7-inch displays overtake 9.7-inch displays

[cfrizz]

I'm only interested in a 7" tablet for the portability, weight, and price. I'm simply waiting for the right combination of features and price.

[wodin]

Originally Posted by gastan

And in those 40 or so posts only five people mentioned the portability factor ... and several of them posted their opinion more than once. The rest were mostly wranglings between posters, mostly about whether evil Apple was involved or not.

We just let the muscle-impaired types whine about size/weight until we decided it was time to set the record straight.

Thanks gaston, for giving me one more opportunity to mention that my 7" SGT FITS IN MY TROUSERS POCKET! And has done so for nearly a year now. This experience has led me to the conclusion that for me, at least, 7" is the sweet spot between function and portability; and I wouldn't consider any other size at any price point.

[Kai Winters]

My primary requirement is portability. I have to be able to carry it easily. I use it at work for reading...I work in a bunker type building with no signal for my iphone4 and no wifi either...and at home for reading before sleep.
Price is the next consideration followed by capabilities.

I am an Apple fan and own a nano and iphone4...They are great devices for their intended purposes and I am also very happy with itunes. They provide all that I want and need.

I've tried the ipad and while it is a great device I just don't like the size and I feel it is overpriced. It is heavy and has very limited portability. When I carried a brief case to work every day it would have been fine but I no longer carry one and prefer something much easier to carry.

I also have a Eee netbook that I used to use when traveling. It did the job but is slow, the screen resolution is lousy, battery life is very short and it weighs a ton...or seems to...making it a very poor portable device.

The Kindle Fire is my current favorite device. Its' footprint makes it easily portable, it is fairly light weight, makes for a great ereader, very good wifi capability and functions very well all at a very reasonable price.
It is not as portable as I'd like...I'd prefer a footprint just a tad larger than the Samsung Galaxy 5...I want a device that I can slip into my pocket without it looking odd and has all the functionality of the KFire.

I think pricing and portability will see the 7" screen format continue to grow and outsell all others.

[kennyc]

No 7" iPad:

http://www.bgr.com/2011/12/23/apple-...ad-3-launches/

[wizwor]

7" + gorilla glass = portability

[Dr. Drib]

Moderator Notice

My goodness....can we not have a discussion without the temper tantrums and accusations? For the few who simply cannot settle down, please pick up a good book and chill. All Moderators now have eyes and ears glued to this thread. Reminder: If any member decides to put another member on ignore, don't tell us. Just simply do it!

Let's try to be nice to one another.

[Prestidigitweeze]

A prediction about there not being a 7" iPad 3 is different from actual knowledge there won't be such an object. Personally, I'm hoping there won't be, but I'd rather not dote on premature pronouncements manipulated by attention-dependent reporters.

A bit annoying to see a discussion about the popularity of tablet sizes focus on Apple's history of dominance alone. Apart from Apple's current success, I see the company as being relevant only in terms of its ability to affect other companies. As long as we have (what for some of us are better) choices, we're not fenced in.

So far, the one way I could see a 7" iPad's being pertinent to this discussion would be this: The annoying phenomenon of creative limitations imposed due to the illusion of their relevance to financial success, which some people might call aesthetic standardization.

If Apple continues to enjoy a market share advantage over other tablet makers, and a global imitation-fest continues to be imposed by boardrooms everywhere on otherwise creative R&D and industrial designers, then whatever reductive design/functionality was built into Apple's 7" would freeze product design elsewhere and reinforce the equation that aesthetic minimalism + limited functionality = greater desirability + useful control over the user.

I never hated the iPod per se. What I hated was watching the most flexible feature-rich players in the world lose market share, consumer desirability and, ultimately, existence. We shouldn't have had to wait a decade before HiFiMan provided a successor to iRiver's iHP140.

Here's what I'm hoping: for Apple to experience a number of post-Jobs failures that force it to take a role proportionate to everyone else's without killing its ability to sell its aesthetic and integrated approach to a large enough customer base to keep it solvent and its most talented people interested.

