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Did Steve Jobs Pick the Wrong Tablet Size?
An anonymous reader writes "During the 2010 Christmas shopping season, Steve Jobs famously dissed the 7-inch tablets being rolled out by competitors, including Samsung's Galaxy, as being 'tweeners: too big to compete with a smartphone and too small to compete with the [9.7-inch diagonal] iPad,' adding that 'the current crop of 7-inch tablets are going to be DOA — dead on arrival.' A year later Jobs was dead, and the iPad Mini, with a 7.9-inch diagonal screen, was rolled out under his successor Tim Cook in October, 2012. Looking at industry-wide tablet sales numbers for January 2013, which show that the iPad Mini surprisingly outsold its larger sibling by a substantial margin (as did 7-inch Android tablets from competitors), Motley Fool's Evan Niu thinks that the 7.9-inch form factor was the correct size all along, contrary to Jobs' pronouncements (which, of course, was partly marketing bluster — but he chose the larger size in the first place). Of course the Mini is cheaper, but not by much — $329 vs. $399 for the larger iPad, for the baseline model with WiFi only and 16GB storage. Had Apple introduced the iPad with the smaller size to begin with, Niu argues, competitors would have faced a much more difficult task grabbing market share. While the Mini is currently available only with 'Super VGA' resolution (1024x768), rumors are afloat that Minis with the Retina display (2048x1536) are close to production."
Brand new $329 product sells faster than $499 product with minor spec bump! Film at 11! (Comparison with iPad 2 is silly - it is an old product which, has lower specs than the Mini, has the same number of pixels as the Mini, still costs $70 more and will probably be discontinued soon).
Meanwhile, the first generation of 7", 16:9 tablets of which his Steveness was speaking didn't exactly sell like hotcakes. The format has since been popularised by Amazon and Google offering extra cheap 7" tablets firmly aimed at media consumption (which they may be treating as loss-leaders).
Its also worth bearing in mind that the Mini isn't a 7" 16:9 tablet, its a 7.9" 4:3 tablet with the same number of pixels as the original iPad. That's a non-trivial difference especially when (e.g.) you want to type in landscape format.
In a survey of 100 programmers, 111111 thought that duck-typing was a good idea.
It's the oblivious mistake, there's one in every summary, just /. editors doing some subtle trolling to get the comments going.
Please consider this account deleted, I just can't be bothered with the spam anymore.
Right, the Apple product is perfect in every way and everything else is either just a copy or shite. Nice try.
People should have bought any tablet Apple churned out back then, regardless of size. The first version of the iPad was actually quite badly flawed in a number of ways - the back wasn't flat so it rocked if you tried use to it flat on a desk, and the screen resolution was both low and an odd multiple of what came before so that it took a while for apps to be ported to it (since Apple encouraged everyone to code for fixed resolutions). It didn't have the split keyboard first either, Android invented that.
People said that the Galaxy Note would never sell. An oversized phone with an old fashioned stylus. Turned out to be really popular, and the stylus is much better than a finger for photo editing and note taking. Your argument that people would be dismissive of something that could be called a "large phone" doesn't hold up.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
Who the f*ck is criticizing the Steve Jobs after he's dead???
"wrong" tablet size??
WTF?
Oh enough already with the iMessiah. He was a human, not a god. Not only can humans be wrong from time to time, but they can be fucking wrong, as evidenced by iPad mini sales, which was the entire point of the article. The fact that he's dead is almost irrelevant. The fact that the mini rolled out fairly quickly after his death makes me wonder if he finally realized he was wrong.
And remember he clearly had no qualms about telling others they were wrong. If anything, we're paying homage to the great asshole and marketeer he was. If he was alive today and someone had the gall to tell this to his face, he's probably hire them.
"I'm even wondering if it wouldn't be better to just have a dumbphone and a tablet instead."
This. JUST this past Friday at work, two of my coworkers, who were both early smartphone adopters said exactly this. And a third has already done it. He bought an ipad Mini last week, ditched his smartphone and went to a good, slide out keyboard dumbphone. He did not even get a 3G iPad, just the WiFi model, as he said 99% of the time he has wifi when he needs to access the net. And if he doesnt, oh well, he can call or txt someone.
Bang. I, personally, have been a hold out on even getting a smart phone for this very reason all along. Looks like I was actually ahead of the times. Using my iPod as a "smartphone" substitute when needed all along.
Thing is, a good dumb phone with a good keyboard is a WAY better phone and texting device than a real smartphone. Battery life measured in weeks. No need to hardly even look at it to type, no accidental "touches" and way cheaper overall. Problem is, decent dumbphones are getting harder to find now....
(Posting as AC because Im too lazy to login)
Really?
The investors are happy?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2013/feb/27/apple-tim-cook-angry-investors-dont-like-it-either
Apple's stock price was over 700 in October. It is now at 430. Investors are pissed, and they are LOOSING money.
You are entitled to your own opinions, not your own facts.
