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I think this would be a great addition to the lineup. Especially with Apple pushing into the education market with textbooks. Everyone was questioning how schools are supposed to buy $500 iPads for all of the students....but if the cost starts to get down to the $200 level, it becomes a lot more attractive.
 
It's great for the people who want a smaller tablet, but I think they have nailed it with the current 9.7" display. It's not too big, but not too small either. The same goes for Samsung and Asus by the way, who also have excellent screen diagonals around the 10"-mark.

I have the opposite problem, it's right in the middle of a big enough display and a portable enough device. I want a 8" device and a slightly bigger ProPad style device.

Are the rumors still saying that a mini iPad device would have the same resolution as the current iPads?
 
"It will be called 'iPhone 5'"

Try more like the iPod touch 5. The phone will stay the same size for the ease of one handed use etc. THe touch will get bigger to go with focusing on games etc and as a kind of iPad mini for the kiddies.

----------

Who would have thought it would be another post from digitimes?

Of course, now we are do for another iPad Pro rumor as well.

Plus how about that name dropping of local companies. That doesn't reek of trying to pump up anyone by association now does it.
 
I think its quite possible we will see a "Mini iPad" nearly every other Apple line up has some sort of "Mini" version, Mac mini, Macbook Air, iPod nano (mini).

Especially with the pushing of texts books for education this would make a lot of sense. People say "but steve said that will never happen" etc but he also said that about a netbook. (Granted I know the macbook air is not a netbook but didn't he say an 11" screen is useless for such a machine?) yet we have one now...
 
What is peoples obsession with having bigger phones and smaller tablets? I don't get it.

We hear this line every time Apple is about to introduce a new class of iProduct.

I think it's been amply explained that many people value portability, and there is a continuous trade-off between functionality and portability. The sweet spot depends on the individual and the application, and, more so, what applicatiions the individual considers to be most critical.
 
Not. He was involved with this. :apple:

And he said it would never happen.

Some folks want to believe that Tim Cook is just tossing all things Steve because he can now that STeve is dead. They forget that tech takes at least 3 years from idea to product, often as much as 10 years. Everything we are seeing now was being worked on before Steve went on leave in Jan 2011. Including the no 7 inch or smaller iPad. The reports are that Apple needs it to compete with the Tab, Note and Kindle Fire but the current iPad is killing all of them in sales so the reports are wrong. Apple doesn't need to build to compete.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Mobile/9A405)

Fall Timeframe, I think it's the new iPod Touch on Steroids
 
What is peoples obsession with having bigger phones and smaller tablets? I don't get it.

Confluence of human interface limits. We want stuff as small as physically possible, yet our fingers & eyes demand a minimum size. Inflection point is an obnoxious 7", too small for comfortable typing & reading but too big for comfortable pocket carry.
 
Wont happen.

Range will be:

iPod Touch from $199
iPad 2 (8GB Budget model) $299
iPad 3 from $399


No 7" model.
 
for those of you questioning why Apple ought to do this is:

1- One size does not fit all, many smaller tablets are more affordable and work well.

when has Apple ever made items to try to fit every market. Heck they have killed products for markets faster. Like the Xserve, Final Cut Studio, it seems the Mac Pro.

2- kids can play and do well with smaller sizes,

Get them a touch if you insist on them having something smaller than the iPad.

3- cost. these devices cost alot, more than some competing full sized laptops. why not do it smaller and bring prices down. people need more cost effective options.

Cost Effective doesn't equal cheaper and Apple has never been about catering to the cheap market, especially with designing products just for them. People buy at the price that Apple chooses, why change that. The best they will do for the 'needs to be cheaper' market is perhaps that 8GB model for the ultra light users and the 16 GB at a lower cost. Both of which will just be from the iPad 2 lineup a kin to the keeping of the 3gs when the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4s came out.
 
I think this would be a great addition to the lineup. Especially with Apple pushing into the education market with textbooks. Everyone was questioning how schools are supposed to buy $500 iPads for all of the students....but if the cost starts to get down to the $200 level, it becomes a lot more attractive.

A 7 inch iPad doesn't serve the use well and if Apple wants to make the iPads less costly for that use then they can just discount them lower. Or offer them on a lease program if the schools want to be the ones to own the items so they can justify putting on restrictions etc.
 
