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back to article More Steve Jobs iPad mini attacks from beyond the grave

Rumors of an impending Apple iPad mini continue to proliferate, with The New York Times being the latest to weigh in, and Bloomberg and The Wall Street Journal already having had their say, so it's a good time to recount the late Steve Jobs's arguments as to why such a device will be doomed to failure. Much has been made about …

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      1. Mark .
        Reply Icon

        Re: Reality distortion

        Well I probably spend a few hours a day on my laptop all the time. It's perfect for browsing and book reading, and it's also great for music, video and photo editing.

        I can't see a 10" tablet being nearly as useful for any of the above. Text is going to be too small, the UI is going to be fiddly, and the size is a bad compromise between pocket and briefcase.

        Unless it's tied to specific content, a 10" tablet would be a me-too product - which is exactly what anyone apart from Jobs was trying to avoid.

        I don't doubt it would sell, and there might even be a pick-up for Windows laptop sales as a result.

        But it's not a particularly elegant or clever thing to be putting out.

        (Seriously, if your point is to say that a 10" device is more useful than a 7" device, then those arguments apply far more so to 10" or larger laptops, that have better input options, and run proper OSs rather than those designed for a phone, and have a far bigger and better range of apps. But just as there'll be a niche of people who prefer 10" tablets anyway, there'll be people fine with a 7" one - and I suspect we'll generally see a pattern where it's the more portable devices that become more popular, as we're already seeing with the immense success of Android smartphones (and Nokia before that). Sure, there might not seem a great gap between pocket and briefcase to fill, but the briefcase is already occupied with far more functional laptops. When it comes to handheld tablet devices, 7" is far better than 10", because it can fit into a gap that 10" tablets/laptops can't.)

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  2. Alastair Dodd 1
    Thumb Up

    one of the lucky ones to get a Nexus 7 early

    and I already use it more and feel its more practical than my touchpad on size alone.

    They'll do it, it'll be a hit - end of story.

    Still think that Android is a heck of alot more practical on interface than ios with widgets etc, the screen icon vomit of ios needs to be improved.

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    1. JDX Gold badge
      Reply Icon

      Re: one of the lucky ones to get a Nexus 7 early

      I used Android tabs only briefly but I see no advantage to them. I never owned an iPhone or other touch device and recently got an iPad... everything was massively intuitive.

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  3. snafu

    Jobs was always lying through his teeth

    The same guy who disparaged flash memory-based mp3 players, all-in-one computers with their innards inside the screen, and often discarded the old insanely great shiny for the new insanely great shiny despite sometimes being far better.

    The Kindle and all the eBook readers around have demonstrated the 7" physical format as perfectly viable, and the UI issues are nonsense. That was Jobs playing FUD against a rival format with a serious portability advantage.

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  4. Ian Davies
    Boffin

    Maths

    The size of 1024x768 pixels on a 7.9" screen winds up with UI elements being the same physical size as the original non-retina iPhone.

    Therefore, no need for developers to change their UI graphics.

    Therefore, no need for users to sandpaper their fingertips.

    Therefore, everything SJ said is still true.

    You think this product has come into being only since Steve died?

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  5. saundby

    Munkstar + Steve I

    7.85in display && smaller bezel

    66% of present screen area. Total device size ~6.5 x 5 in with a bit of bezel for the thumb, or 7 x 5.5 in. to make a 7 inch iPad. Same rez as current display so no new UI and close enough nobody cares (linear image size is still >80% height/width of full size iPad.)

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  6. the-it-slayer
    Stop

    7" tablets are just useless turds...

    Anyone I've seen using a 7" tab can hardly do anything on them apart from squint at webpages and squint a films. Nothing more, nothing less. You have to consider that when dev'ing for a touch screen UI, you need icons, labels, buttons big enough to make the user experience worth while. I have average size hands and whilst using a friends 7" tab, I was just frustrated with the whole experience. Admittedly, it's much easier to use on the go, but in a crowded place; my first thought is my smartphone, not tablet to use when wanting a map app.

    Fitting the iPad 1/2 UI on a smaller screen (if the resolution stays the same or similar) will make everything much smaller and not what the developer intended their app to look like. Effectively, Apple would be making a 3rd type of app and fragmenting even further. This is the problem with Android apps. Okay, they're designed to scale across different resolutions, but I'd be mega-annoyed if different devices changed the experience everytime.

    I maybe exaggerating some of the points above, but I've always seen Jobs' comments as pretty valid for a 7" device. You'd annoy developers and customers alike for disrupting the clear distinction between the smartphone and tablet experience.

    If Apple were to taylor the 7" iPad into a pure reading device, then there could some huge justification to releasing one. That size emulates a book size but again, I still can't see how Apple could cut the price drastically to compete with the Kindle for example.

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    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: "I don't like it therefore it is shit"

      "And moreover, anyone who says they do like them is stupid and wrong".

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  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Storm in a Teacup

    7" is fine for pretty much everything besides web browsing (which it's still just about tolerable at). Is that extra real estate really necessary for a quick game of Angry Birds?

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  8. Richard Cartledge
    Angel

    Jobs also said "There are no plans to make a tablet" when his biography says in some detail that they were and a whole division had been since before the iPhone was even thought of.

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    1. Anonymous Coward 15
      Reply Icon

      Eat up Martha.

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  9. Barracoder

    I've had a chat to the wife

    10" is always better than 7".

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    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: I've had a chat to the wife

      Ya, but I'll bet she also said that 4.5" is better than 3.5" too

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  10. Sirius Lee

    Samsung Note

    His words sounded plausible. And then came the unlikely Samsung Note. And Kindle Touch.

