Apple's next iPhone coming in September, 7" iPad launching in August - report - Page 2

 

That would be a bit ot there in my opinion, unless you were planning to wall mount it as a media device and/or home control appliance.  It gave me an opportunity to poke at the claim of the MBP 17" being discontinued too tho, so it was a win-win kinda post for me.

 

On the contrary, I'd carry that sucker around everywhere, just like I do my iPad now.

 

A 9.8" screen is even a touch large for wall panel house control, particularly since there'd be one in every room. 5-7" would be good for that, but not as an embedded tablet. That's obscenely wasteful.

 

Just have a Mac Mini in the basement built into the system to power these individual displays across rooms and manage their settings.

I find the current iPad 3 screen just right to read ebooks/PDFs without zooming (esp. for PDFs with multi-column layout and embedded images). Any smaller than that and you would have to hold it horizontally to read, which is not ideal.
 

Believe you want to believe, but My girlfriend works in a company whose client is AUO (AU Optronics Corp), one of the rumored display panel supplier for the smaller iPad. Yes indeed AUO have received orders from Apple for a product line currently named "iPad Mini", and they are finalizing the specs just recently. So yea August launch sounds feasible.

Did your girlfriend sign an NDA when whe was hited?

 

My uncle's daughter's brother's best friend's army buddy said they're making an iPhone nano. No apps, no data, 2.5" screen.

 

We'll believe the truth, thanks. 

FWIW - 7.85" iPad would sell REALLY well.  The 10" form factor is still kinda big when traveling.

Plus in keeping with price to size, Apple VERY nicely can fit into the $299-$399 segment with this model.

 

Because A LOT of people have a hard time paying $500 for an entry level iPad - but may bite on a fully loaded 7.85" version (WiFi/4G/LTE) at $399.

In fact, with a smaller screen (less power) an LTE model would be great for mobile businesses that could use a notepad sized tablet.

 

Hmmm...

 

And you're basing this on how well other 7" tablets have sold?

 

 

… "A lot" in this case being "fewer than 30%", right?

I'd like a 7' sized iPad to be released this fall.  I should start a rumor.

As I explained earlier, they wouldn't necessarily require developers to design apps for another screen size. They could simply use the same aspect ratio and resolution of the original iPad. Images would be smaller, but sharper, than the original iPad, but apps would work fine.

As for the rest, it really amazes me how some people confuse "I don't like xxx" with "No one could possibly like xxx". In reality, there are lots of reasons for a smaller size:

- Children
- Reading books (keep in mind that a 7" iPad would be roughly the size of a book that people might be reading)
- Games (easier to manipulate than a full sized iPad)
- Cost (a huge percentage of the non-iPad market involves 7" tablets, with price apparently being the driving factor)
- Pocketability. A 7" tablet would fit in my jacket pocket. A 10" one would not

Would it replace the 10"? Not a chance in the world. But is it a viable alternative? It just might be. A lot of people play games on their iPhone or iPod Touch, so scaling up to 7" might improve usability.

 

So tell me, are you actually being sincere with that question? Are you actually, truly asking if there's 'word' on Macs, as if Apple made some secret announcement and Appleinsider, nor any other site on the internet bothered to report on it? Don't you think if there was 'word', it would be reported on this site as a story? The whole point of that fake question was a setup to troll, so you can throw in the 'iToy' childish bullshit, then making some self-righteous exclamation, as if Apple isn't aware that the Mac is an important platform, and as if they're not preparing to refresh the whole mac lineup, probably very soon with new chips and possibly a new OS simultaneously.  This kind of shit should be bannable, I don't see why the mere mention of 'iToy' doesn't deserve an instant ban. It tell you all you need tio know about the poster, their motivations, and their intention with the post, and makes blatant the intent on trolling and not on any real, rational discussion. 

hope its real then i will replace my kindle fire

I really think Apple will make a larger Touch and will ensure that it remains comfortably a pocketable device. There is no rational value in a device that is not as convenient to take with you on the go as a Touch yet isn't as enjoyable to use as an iPad. If there is a portability gain then that mitigates loss of screen real estate. The close the device is to the iPad the less the portability gain. At a certain point you wind up with a useless device that is neither pocketable or all that enjoyable to use. Something with a screen in the 7-inch range definitely would fall into that unfortunate range.

 

So a bigger Touch is what we're going to get and probably not in August. As for Apple releasing a new iPad in calendar 2012, seriously, you embarrass yourself by making such a prediction. Most of us know full well that the next iPad version will come out early next spring. It's not worth wondering about that. It's the pattern Apple has established with no reason to break that pattern.

August and September is when I will have fully matured into a consumer whore.

A4 size would be ideal.

J.

An education-driven mini iPad needn't be solely for school boards' bulk purchasing; it could be aimed directly toward students and parents of students. Consumer adoption could further drive institutional adoption the same way consumer adoption of iPhone can drive enterprise adoption.

Edited by Carthusia - 5/9/12 at 7:16pm

The one thing I'm hoping that Digitimes IS wrong about is the 7.85" specific size. It has to be no  larger than 7" to be pocketable. My 7" Android tablet fits snugly into my back jeans pocket, but if it were even 1/16" larger  it would not.

Will it come with a liquid metal nail file?

/

I keep on telling you guys, the first iphone shipment out of China is in August. Trust me.

Is there a big market for the 'I'd like an iPad that I can carry in my jacket pocket' crowd? Maybe for kids. But for adults I'd say isn't that what your phone is for?

 

Cargo pants?

 

~7" iPad == disappointing user experience, in my opinion. On the other hand, soon you won't be able to tell the difference between Android phones and Android tablets, as they converge in size.

 

Then even at 7" the iPad Mini wouldn't fit in your pants.  The Android tablets are built for widescreen, not the ratio Apple has been using. 

 

 

7.85" 1024*768 Mini would be 163.06 ppi, which is a bit better than the original, but nowehere close to thew current iPad for sharpness.

 

7.85" 1536*1152 would be 244.59 ppi, which would be much closer and then any app set to run on the original iPad resolution would just need to run a 1.5x modifier. 

I keep on telling you guys that you will be much happier if you send me all your money. Trust me.


I would go with the former. I don't think it's worth making developers create a new resolution. This device would be sold as an entry level iPad and therefore doesn't need the resolution of the new iPad. There were very few complaints about the sharpness of the original iPad and this device would be smaller, so the sharpness would be even better. For a 7" device, I believe 1024x768 would be just fine.

 

Didn't Apple add a native doubling effect into iOS so if apps weren't remade for the new iPad they would be doubled to fit.  They could still tweak them to the new res themselves, but it was handled by the software.  Apple could simply add something to iOS that if it detected the iPad Mini was the device, apply the 1.5x and instantly tweaked. 

 

Current resolutions:

480*320

960*640

1024*768

2048*1536

 

That is still a helluva lot less resolutions than they need to spec out for Android, even if they added one more :)

I didn't say it was impossible. I just don't think it's worth doing. Even if they keep the 1024x768, it's still better resolution than the Kindle Fire and many other 7" touch pads.

You have to look at the market. Apple clearly sees the iPad as the premium product with retina display that will knock your socks off. If they decide to make a 7", it's an entry level device and will not have all the bragging rights of the 10" For comparison, look at the MBA vs the MBP. The screens on the MBP are far better.

There's just not that much to be gained by adding a 1.5 resolution for a 7" iPad.