Filler to make post stick.
1. Screen is not a large enough increase over smartphones to warrant use over a smartphone.
If you have an iPad and an iPhone, you can easily see the difference. Just set the two sids by side and have then display the same photo in iPhoto that fills up the screen in landscape mode. Now rotate the iPat to portrate position. The image on the iPad is mow a shown a bit smaller than it would be on a 7.85" iPad. Is there really not a significant difference?
First off what are you talking about, really? Second, this in no way whatsoever demonstrates that the iPad is not a big enough jump in screen size over a smartphone. It's a zillion tasks that make the screen jump worth it. One being viewing Webpages.
2. The size of the onscreen keyboard is awkward and not conducive to efficient typing (it's not near full size and it's not small enough for one handed typing).
Again, you can see what this would be like by rotating the iPad.Take a screenshot of the iPad keyboard in both landscape and portrait mode. Open the shots in iPhoto and rotate them to the smaller size. The portrait screen keys are right about the size Apple currently uses in the split keyboard, and the landscape keyboard are larger than that. Perhaps not what everyone would consider ideal, but even the full-size iPad is considered by many to be a pain to type on for reasons other than key size.
There is also pretty good dictation working in the latest iDevices
You have to hold a 7" tablet the exact same way as you do an iPad in portrait typing on it, yet the keyboard is much smaller with some keys cramped. The problem here is hit size areas. The hit areas for each key are much smaller than on the iPad. What makes the iPad keyboard so good compared to smaller screened tablets is that the hit area per key is really big and harder to miss. Less spurious inputs. It's awkward to hold any tablet. Yes, the keys on a 7" tablet are bigger than on a smartphone, but smartphones have truncated keyboards: the Kindle Fire for instance, like many other tweeners, tries to cram a fullsize keyboard into the screen. It's harder to type on because all of the keys are cramped.
http://www.nafzinger.com/2011/11/16/kindle-fire-review/
3. It's supposed to be so much more portable than an iPad until you realize you simply can't put it in your pocket... and you end up carrying it like a folio just like the iPad.
This is simply wrong.
It doesn't disappear into a pocket like an iPhone, but it can be slid into a large number of what could only be considered "normal" sized pants and jacket pockets -- it depends on the width of the device
This is not simply wrong. This is a fact. Most people out there I will bet your life on it would never try to put a tweener tablet in their jeans or pants pocket. If they did, it simply wouldn't fit. I've got 2 Playbooks in the office and they don't fit my into my pants pockets... I'm over 6' tall. It's absurd to think that anyone would do this and even be able to do it. You could, however, place it in the inside pocket of a large overcoat. But the ones I've tried on mine... the tweeners are still too big to fit in there. And even if you do have pants pockets that will fit a tweener, nobody would do it because it would be protruding out the top of the pants. Sitting down would push to snap the device in half. It's dumb, and Jobs made fun of it in a Keynote and it does look absurd because it is absurd.
4. Most content looks terrible on it because of how odd a size the screen is. The full Web isn't good and neither is the mobile Web. It's a size of screen that isn't worth developing custom UIs for: when it's small like an iPhone you can get innovative with well established UI practices and when it's big like an iPad you don't have to really do anything: the full Web looks great. The only thing the screen size is good at is displaying a novel and video. That's it.
Once again, do the iPad screenshot and rotate experiment.Try opening the same webpage on the iPhone and iPad, and then shrink the iPad screen and hold it next to the Phone and see which on looks more usable.
Yeah, some of the touch targets can be mighty small - but there are plenty that are already too small on the regular iPad screen (such as this site). Pinch and zoom isn't a major catastrophe.
Now move to apps. If you have a useful app that has an iPhone and an iPad version, do the same iPad screenshot and rotation, and see which one looks more useful. iPad apps are simply more functional.
I'm sorry, but this just seems like a confused bit of dribble. The point is that the iPad offers an excellent Web experience because most Websites fit the iPad screen well without the need to even pinch and zoom or scroll sideways. It's not the case with smartphones and it's not the case with tweeners either. So the point is that there's little point in using a tweener over a smartphone but there is a point to scaling up to the size of an iPad. It mimics closely the size of an 8.5"x11" piece of paper. That's why magazines, newspapers, etc. can look decent on it. Not on tweeners. Then there's also PDFs... which look like crap on tweeners because they're too cramped. I can go on and on.
5. Cannot be used via one handed hold: awkward.
Simply wrong! Most average size adult hands can easily one hand a 7.85" iPad with narrow bezels.
Nobody one hand holds and uses tweeners at the same time. What I mean by this is inputing and typing, etc. You can't hold it in one hand and thumb type at the same time. And it's hard to hold for any length of time with one hand while reading. Now, razor thin eInk screened tablets are easier to hold with one hand and use, but still the form factor enforces upon the user the need to hold it with two hands steady to input into the screen or even flip pages.
In other words, it's not better at anything compared to a smartphone other than perhaps reading novels and watching movies. But with the Retina screen on iPhones and iBooks Reader some would argue the opposite for reading. It just makes too many compromises to justify its existence.
Again, simply wrong.
Anything you would want a deice that runs functional iPad apps, that you can securely hold in one hand, and that you can easily slip into and out of a pocket to free up your hands to do other things, is where the mini iPad would be better than an iPhone.
Just one example: Doctors and nurses -- Do want them struggling to read or enter your medical records or images on an iPhone screen with less functional iPhone apps? Do you want them to have to devote two hands to holding a full sized iPad securely so it doesn't get bumped out of their hands in a sometimes chaotic environment? Do you want them to have to fumble around through some extra bag or pack that they have to carry around just ti have the iPad with them? No you do not.
I am going to bet everything in this world you have never used a tweener tablet before. You CANNOT one hand hold a tweener and input information like thumb typing on a smartphone and you CANNOT pocket them. Once you realize this, you will realize they don't offer enough benefit over a smartphone with the compromises they make. That tweeners land you squarely into the category of an iPad in terms of the portability of the device and the way it's used.
And yes, I do want doctors and nurses using iPads because it's got the nicest, sharpest, fullest screen of any tablet. I want to make sure that if I have a tumor or something else that they'll be able to see it. That means they can leave the cramped tweeners at home in their spare laptop bag collecting dust.