Meanwhile, companies all over the world could go back to trusting the talent in front of them rather than the recycled ideas of someone with a crushing market share.

I prefer brand agnosticism to brand theism or atheism. At this moment, I'm more annoyed by Amazon's crippling control over non-music content than I am at Apple's lawsuits and the sealed garden of its Amway-like tech, but both are pretty bad.

May 2012 be the year of sustainable tablet diversity and the triumph (for once) of content over fashion -- of freedom and practicality over restrictions and broken functionality.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by Prestidigitweeze

...

May 2012 be the year of sustainable tablet diversity and the triumph (for once) of content over fashion.

Hear! Hear!

[ScotiaBurrell]

I have seen that when people talk about why they choose a 7 inch versus a iPad or iPad sized clone tablet that the first criteria is never the tablets speed, apps, good UI or excellent screen.

Portability is the first and most important to them. As long as it disappears into a pocket and gets to the web and has a few important apps - they are happy. This is how the market performs.

I doubt Apple trys to get these users - they have their own! They did not up the size of the iPhone when bigger screens became popular and their sales are still very good. They do not do 4G or lte and sales are still very good. So probably they will not change in tablets until their customers demand they do.

So seven inch makers have great opportunities for clients Apple refuses to provide for. Lots of money to be made by every tablet maker here.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by ScotiaBurrell

I doubt Apple trys to get these users - they have their own! They did not up the size of the iPhone when bigger screens became popular and their sales are still very good. They do not do 4G or lte and sales are still very good. So probably they will not change in tablets until their customers demand they do.

That's because Apple hasn't "invented" them yet. Once they do, they'll start filing lawsuits for patent infringement against the competition.

[Andrew H.]

Originally Posted by Prestidigitweeze

I never hated the iPod per se. What I hated was watching the most flexible feature-rich players in the world lose market share, consumer desirability and, ultimately, existence. We shouldn't have had to wait a decade before HiFiMan provided a successor to iRiver's iHP140.

This wasn't really Apple's fault, though. I had an mp3 player pre-iPod, and Apple (in the person of Jobs) was absolutely correct when he said that they "sucked." They had bad interfaces and even worse computer integration. (And the company that should have been the strongest counterweight to Apple - Sony - had pretty much the worst product available).

I mean, you can hate Apple because they came out with a product that didn't suck, but it's a kind of pointless exercise, since 80% of people were much happier with iPods than they were with any existing product.

The HP 140 failed in the market because it offered a lot of features people didn't care about (line in recording, a built in mike) and lacked features people did care about - like a software program you could put on your computer. It's like Linux would be if a copy of Linux cost as much as a copy of Windows.

Here's what I'm hoping: for Apple to experience a number of post-Jobs failures that force it to take a role proportionate to everyone else's without killing its ability to sell its aesthetic and integrated approach to a large enough customer base to keep it solvent and its most talented people interested.

Apple doesn't need to fail for other companies to succeed. Apple is successful in the consumer electronics business (less so in the computer business, although they have their moments) because it knows what customers want and delivers it.

Meanwhile, companies all over the world could go back to trusting the talent in front of them rather than the recycled ideas of someone with a crushing market share.

This. Even though it's not clear whether it will actually success, W7 for phones is a good example of a company that *didn't* follow Apple, but started a UI design from the ground up with a completely different aesthetic. Get a few more companies doing this and things will be very interesting.

I prefer brand agnosticism to brand theism or atheism. At this moment, I'm more annoyed by Amazon's crippling control over non-music content than I am at Apple's lawsuits and the sealed garden of its Amway-like tech, but both are pretty bad.

I'm not sure where you get Amway - despite having a walled garden for Apps, Apple has the largest app store (although that is a pretty meaningless statistic now that we're talking hundreds of thousands of apps) and the best app selection. That's not like Amway at all.

May 2012 be the year of sustainable tablet diversity and the triumph (for once) of content over fashion -- of freedom and practicality over restrictions and broken functionality.

If you think that the iPad is an example of fashion over content, I would have to doubt your professed brand agnosticism.

[anamardoll]

Originally Posted by Andrew H.

