Original URL: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/02/10/analyst_forecasts_no_seven_inch_tablet_at_ipad_3_launch/
Analyst: no 7in tablet at iPad 3 launch
Coming later in the year
Posted in Tablets, 10th February 2012 16:32 GMT
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Apple is going to release a 7in iPad - but not next month when it unwraps the iPad 3.
So says analyst Ezra Gottheil of Technology Business Research, a market watcher. Speaking to Computerworld, he said he believes that Apple has always had the 7in tablet form-factor in mind [1], despite what Steve Jobs once said.
Jobs, when asked in October 2010, said that a tablet with a seven inch screen was too small [2], but such concerns don't seem to proved much of a barrier for Amazon's 7in Kindle Fire.
Indeed, Jobs said: "The 7in tablets are 'tweeners', too big to compete with a smartphone and too small to compete with an iPad. We think the current crop of 7in tablets are going to be DOA." Seven-inch tablets have come a way since then.
As Gottheil notes, some folk prefer the smaller, more pocketable size. Apple, he said, "will also charge a premium above other similar-sized tablets, they want to protect that price flank".
Whispers from Asia, heard late last year, also maintained there is a 7in iPad in the works and that it won't be out until Q3 [3], timed to tap into the Christmas market.
The analyst also forecast the debut next month of an iPad 3 case with an integrated keyboard, echoing speculation here and elsewhere based on comments made by CEO Tim Cook that Apple will soon have an offering for folk who want a compact laptop-type device running iOS [4]. ®