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  11. Arctic fox
    Headmaster

    "One naturally thinks that a 7-inch screen would offer 70 per cent..............

    ...................... of the benefits of the 10-inch screen."

    I am frankly surprised that he spoke as if everybody is thick given that he normally had a masterly grasp of his relationship to his customers. Even someone who has no idea how to calculate the percentage increase in screen area per inch increase in the diagonal size can clearly see that the visual real estate increases sharply as the size of the diagonal increases. That is an elementary not to say trivial visual observation even for those whose trigonometry isn't up to very much.

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    1. I ain't Spartacus Gold badge
      Reply Icon

      Re: "One naturally thinks that a 7-inch screen would offer 70 per cent..............

      Most people aren't thick, but it doesn't mean they're actually using their brain on every problem. I had to explain to someone the difference in sizes of various tablets yesterday, and he didn't understand this at all. I ended up having to measure screen sizes with my hands on my iPad screen.

      He's an accountant, so the maths isn't a problem, but I suspect screen size isn't a subject he's ever thought about. Also most people probably don't know (or at least don't remember) that screen size is measured across the diagonal, they assume it's the length of one side - at least until they think about it.

      As with many things techy, most people just hear, "blah, blah, blah, blah, umpty million megabyte-thingamyjigs, blah, blah, squillion pixels, blah, blah, £500, how much!?!?" This isn't because they can't understand it, just that they're bored by it. They don't want you to explain how it works, just as they don't want an in-depth explanation of how their hammer was manufactured. They just want a tool, to do a job.

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  12. JDX Gold badge

    users would have to sharpen their fingers to tap interface elements on a 7 inch screen

    I find that a really confusing statement considering Apple's rampant success with the iPhone, a touch screen MUCH smaller than that.

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  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Hmm

    Lots of people are really sure of The Answer here, as usual, with all sorts of spurious rationalisations. Personally, I will wait until my Nexus 7 arrives, and see how it compares to using my iPad 3 and my S3. Yay toys! (..the answer to "why do you need all three" )

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    1. the-it-slayer
      Reply Icon
      Alien

      Re: Hmm

      My money is that the Nexus 7 goes very quickly. As a media toy, you'll abuse it. But what will you gain that you'll have on your iPad 3 already?

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    2. I ain't Spartacus Gold badge
      Reply Icon

      Re: Hmm

      I really want to play with a Nexus 7. So far, I've resisted temptation. I've got an iPad 3, so no excuse for buying more shiny tech. But it does look very tempting. I'm looking at some kind of media server set up, and I really like the idea of using a tablet as a remote controller. This is likely to be the excuse I use to buy more shiny that I don't really need...

      I can really see the attraction of a more portable tablet. Many people really do seem to work out what suits them best, and then assume this applies to everyone else as well. Often getting grumpy when someone dares to voice a different opinion...

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  14. Dick Pountain

    Too Cool

    "...down from his cloudy perch – or up from his toasty confines,"

    You need to read Dante - it's ice in the inner circle, and I'm sure he wouldn't have settled for less.

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  15. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    re: More Steve Jobs iPad mini attacks from beyond the grave

    "it's a good time to recount the late Steve Jobs's arguments as to why such a device will be doomed to failure".

    Do you people have no shame ..

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    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Why should someone be above criticism just because they're dead?

      You're either a hypocrite who operates a double-standard for Steve Jobs because you're a mindless hero-worshipper, OR you say only nice things about Adolf Hitler, Josef Stalin, Genghis Khan, and all the other monsters from history. Which is it?

      (And yes, trying to claim that it's ok to speak ill of the dead if they were "bad guys" but not if they were "good people" is still that same double-standard, because you're presupposing your own moral judgement of someone to be objective truth; how else could we, and history, evaluate someone's moral character if we're not allowed to criticize them? So inb4 that.)

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  16. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Steve Job is dead !

    Have any of you noticed yet?

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    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Of course I noticed.

      How could I not, I'm still laughing about it!

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  17. bluest.one
    Holmes

    With the news of the imminent 7" iPad mini, we can at last begin to work out the half-life of the Jobsian Reality Distortion Field.

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  18. Neil Lewis
    Joke

    I'm just waiting...

    ...for Google to get a 7" iPad banned from sale in the US because it looks too much like a Nexus...

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  19. Wintermute
    Happy

    The great thing about Steve Jobs was that he was willing to change his mind, unlike small-minded people who make a decision and then will ignore all contradictory evidence indefinitely thereafter.

    If Apple comes out with a 7" tablet, this would be just like Steve would have done.

    If Apple does not come out with a 7" tablet, this would also be just like Steve would have done.

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  20. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Ergonomics and Maths Not SJ's Strong Suit??

    ""One naturally thinks that a 7-inch screen would offer <<70 per cent>> of the benefits of the 10-inch screen. Unfortunately, this is far from the truth. The screen measurements are diagonal, so that a 7-inch screen is only 45 per cent as large as iPad's 10-inch screen. You heard me right. Just <<45 per cent>> as large.

    ..

    While one could increase the resolution of the display to make up for some of the difference, it is meaningless unless your tablet also includes sandpaper so that the user can sand down their fingers to around <<one quarter>> of their present size.""

    So the fact that the 70% squared approximates to 50% is fine, but why did no-one tackle St Steve when he then squared that again in exaggerating user's ability to accurately point at things on a retina display.

    On the other hand, anyone who can type on a 7" screen would need to have their fingers sharpened to 1/4 their current size of they were to be able to type on a screen that is 3.5" diagonal. Hmm. That form factor rings a bell.......

    For me it's simple. A 4GB kindle touch that only shows books, or an 8GB tablet with a slightly larger screen that supports music, web and video for the same ball-park figure. Nexus 7 on order.

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