This wasn't really Apple's fault, though. I had an mp3 player pre-iPod, and Apple (in the person of Jobs) was absolutely correct when he said that they "sucked." They had bad interfaces and even worse computer integration. (And the company that should have been the strongest counterweight to Apple - Sony - had pretty much the worst product available).

Seems to be a YMMV issue. I owned several MP3 players before Apple and liked them all. The only reason I ever upgraded each time was for more storage space.

Anything that's drag-and-drop supported is GOOD integration for me.

[wizwor]

Originally Posted by ScotiaBurrell

I have seen that when people talk about why they choose a 7 inch versus a iPad or iPad sized clone tablet that the first criteria is never the tablets speed, apps, good UI or excellent screen.

Portability is the first and most important to them. As long as it disappears into a pocket and gets to the web and has a few important apps - they are happy. This is how the market performs.

I think these people (me, at least) are not talking about performance because performance is good enough. I think they (me, at least) are not complaining about apps because there is no missing app that would cause dissatisfaction. I think they (me, at least) are not complaining about the UI because it is pretty good. They (me, at least) are talking about price and size because these two things represented a barrier that Amazon overcame. I wouldn't pay $700 for a tablet (or a notebook or a desktop) and I would choose a notebook over another portable device that would not fit in my pocket.

Originally Posted by ScotiaBurrell

I doubt Apple trys to get these users - they have their own! They did not up the size of the iPhone when bigger screens became popular and their sales are still very good. They do not do 4G or lte and sales are still very good. So probably they will not change in tablets until their customers demand they do.

Apple wants every consumer. They just do not want to invest heavily to gain entrance to a 'race to the bottom' -- no one gets rich selling the least expensive of anything.

Originally Posted by ScotiaBurrell

So seven inch makers have great opportunities for clients Apple refuses to provide for. Lots of money to be made by every tablet maker here.

Time will tell. I suspect Amazon already owns the seven inch niche (which is huge). They can fight to the finish because they do not have to make money on the hardware and they sell enough volume to pressure their suppliers. The only way Amazon does not win out is for a competitor with deep pockets and a vision to decide they NEED this niche. It's not Dell or HP. Google? Maybe, but if I'm going to enter the tablet market, I target the guys who sell for $700 not the ones who sell for $200.

So look for Apple and Google to duke it out for the premium tablet market while Amazon quietly grows its tablet family and online content offerings.

[murraypaul]

Originally Posted by wizwor

Apple wants every consumer.

I think you are wrong about that.
Apple wants the mainstream consumer, and is quite content not to offer a product that appeals to everybody, as long as it appeals to almost everybody.
If you want a tablet you can tweak and change basic behaviour of, if you want a tablet with dozens and dozens of options to customise the UI to exactly the way you want it, etc... then the iPad is the wrong product for you. Apple don't make the right product for you, someone else does.
They have been successful by keeping a relatively small product line and aiming squarely away from niche needs and towards the mainstream.
The notional 'you' above is a consumer they have decide it isn't worth the investment in attracting.

[SeaKing]

wodin, what kind of trousers pockets are you speaking of? Cargo pockets? Rear, front, side, leg?

I am just leery of carrying even a 5" device in my trousers. I would go with a pouch or carrying case, something that hooked to a belt preferably somewhat up front where it would naturally be guarded against impact or a mistake in sitting.

My thought for my Samsung 7" Tab Plus is an inside coat or jacket pocket. I even have some of those vests with loads of pockets that a photographer, a shooter, or even a pilot might wear that has everything handy dandy and within quick reach. I have already gotten one out to wash and maybe iron/starch. I want to carry my Christmas present up front, and up high, and maybe even in one of those magnesium or aluminum closures. Even titanium!

Apple has something like 70 Billion dollars cash, so their money making prowess is indisputable, but still I don't know why they don't have a device between a 3.5" and a 9.7" screen. Anyway, it certainly makes a nice target for others to fill.

On the other hand, we should all thank Apple for resurrecting the "tablet" genre. Microsoft let the ball drop. Jobs and Apple saw the opening and the rest is history.