Thoughts On the iPad Mini

John Gruber at Daring Fireball has a thoughtful piece about the design of Apple's smaller iPad, which the company is expected to announce on September 12. Simply shrinking the current iPad's dimensions to a new form factor is unlikely, he says, and the bezel surrounding the display is more likely to be a cross between an iPad and an iPhone. He also discusses evidence of Apple's PR team getting the rumor mill going immediately after the announcement of Google's Nexus 7, and how Apple has probably bet on having a thinner and lighter tablet than Google, rather than worrying about a better display. Quoting: "Apple product designs are true to themselves. Each thing has proportions suited to its own nature. Consider how the iPad doesn’t look like a blown up iPhone. They share a few similar design elements — a family resemblance, if you will — but the proportions are different. The iPad has a thick bezel surrounding all four sides of the display; the iPhone does not. Why? Because you need a place to rest your thumbs while holding an iPad. ... Should not the iPad Mini fall somewhere in between? Not as close to the aspect ratio of its display as the iPad-as-we-know-it, but also not as far away from its display aspect ratio as the iPhone. You might need more thumb-rest room on the sides than you do on the iPhone, but not nearly as much as you do on the full-size iPad. If that assumption is right, the proportions of a 7.85-inch 4:3-aspect-ratio display iPad Mini are likely not the same as the proportions of the 9.7-inch 4:3-aspect-ratio display iPad."

Comments

Look, it's a smaller iPad

[guises]

It's a smaller iPad. Tiny differences about bezels don't matter, we all know what to expect here. The only question is the price - how much of a premium is this going to be over a Nexus 7?

Why not just wait?

[chill]

Here's a thought. How about just waiting until September 12th to see what they actually release? Maybe take the extra time you'd be wasting on speculation to get some actual work done.

If everyone took all the time they waste on speculating on future Apple products and the 2012 U.S. Election and actually did some useful work, the economy would recover in a week.

Re:in other words, a bigger ipod

[Anonymous Coward]

It's not a slashvertisement. It's an opinion piece about a rumoured product. TFA is a well written opinion piece, but that's all it is, you should read it. Your post on the other hand is whining in tone. If googles products are good enough, they won't have the slightest thing to worry about.

Perhaps you could write something interesting on the subject, instead of whining. Perhaps that's too difficult for you.

Speculation about a rumor

[gutnor]

Just like anything about Apple, people make up rumor based on what the rest of the market is doing or past behavior. Every year there have been rumor of an iPad mini and before phone with XL screen like the Galaxy were successful there were rumor of iPhone nano.

Sure I like a good piece of tech gossip, but analysis based on opinions about rumors that will inevitably end up in ePenis fight between Android and Apple fanboys are getting tiring.

Some people are even actively mocking that state of affair: http://day4.se/how-we-screwed-almost-the-whole-apple-community/

Re:in other words, a bigger ipod

[medcalf]

There have been schematics purporting to be the device, and rear-view shots of the supposed device in a case, so there is some evidence that at least Apple is prototyping this. Gruber's speculation builds on that, so not exactly content free. Also, his speculation is better than random, because he has a long-established track record of being right more often than wrong.

I think Apple would be happy with 10% unit share and 75% profit share in the mobile market, not that unit share matters a bit to Apple if history is any guide. They are always focused on the profit. Always.

Re:Stuff that matters? Really?

[samkass]

This, by far, is the most uninteresting article I've read in ages. Seriously, how much more non-newsworthy can it get? It ranks somewhere between soap-gossip and determining the mathematical function that most closely approximates the shape of my toe nails.

So informed speculation about the biggest change to one of the most innovative products to hit the tech scene in a decade isn't news for nerds at all? If this thing is released it'll probably redefine the Christmas gaming scene and have a huge impact on the eReader and educational computing market. Yes, this is newsworthy, even if you as an individual don't want to read it.

Re:Yeah Right!

[RyuuzakiTetsuya]

And a swimming pool is just a supersized bathtub.