Three things.
1. To get the full tablet experience, you do need 10".
2. However, in the post-PC era, people don't always need the full tablet experience. If the tablet is truly a post-PC device, people will use it in many different ways, requiring different sizes to address different people. This is different as compared to a phone, because a smartphone can only be used as a smartphone. The biggest evidence for this is iBooks. Apple pushes reading on the iPad, while the iPad is certainly not the most comfortable device to read books. If you want the 'best digital reading' experience, you will need a smaller device.
3. There is no 7" tablet market. This is not a problem, remember there was no 10" tablet market when the first iPad was introduced.
The iPad mini will become Apple's third blockbuster, I am a 100% sure.
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By the way, this is the article the mails refer to:
http://gigaom.com/mobile/why-i-just-dumped-the-ipad-hint-size-matters/
1. To get the full tablet experience, you do need 10".
2. However, in the post-PC era, people don't always need the full tablet experience. If the tablet is truly a post-PC device, people will use it in many different ways, requiring different sizes to address different people. This is different as compared to a phone, because a smartphone can only be used as a smartphone. The biggest evidence for this is iBooks. Apple pushes reading on the iPad, while the iPad is certainly not the most comfortable device to read books. If you want the 'best digital reading' experience, you will need a smaller device.
3. There is no 7" tablet market. This is not a problem, remember there was no 10" tablet market when the first iPad was introduced.
The iPad mini will become Apple's third blockbuster, I am a 100% sure.
----------
By the way, this is the article the mails refer to:
http://gigaom.com/mobile/why-i-just-dumped-the-ipad-hint-size-matters/