Apple Preps for Smaller Tablet

[Kumabjorn]

A Japanese site (here if you are curious) has got there hands on some of the specs for the iPad Mini. A 7.85" IGZO screen (don't know what IGZO is) and they expect the price point to be $250 - 300. The device will come with an entirely new battery, enabling them to make it significantly thinner (2-3 mm is something like 20%).

[Kumabjorn]

Looking through that site I found this accessory, is that something available in the West?

[aceflor]

Originally Posted by Kumabjorn

Looking through that site I found this accessory, is that something available in the West?

seriously ?

Kumabjorn, you have to visit the Daimaru shop in the palais des congres in Paris. My instinct tells me you'd love it....

[Hellmark]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

iPad Mini if it really does come out which it very well may not given that Jobs thinks any tablet of 7" is too small for a good touch experience. But that would mean then that the iPhones have a poor touch experience since they are way smaller then 7". Way to dis the competition and yourself in the same silly statement.

Given that Jobs is dead, and other people are in control of the company, I wouldn't be surprised if some stuff Jobs was against happens.

[Kumabjorn]

Originally Posted by aceflor

seriously ?

Kumabjorn, you have to visit the Daimaru shop in the palais des congres in Paris. My instinct tells me you'd love it....

The reality is that Paris is further away from me than Tokyo. I go to Tokyo two or three times a year, I haven't been to Paris in 19 years.

[charlesatan]

While I can understand that there is a market for such a smaller device, it'll be a nightmare for Developers (and I'd be interested in how Apple implements this).

[tubemonkey]

Already have an iPad micro; don't need a mini

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by Kumabjorn

A Japanese site (here if you are curious) has got there hands on some of the specs for the iPad Mini. A 7.85" IGZO screen (don't know what IGZO is) and they expect the price point to be $250 - 300. The device will come with an entirely new battery, enabling them to make it significantly thinner (2-3 mm is something like 20%).

Indium Gallium Zinc Oxide

Indium gallium zinc oxide is a semiconducting material which can be used as the channel for a transparent thin-film transistor. It replaces amorphous silicon for the active layer of an LCD screen, and, with a forty times higher electron mobility than amorphous silicon, it allows either smaller pixels (for screen resolutions higher than HDTV) or much higher reaction speed for a screen.

[afv011]

But the party who loses the most in a world with a 7-inch iPad is Apple itself. While there’s virtually no question it’ll sell the product hand over fist, it would represent a cheapening of what Apple stands for.

As Jobs once said, Apple is first about building the best computers possible, and making a profit second. While that might sound like a mere Kool-Aid platitude, if you examine Apple’s actions, it’s quite accurate. Eschewing netbooks, replacing the iPod Mini with the iPod Nano, and its end-to-end approach to manufacturing — Apple has always been more concerned about providing customers with a certain experience than things like market share.

The iPad right now is one of those experiences. For both Apple’s customers and its competitors, it’s the tablet you aspire to. Throw a 7-inch iPad in there, and it becomes something else: the iPad Classic. It splits the tablet market in two, and it makes a mockery of the 10-inch iPad’s retina display by suggesting to tablet customers they can get along without one.

Source

[Kumabjorn]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

Indium Gallium Zinc Oxide

That sounds impressive. I assume the reason we haven't seen that yet is that the technology hasn't been ready for mass producing. If I understand it correctly that will enable the iPad Mini to have better resolution than even the Retina display.

[DarkScribe]

When the iPad was released I can still recall (can't get it out of my mind) my receptionist saying to one of the researchers "I don't like the name, it sounds like a feminine hygiene product."

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by DarkScribe

When the iPad was released I can still recall (can't get it out of my mind) my receptionist saying to one of the researchers "I don't like the name, it sounds like a feminine hygiene product."

Spoiler:

[heySkippy]

Originally Posted by charlesatan

While I can understand that there is a market for such a smaller device, it'll be a nightmare for Developers (and I'd be interested in how Apple implements this).

Any new smaller device will either have a very high density screen with the same resolution as the "new" iPad (which I think unlikely), or it will have the same resolution as the prior iPad. There won't be any impact on developers.

[murraypaul]

Originally Posted by heySkippy

Any new smaller device will either have a very high density screen with the same resolution as the "new" iPad (which I think unlikely), or it will have the same resolution as the prior iPad. There won't be any impact on developers.

There will be, UI design is not just about resolution.
A touch UI that works at 10" isn't the ideal design for 7", and vice versa.

[heySkippy]

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