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Comment by zalew | Hacker News Reader

2010: "The reason we [won't] make a 7-inch tablet isn't because we don't want to hit that price point, it's because we think the screen is too small to express the software [..]It is meaningless, unless your tablet also includes sandpaper, so that the user can sand down their fingers to around one quarter of the present size. Apple's done extensive user-testing [..] This is one of the key reasons we think the 10-inch screen size is the minimum size required to create great tablet apps."

2012: Nexus 7 is introduced by Google

later: Apple "defines" the market by releasing a smaller iPad

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Classic misdirection. Apple wanted to enjoy big margins from $500+ iPads as long as possible. There was no reason for them to release a cheaper device until someone forced their hand. They still have all the momentum to make the move gracefully. This was exactly the move they were not able to make with the iPhone when it was facing increased competition. They were locked into one US carrier and had limited international reach. So they simply couldn't respond in the same way. With the 7" iPad they can follow the iPod model directly.

Since when is this new for Apple? The company (and don't get me wrong, I'm a fan) has an amazing ability to take older, already-existing technology and turn it into a successful product or feature. If you look at iOS for the past couple of versions, many of the things that people were excited about were features that Android already had. Whether you believe Apple has done them better or not is a matter of opinion.

Gruber has a pretty good summary of how this will likely go down. The HN thread is here:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4222072

Apple can both have believed everything they said and be creating a 7" tablet. Prior to the iPad the conventional wisdom was 'there was no tablet market.' As with most things the software execution is key.

That said, I'd love a 7" tablet that I could open up into a 12" tablet with a seamless center.

Of course the 'real' market is for a set of glasses that project an arbitrary high pixel count screen relative to you (and stable) head space (where your head is 0,0,0 but your view is independent.) Then you can look at a white area on the wall, select to drop a display there, look at another area, drop another display, etc. Then do some sort of focus follows eyeball thing. Put up a DVD on the wall, put your email into a display on the dinner table next to you, or the seat back in front of you. That won't be until 2015 though at this rate (Google Glass not withstanding).

In 2007 the iPhone was considered an abomination in size. I would not have been surprised if Apple said at the time that 3.5in screen is the maximum size a user would like to put in his pocket and they would have been right.

In 2012, it is perfectly reasonable to sell a 4.8in phone.

The company is adapting to the market and user expectation, even if that mean contradicting past decisions. Isn't that a good thing ?

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