Apple Preps for Smaller Tablet

[Hellmark]

What I think is funny about all this, is with Android, there is more support for UI scaling, so a new resolution isn't a big deal. Devs expect to have multiple resolutions, and even ratios, and all their tools readily support that. You would have thought Apple would have done that, simply to allow them to upgrade in the future without issues.

[stonetools]

I am still skeptical, if only because for a September launch, we wouldn't be seeing Photoshop mockups now: we would be seeing pictures of hardware.

I think its more likely we'll see a refresh of the iPod touch in September. You give the Touch:

1. the Iphone 4 camera as its rear shooter.
2. The A5X processor
3. Ios 6



You follow it up with the continuation of the wifi only iPad2 next March at the 299 price point.

With that one-two punch, you defuse the demand for a 7" tablet by giving consumers a capable, up to date pocketable device at the 199 price point in September and later on, most of the iPad experience at an affordable price.All this without troubling developers and with off-shelf technology and parts.

For techies unexcited by iPod touch, the IPT has a role to play in the Appleverse: that of gateway device to the iOs platform. Parents buy it for their teen and pre-teen kids who grow up to buy more (and more expensive) Apple devices.

[murraypaul]

Originally Posted by Hellmark

What I think is funny about all this, is with Android, there is more support for UI scaling, so a new resolution isn't a big deal. Devs expect to have multiple resolutions, and even ratios, and all their tools readily support that. You would have thought Apple would have done that, simply to allow them to upgrade in the future without issues.

The issue isn't having a working UI, it is having a well designed one, and physical size is much more important than resolution for that.
A UI designed for a specific physical size will work better than a generic one scaled up or down.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by stonetools

1. the Iphone 4 camera as its rear shooter.

Wouldn't it have to be thicker then? When they upgraded the iPad 2 camera, they made the iPad 3 thicker (0.34" to 0.37").

• iPod touch 4 = 0.28"
• iPhone 4 = 0.37"

[murraypaul]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

Wouldn't it have to be thicker then? When they upgraded the iPad 2 camera, they made the iPad 3 thicker (0.34" to 0.37").

The iPad 3 was thicker because of the much bigger battery.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by stonetools

With that one-two punch, you defuse the demand for a 7" tablet by giving consumers a capable, up to date pocketable device at the 199 price point in September and later on, most of the iPad experience at an affordable price.All this without troubling developers and with off-shelf technology and parts.

This consumer doesn't want a 10" tablet. It's too big.

This consumer doesn't want a pocket device with missing features (card slot, GPS, compass, 4+" screen, FM radio, etc).

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by murraypaul

The iPad 3 was thicker because of the much bigger battery.

Still, it's thicker than the touch. When the touch 4 was released and people complained about the 0.7MP cam, various tech sites said the iPhone's cam was too thick to fit in the touch's very thin case. So, have they improved cam tech since then to allow a real cam into the touch?

[Sil_liS]

Originally Posted by stonetools

I am still skeptical, if only because for a September launch, we wouldn't be seeing Photoshop mockups now: we would be seeing pictures of hardware.

I wasn't interpreting the news as September launch, but as "they will start making them in September".

[stonetools]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

Still, it's thicker than the touch. When the touch 4 was released and people complained about the 0.7MP cam, various tech sites said the iPhone's cam was too thick to fit in the touch's very thin case. So, have they improved cam tech since then to allow a real cam into the touch?

Apple does like as thin as possible, but making the Touch a little thicker would be in line with what Apple did with the iPad. 0.37 " is still quite thin.

[stonetools]

Originally Posted by Sil_liS

I wasn't interpreting the news as September launch, but as "they will start making them in September".

The rumors speak of a September launch. Even an October launch looks ambitious at this point.

[petermillard]

Originally Posted by stonetools

The rumors speak of a September launch. Even an October launch looks ambitious at this point.

Unless, of course, Tim Cook's 'doubling down on secrecy' also carried dire consequences for those that leak??

[ficbot]

My sole concern is the weight. My iPad is a bit heavy for long reading periods. I do want a tablet with a smaller form factor to go with it, but I will choose the one with the lightest weight, no matter who makes it.

[Hellmark]

Originally Posted by murraypaul

The issue isn't having a working UI, it is having a well designed one, and physical size is much more important than resolution for that.
A UI designed for a specific physical size will work better than a generic one scaled up or down.

But the thing is, that iOS is relatively locked into specific resolutions, rather than sizes. For a while, iphone apps on iPad really sucked because they launched at their native resolution. The iPad is still the same ratio, but a larger ratio, so you'd get huge black bars all around. They eventually allowed for resizing, so it filled the entire display. Still was functioning at the iPhone resolution, just upscaled. Giganto buttons and the like. Not sure if they ever improved things.

[afv011]

Originally Posted by heySkippy

We shall see. I think Apple's smaller tablet will use exactly the same UI as the full sized iPad, only 35% smaller.

I think so too. Currently it's not like things are cramped on the iPad, if anything, lots of space is wasted on the home screen.

[murraypaul]

Originally Posted by Hellmark

But the thing is, that iOS is relatively locked into specific resolutions, rather than sizes. For a while, iphone apps on iPad really sucked because they launched at their native resolution.

Again, it isn't just a question of resolution, but of physical size.
Most iPhone apps support both original and retina resolutions. Same for most iPad apps.
The iPad 3 has twice the horizontal and vertical resolution of the iPad 1/2, but you don't want all the UI elements to display at half the size.
The iPhone4 retina display was close in resolution to the iPad 1/2, but as you say just scaling up to the different physical size would have produced a very poor UI layout with gigantic buttons.
You design the UI first around how how large you want UI elements to actually be, and where they should be laid out, then worry about the resolution.
It would be very easy to make a smaller iPad with 1024x768 resolution, and iPad apps would run without any modification. But that would result in exactly what Jobs so famously derided, a UI that wasn't usable by people with normal size fingers, as everything would have been scaled down in size.
If Apple do release a smaller model iPad, they will redesign the UI to work well with the new screen size. That would mean three different physical sizes for developers to support, rather than two as currently. (Each of which has two resolution options, but that is much easier to support.)