“A 7-inch iPad will put Apple in some very unfamiliar territory in the tablet market — it’s an area currently dominated by Android-based devices,” Jim Dalrymple writes for TechPinions. “However, Apple’s entry into that segment will also present some seemingly insurmountable challenges to those same companies.”
“With a 7-inch iPad, Apple will, for the first time, take on its competition on their turf,” Dalrymple writes. “This will be a real test for Apple and the iPad brand, but one I’m convinced they will easily win.”
Dalrymple writes, “The problem for Apple’s competitors is that there is no where else to go. If they go down much more in size, the tablet becomes a smartphone. If they go up beyond the size of the current iPad, it becomes too big to be useful. Apple is in a position to decimate its competitors. All it needs to do is release the 7-inch iPad.”
Read more in the full article – recommended – here.
MacDailyNews Take: We expect Apple to wreak much more than mere decimation upon peddlers of tiny-screen-wrong-aspect-ratio wannabe iPads. It will be a bloodbath.
I’m going to buy several… Provided they can build them fast enough
Well Said, MDN. They may also be doing this for a specific strategic region: to hit all the Copiers where it hurts.
You are right. All the copiers are crying already.
Pat disagrees but WTF does he know?
If Apple ends up with 90% of the small tablets and 95% of the large tablets, then the number of large and small iPads sold is totally irrelevant.
I disagree with MDN on this one. 7″ sales yes of course will be fine but at what costs. Call it the General Motors syndrome in that one product doing well at the cost of another within the same company is not good business. The new iPad along with iPad 2 will suffer.
Add to this that the Android 7″ offerings are very well priced and the Playbook with OS 10 will also hold its own in this segment.
We sit here and pooh pooh Android as Android fans bash on Apple but the folks in the Ivory Towers for both these Companies take each other very seriously and are always concerned about the next device offering from one another.
Think about this, Apple getting in the cable tv set top box business is simply catching up to Samsung and I am betting that Google deferred its Apple TV equivalent device because they will incorporate Android into the Samsung CTVSTB or vice versa.
go away pat
fucking dumbass apple fanboy. if you really are crazy about apple, go lick their balls.
It seems like Apple’s strategy is just that. Who better to cannibalize your products than you, yourself?
Personally, I’m with 2010 Steve on this one. I think a 7″ tablet is a bad idea, but if Apple does it well, which is pretty-much guaranteed, it will be successful. Maybe Apple can make the 7″ tablet market relevant.
the current iPad is the hardback, perhaps a seven-incher could be the digital equivalent of the paperback..I won’t know until I use one.
I won’t know until I buy it, and I will.
I respectfully disagree.
For those of us who carry too damn much “stuff”, a 10″ iPad can just tip us over the top if you already have to carry a MacBook Pro or MBAir to get your work done (lots of people).
As far as I’m concerned whether you’re making a sale with a 7.85″ or a 9.7″ iPad, you’re still making a sale. And who says you can’t buy both at the same time.
There’s no GM effect because you’re not cutting corners to sell the iPad mini, you’re just increasing the range of options available to the consumer.
Oh my God… I agree withBLN…. Not to mention that Apple will own the Mobile market and it’s growing dominance of search %… If this 7 incher has Siri, and Apples new map software …. Watch Goigle start crying like a baby.
Since I’m iPad-less, due to the wonderful economy, I will be probably getting both upon the release. I really can’t wait. The iPad is 2 1/2 years old and I already feel I’m so far behind the curve, I might never catch up.
Pat HAS to respond with SOME type of comeback, or his Scamscum overlords won’t be paying him…
Um, they can go up in size; what about the Samsung Galaxy Tab 17? Also, no one will mistake the Galaxy Tab 33 for an iPad, but they may get sued by boogie board manufacturers.
I disagree with this statement:
“If they go up beyond the size of the current iPad, it becomes too big to be useful.”
Just like 17″ notebook computers, I’d never buy a 14″-15″ tablet. However, think of it this way: a 14.5″ tablet (about 8.5 x 11.7) would fit both U.S. standard paper size and the international A4 paper size at 100%. Do that and it could finally be the onset of the here-to-fore mythical “paperless office”.
Personally, I believe that there is a niche for this size tablet. I believe it’s a small niche, but it exists.
However, thinking of it in terms of the “paperless office” where all your historical documents are scanned in plus you have rich media of today — all at retina display resolutions…. it MIGHT be more than a niche product.
I would like a ~14″ iPad. For my work it would be great. I’ve carried a 17″ MBP for years. I do training, lecturing and applications support for SEM/EDS. This involves high resolution images and many smaller maps. I would appreciate more real estate, even at the same resolution. On the road I try to VNC back to my office computer but the screen size makes this difficult. For most people the current size or smaller makes sense. For science, engineering, some business apps and maybe some artists a 14″ iPad would be great.
MDN is a joke spin pit. All we heard was how 7 inch tablets were wrong wrong wrong. Now they spin it into ‘wrong aspect ratio’. These guys are incapable of genuine thoughts. For all their crying about others who cannot come up with original ideas they themselves have no original ideas just blind devotion and a penchant for flip flopping.
Don, you still usin’ that Viagra shampoo?
Hey, you misspelled your name.
Donkey is the correct spelling, although, you can use Jack Ass if you like that better.