And he said it would never happen.

Some folks want to believe that Tim Cook is just tossing all things Steve because he can now that STeve is dead. They forget that tech takes at least 3 years from idea to product, often as much as 10 years. Everything we are seeing now was being worked on before Steve went on leave in Jan 2011. Including the no 7 inch or smaller iPad. The reports are that Apple needs it to compete with the Tab, Note and Kindle Fire but the current iPad is killing all of them in sales so the reports are wrong. Apple doesn't need to build to compete.

yes but apple is missing the huge market that isnt willing the shell out $600 for a tablet. As verified by many posts on this thread, those who buy the more expensive 10in iPad are not necessarily those who would buy the 7.5in iPad, therefore, apple wouldn't be stealing its own customers.

I think it looks great, i love my Kindle Fire, but would gladly jump to a smaller, less expensive iPad if given the opportunity.
 
(Granted I know the macbook air is not a netbook but didn't he say an 11" screen is useless for such a machine?) yet we have one now...

Nope, Steve never mentioned the screen size as an issue. Because it wasn't. Which is why he picked to use it for the Air.
 
I'm probably beating a dead horse here, but seeing as how inaccurate DigiTimes is, why are you reporting it? Right, because it makes you money.

Tell you what, to make it easier on yourself, just make your own site with random bits of 'rumour' with almost no basis to it's truth and then you can refer to that site as a 'source' and almost literally print money whenever there's a slow news day.

Oh wait.
 
I hope this doesn't happen. Not only for the unnecessary product diversification that got to Apple when John Sculley was in charge.

Also I hope this doesn't happen for all those developers out there having to resize their apps once again.


You actually don't have to resize anything. The smaller iPad could easily have the same resolution the current 10" iPad has.
 
Predicted Resolution Unlikely

If this device existed as stated, it would have a smaller ppi than the original iPhone. It appears to me that Apple is done with low pixel density displays.

Rumored Small iPad: 1024*768 @ 7.85 = 163.06 ppi

iPad 1 & 2: 1024*768 @ 9.7 = 131.96 ppi
iPad 3: 2048*1536 @ 9.7 = 263.92 ppi

iPhone: 480x320 @ 3.5 = 164.83 ppi
iPhone 4: 960*640 @ 3.5 = 329.65 ppi


It makes more sense and seems more likely to me to double the iPhone 4's resolution in both directions, thus:

More Likely Small iPad: 1920x1280 @ 7.85 = 293.96 ppi

This would be slightly higher than the iPad 3, but slightly less than the iPhone 4. Right where it should be based on it's size, and viewing distance from your eyes. Plus developers still get the whole benefit of being able to easily remake apps by doubling the pixels on their iPhone 4 app screens.

It's just logical. Can I get some props for that at least?
 
The 10" iPad is great for home use, but I think a 8" iPad is better for on the go.

No.

The iPad is a mobile device designed to fill the gap between smartphone and notebook. Leaving it at home where your computer is completely defeats the purpose. This is another unreliable rumor like the rest of them. They spent months figuring out the perfect size for the iPad, I highly doubt they are second guessing it because of flimsy sales of a few android tablets.
 
I don't know why people poopoo the idea of a cheaper, smaller iPad. One of the main reasons why people are buying the Kindle Fire is for their kids. They have smaller fingers AND at $200, they can justify buying a tablet for the child. I know someone very happy with the purchase because of Amazon Prime and the free movies and tv shows that you can stream with the annual subscription to the program.

I think children need to be addicted to these things too. They are Apple's future revenue! :D

Edit: If this DOES materialize, you can bet Steve Jobs knew and approved of it before his passing. I read somewhere that he Apple had about 5 years worth of stuff in their plans before he was too sick to be looking at such.

I agree. IF they do this, I would be willing to bet that it's not a smaller iPad at all. I bet it's branded as a iPod Touch, and marketed as a gaming machine for teens/children.

Two quick points:

1. This is Digi-times, they are so wrong so often that I would be more inclined to believe a mid-sized tablet if they were reporting Apple would never make one.

2. Can we please lay off the Steve would be rolling in his grave argument on every rumor? If he had died before they released the first iPod Video you would have all said it then because Steve once said, "Nobody wants video on an iPod". He is gone, we all miss him... let it go.
 
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