Steve Jobs once compared a 7-inch tablet to whittling down a person’s fingers. Jobs believed the average human finger would have to be shrunk by about 25% in order to properly interact with 7-inch tablet apps. Jump to today, and you might say Apple’s thinking about smaller tablets has changed just a little. No, they’re not making 7-inch tablets, they’re going just a little bit bigger…
During today’s earnings call, Tim Cook answered a question about why Apple decided to make the iPad mini. During the iPad mini’s unveiling earlier this week, Phil Schiller made sure to point out that the new tablet’s display is 7.9-inches, not a measly 7-inches like the Google Nexus 7. Schiller then proceeded to demo how much more roomy and friendly the iPad mini was for surfing the web. “There is a gigantic difference in these products,” proclaimed Schiller.
Cook said Apple would not make a 7-inch tablet, as they don’t think they’re good products. To Apple there is a huge difference (0.9-in to be exact), between the iPad mini, and the Nexus 7. A 35% gain in real estate.
Apple’s pitch for the iPad mini’s display goes like this:
The iPad mini display stands out in all the right ways. It has the same 1024-by-768 resolution as iPad 2 — in a size that’s significantly smaller. So everything looks incredibly crisp and sharp. And since the iPad mini display has 35 percent more screen area than a 7-inch tablet, everything is easier to read and interact with. The iPad mini display is also designed to take greater advantage of every pixel. So apps, magazines, and documents fill the screen, from top to bottom and edge to edge. In portrait and in landscape.
Cook says the iPad mini is “in a whole different league” and “isn’t a compromised product like the 7-inch tablets.”
Apparently, to paraphrase an old cigarette commercial, “size matters,” and Apple’s iPad mini is a just a little bigger, and that makes all the difference.