Wait are y’all saying that you’ve forgotten all those “Tiny Screen X” headlines that can easily be found here? Because I’m just as confused about exactly what MDN’s position is.
I’m waiting for my own personal copy to be delivered to me by FedEx guy.
What sort of maroon would name themselves after a testicle??
Make sure you spell ‘moron’ right when you’re calling someone else a moron.
I think he’s referring to Bugs Bunny’s quote of “What a maroon”. But out of context, it’s silly looking.
its about the app ecosystem. something that makes the ipad mini and the original the only choice.
A 7-inch iPad blahblahblah — it’s an area currently dominated by Android-based devices
“Dominated”. Have ANY of the DOMINATING Android ~7″ devices made even a penny of profit? Wow. That’s so SCARY dominating!
The joke ‘mini’ market rumors continue…
MDN: We expect Apple to wreak…. It will be a bloodbath.
It would be more like crushing an ant hill with a steam roller.
What I’m worried about is whether there really IS a market that actually WANTS a ~7″ iPad. I’ve never seen convincing evidence. Occasional posts of “I want one!” don’t cut it. We’re not here to assist luring Apple into a money pit.
Personally, I have no use for a 7″ iPad, and thought the idea was ridiculous. However, I recently realized that there is a substantial market that is just right for a 7″ iPad.
Education.
Particularly grades K to 8, where a smaller, less weighty device would be a much better tool for young students that the current iPad.
K-8 students can average 6 or more books per individual student. With textbooks ranging from $30 to $100 per book, educationally-discounted prices of 7″ iPads could easily be a long-term, economical alternative to traditional textbooks.
THAT is a nice insight. Thank you!
We won’t know till we get our hands on one.
I’m thinking the 7.85″ iPad could outsell the 9.7″ iPad in the consumer market.
Give the customers what they want! Apparently we will see soon.
it is the ecosystem…the device almost doesn’t matter anymore…
There are indeed millions of 7″ tablets out there (including the Kindle and Nook e-readers) and I believe it has a viable form factor – especially in Far East Asia. I travel there all the time and it’d be perfect for the commuters there who mainly travel on foot and mass transit.
In Seoul, I see the unwieldy Galaxy Note all the time and a good number of the Galaxy 7″ tablets. I get around in Seoul, Tokyo, and Shanghai in subway trains and the iPad is just not practical most of the time. A 7.85″ iPad would just kill in these markets. I don’t see the need for it where I live in Southern Cal but I’ll still consider it for my kids for this Christmas.
If I really like the form factor, I may add it as well just for my frequent business trips to Asia. I’m at a Starbucks now and I see one Kindle and a Nook and they’re browsing the web – not reading e-books. I do believe it’s a market segment that Apple has to go after.
Agree with Dalrymple except it will be a 200mm (7.85″ diagonal) iPad NOT a 7″ iPad. That’s 25% more area than ‘competitors’, and close enough (24% less than) to the standard 250mm iPad to be used in the standard way with standard iPad apps.
What does he mean ‘for the first time take on competitors on their own turf’? That’s what the iPhone did.
Whilst obviously Apple did not “invent” the mobile phone, there was nothing quite like the iPhone when it was released. I would gladly argue that nothing else offered anything like the same functionality / capability.
Show me a parent that doesn’t put this under the tree this Christmas.
An iPad mini will not only dominate the 7″ tablet market, it will also crush Sony and Nintendo in the handheld gaming world. Imagine kids sitting in front of the flat screen, AirPlaying games with their pals over the web, then taking them on the bus to school and using them for taking notes and reading textbooks.
Gaming could be a major inroad into the living room, leading eventually to the another pillar of domination, iTV.
the only way to compete with iPad (any size) and iPhone, is having an OS better than Apple’s or at the same quality level.
Then it doesn’t matter how the hardward look like or who builts it.
don’t be sure that apple will easily win in this 7 inch market. you never know. apple should just be stick with 10 inch which they dominate. 7 inch is android domination. apple can’t win. I am sure. google nexus 7 tablet is really amazing. it’s the best tablet you could use. I am sick & tired of people who assume that apple will win over everything if they will do. what? it’s not. just throw your fucking dream. apple will get hurt badly because they started patent war against competitors. they will get paid back even though they won the case in the US side. there are still several more cases going on Europe, Asia. don’t sure that apple will win. it’s only stupid america. other countries have different interpretation on patents in terms of understanding. apple just made a huge mistake for a long term. they will be outcast.
Is Apple really going to perform such a big u-turn and copy Google’s success just to compete for market share? I thought Apple was a leader, not a follower. Apple have never tried to be all things to all people and whilst they keep a core group of users happy, not all of us are so keen!
Let’s be honest, it’s just going to be a bigger iPhone / smaller iPad – hardly one of the distinct innovative products that Apple wants to be known for. Is this the start of a slippery slope in the post Jobs era?
Android is getting better and better and v4 has features that Apple owners wouldn’t complain about if copied over to iOS. Google has some very very smart people and deep pockets, who knows what they’ll deliver next…
And this is all before Microsoft play their hand. Windows is a kinda big deal and again backed by a very experienced and wealthy company… very interested to see what impact it has on the tablet space.
I’ll be surprised if a 7″ iPad ever arrives. But hey, who knows…