.
Another reason for the change in iPad naming convention is that it opens the door for additional iPad models.
Yes indeed, the 7.85″ iPad mini at $299 will suffocate what little oxygen remains for copycat tablet makers. But Apple’s goal will be to expand its iOS hardware range and make it more attractive to more people, it’s not about fear of the Kindle Fire or any other competitor. Remember that.
There isn’t a 7.85″ tablet. There is a diminished user experience with one. It won’t fit in your pocket. The margins aren’t there for the price. There is no point in belaboring the rumor and you may as well realize that it is about an Android iPad Wannabe.
Really? 7.85″ is about the same size as a paperback book. A book designed to be carried easily in a jacket pocket, and, handily, about the same size as a folded contour map like a UK Ordnance Survey or US GS map, making this size of Pad perfect as an outdoors navigation device. Much more practical than a regular iPad. Also a practical ebook reader with greater flexibility than a Kindle Fire. If you have the imagination to see that, that is…
I am sure that there will be many Android devices that you can buy that are the size you want. Apple will only make great products that give wonderful user experiences.
R2,
You’re exactly right. There is a glaring hole in the Apple tablet lineup, right between the $199 iPod Touch and the $399 iPad2. A $299 7-8″ iPad or larger iPod Touch is coming from Apple this Fall, and it will be the best experience for those with smaller hands (e.g., women), those who want to fit it into a purse or coat pocket, those who want to use it mainly as an e-reader or movie player, children ages 6-11, and many others. The full-size iPad will continue to outsell it, but they will be serving different types of users/market segments and offering a different experience. Oh, and the 7-8″ tablet will DESTROY what’s left of Apple’s lower end tablet competitors–game, set, match!
Go Apple!!
I still don’t consider a $399 iPad a bargain device. If they could get it to $299, that would be a bargain.
I know many people that bought multiple Kindle Fires for their kids this past Christmas at $199 a pop. At $399, I don’t think their decision would have been any different, but at $299, it definitely would be.
I’ve heard that argument that it would cannibalize the iPod touch market…I don’t think so though. I would buy my older kids iPad’s if they weren’t so expensive. But for now, they get my iPad 2 when my new iPad gets here.
I don’t think this makes sense unless you introduce a new resolution like 800 x 600 and I just don’t see this happening. I think it might make more sense to upsize the iPod Touch to 5 inches, though I don’t see that happening either.
How many times do I have to say this? THERE WILL BE NO 7″ or 7.85″ or ANY SMALLER iPads!!!!! NOT GONNA HAPPEN!!!
and you know this how?? If Amazon continues to sell millions of Kindle Fires that means there is a market for a tablet under 10″.. Apple would be foolish not to enter that market. With economy of scale, they could wipe out the low end, jut as they did with the iPod mini, nano and shuffle.
If you haven’t done it by now, they won’t. The rumor will always just be rumors.
Proof please: where does Amazon say that they have sold millions of Kindle Fires? They haven’t so you do not know.
Yes, they have in their last quarter results. Google it.
Correction. They’ve sold millions of “kindles” but haven’t broken down by model. However, The “fire” is their top selling Kindle.
The point is, they’ve sold a lot of kindles. There is a low end market, especially if Apple were to enter it and do it right.
We know this because Steve Jobs, the man who invented the Apple Revolution and made Apple the most valuable company in the world, explicity rejected the smaller form factor.
He also rejected video on an iPod when the iPod photo was released and then a year later released the iPod video.
And he said explicitly that Apple would never sell books because nobody reads anymore so there’s no money in selling e-readers. About a year later, he announced the iPad.
The Kindle does not prove there is a market for 7″ tablets. It only proves there is a market for $199 tablets (wanna-be tablets at that).
Don’t need, but…
If you don’t need the big screen, have good eyes and the hi-res display goes on the 7″ form factor device, it makes it one heck of a lot easier to carry.
If you carry a MacBook Air/Pro and want a secondary device, a small form factor iPad makes sense.
YES! People who need to hold it up much of the day for work will prefer the smaller form factor because it’s lighter. Road warriors who need to take their their notebook computers may prefer it as well. While the larger iPad will continue to lead, there is large segment of the market that prefers this size.
Go Apple!
Will Apple include sandpaper with their 7 inch release, so that customers can sand down their fingers?. That was a very strange thing for Mr Jobs to say, considering that fat-fingered customers have managed with little iPhone screens for several years. The 7 inch tablet format is great, in my opinion, because it fits into a jacket pocket and hence can go places that a 10 inch tablet or a laptop cannot go.
It was marketing, that’s what he did best. You don’t talk about how great a competitors 7″ tablet is if you are selling a 10″ tablet.
Jobs was famous for contradicting himself.
We already have a device that fits in a jacket pocket—the iPhone.
And initially we had a 15″ MacBook Pro (PowerBook,) but now we have 13″ and 17″ too as well as an 11′ MacBook Air.
There is room for more than one size tablet.
What iOS resources do you use for a 7″ iPad? You have 3 choices:
1) It’s an iPod touch, blown up to 7″
2) It’s an iPad, scaled down to 7″
3) You develop a whole new 7″ platform and expect developers to design for it.
Take screenshot of an iPad and pull it up on your Mac in actual size. Then scale it down to 7″ (diagonal), and see how small everything is and imagine how hard it would be to work with.
Do the same with an iPod touch, and realize how blown-up everything is, and how poor the graphics will look.
I just don’t see Apple doing any of these 3 options.
It’s not the physical size of the display, as both 7″and 10″ work just fine, it’s the resolution that would make it usable or not.
A resolution independent 1024 X 768 Apple HDTV remote is what we will likely see.
An iPad 2 refurb from the Apple store is priced at $349. That looks tempting for an entry level tablet.
“Reported” by whom?
Exactly.
Would this device really be a small iPad or a large iPod Touch?
Apple has a small screen IPad. It’s called an an IPhone. If you don’t need a phone then there is the IPod touch. One reason the IPad has been so scucessful is IT IS NOT 7 INCHES! Does that make sense to anyone but me?
@hankster
Grow Up. By calling an iphone a mini ipad you sound like Apples competitors when they released the ipad, only in reverse. The two devices are different beasts. There are some excellent comments on this page describing the success of the paperback form factor and that format is part of the success of kindle, fire or otherwise. A4 is also a very successful format and the ipad has captured the electronic version of A4 very well indeed. To deny the existence of the 7 inch format is like saying that humanity has evolved with nothing more than A4 and fag packet (iphone) formats. That would is clearly false.
I have an ipad, but I make more use of my playbook. Not because it has more apps or better hardware. It doesn’t. What it does have is a better form factor (for me) and flash. Much as I love apple products I use whatever tool is right and at the moment, apple have a gap in their toolbox. A toolbox that they claim to own.
However… the non-Apple vendors may soon have difficulty [surviving] if the rumors come turn. [‘come true’?]
These rumor are idiotic. There is NO MONEY in the 7.whatever ” market. Blatant DUH Factor!
HELLO ! ! !
Sales≠$$$ ! ! !
Amazon LOSE MONEY with every Kindle Fire sale! Amazon SUBSIDIZE Fire sales! WAKE UP! Get some caffeine! Apple give a rat’s about the 7.whatever” because W H Y ?
TechTardiness abounds.