Bah on backpacks or messenger bags, so last decade and before. What you want is one of these babies:
http://www.thinkgeek.com/product/c616/
The Grab-It Pack Gadget Holster - much more nerdy than a mere backpack, and much cooler than a messenger bag :P
"The first time I got drunk, I got married. The second time I bought a chimpanzee, after that I stayed sober" Arian Seid
The majority of people who have bought Android tablets did so because they do not like Apple
Maybe the majority of people on slashdot, but I doubt it's even true with that narrow of a field. There are a few factors:
a) Price
b) Convenience
c) Design/interface
d) Features
I service PC's on the side, so I have plenty of time to talk to "regular folk" who are not technically inclined. I also have buddies in retail. Apple sold on brand-recognition for awhile, but Samsung and Asus have become more well-known now too.
So why do they buy android tablets? Well, basically the price is good and it does what they want. A lot of people just want something that convenient to travel with and that does email, browses the web, and perhaps plays a few games. In the older crowd, the latter tends not to apply.
These folk used to buy laptops, but when tablets became more common the laptops were overpowered and bulky.
A full-sized iPad was more convenient in that it doesn't take up much room in a suitcase or whatever, but at the price-point it still had competition from netbooks etc. While more convenient to pack, it still wasn't very fun to travel with as it didn't fit nicely into many purses or pockets.
The Asus tablets became fairly popular because they had a detachable keyboard (and a lot of people aren't so fond of touchscreens for email), and were a bit cheaper than the iPad.
Then comes Nexus 7 etc. It fits into a back-pocket on most jeans, or an inner-pocket in a jacket. It slips into a purse easily. It's cheap. It's powerful. It does email, browses the web, video-chat, etc. It'll even do flash but you're hitting a more technical crowd to get that installed
What it lacks: HDMI connection to plug into TV's, and no "airplay." Miracast will likely replace those in the future with whatever the successor is to the Nexus 7 (I believe that it has the GPU to handle it, but not the wifi, so it won't be available on this model).
The average person doesn't really connect the tablet to the TV, so even the above are extras.
The other thing it lacks: A nice way to take/transfer pictures. Other tablets with SD slots would be nice for this, but space is limited. iPad is still a bit bulky for this. Phones aren't bad, but the killer feature would be something to connect the two (wirelessly) to manage photo albums on the camera device from a tablet. It seems that for the moment people are still content to manage pictures on a PC though and do the sync thing.
So what is an Android tablet lacking that a regular person needs? Not a Linux/Android/Apple fanboi, just a person who wants a portable device?
a) Price: Check, they're fairly affordable
b) Convenience: 7" is a very convience size for purses and pockets
c) Design/interface: One of the best things iDevices did is bring capacitive multitouch to portables. The cheaper Androids often had shitty resistive touch, but that's changed for the most-part.
d) Features: (remember, regular joe). Email: check, Internet browsing: check, and - dare I say it - porn: check
Normal people don't love Apple or Android. They might love a particular device. Sometimes they get attached to a brand for awhile, but eventually it comes down to: will this do what I want for the price it's available at.
Customers ask me which is better. It really comes down to what they want to do with it. For many, a Nexus is fine. Some people want to use their apps on the tablet, or have a media device. In that case, the convenience of iTunes and the availability of peripherals goes in the favor of Apple devices.
While people may play music on their phones, tablets are often more video-centric, and Netflix combined with the growing Play video collection is turning into a big competitor. If Google (or Samsung, etc) got their sh** together and made a decent platform for music, Apple would really be in trouble, but while they're improving the experience is still rather inconsistent.
Size and weight are not directly related. As technology improves you can maintain the same size at reduced weight. It may have been the right weight when it was released, but I maintain that a 9.7" screen is too small for a "full sized" tablet.
Another aspect which I don't think is being fully considered is inertia (not the watered-down high school version, the full 3x3 tensor). Hold a fork as you naturally would. Notice where it rests in your fingers. It will balance perfectly there. That's not an accident - it was deliberately designed that way. If your center of mass is at the point where the object is supported, the inertia tensor is symmetric. That means when you translate the object, it will not rotate. It feels "balanced". When you raise your fork with food attached, your finger naturally shifts forward to the new CM, keeping it balanced and the inertia tenser symmetric. (This is also why spoons and forks tend to flare out towards the end of the handle - the larger mass there increases the inertia, both making it slower to rotate and decreasing the distance you need to shift to rebalance it with food attached.)
To see how important this is, grab something like a curtain rod and hold it from the end. Now try pointing at a moving object with it. It'll be difficult because every time you move it (translate it), its inertia will cause a rotation making it point at something else. And every time you try to rotate it, it will want to translate. Your arm/hand effectively has to simultaneously make two corrections (translation and orientation) instead of just one (translation or orientation).
The same is true for tablets which are balanced at or near the center. That's not where you hand typically holds it, so any lateral movement also causes a rotation. Frequently adding weight to an unbalanced object to move its CM closer to the support point makes it easier to handhold even though it's heavier. Most of the fatigue from handholding an item isn't in supporting the weight (which your arm can easily do unless you're a total wimp). It's from your wrist having to constantly adjust it so it's oriented properly. When properly balanced, there is less need for orientation adjustments, and so your hand experiences less fatigue.
I find it (and 10.1" Android tablets) cramped. If you remove the margins, the informational area of a magazine page or letter/A4-sized sheet of paper is about 12" diagonal. Either Jobs was brilliant and 75+ years of magazine and paper publishers were wrong, or Jobs was wrong and those industries are correct. I tend to think the latter is more likely.
I agree the physical size of the iPad is very close to the mark (though I prefer 16:10 or 3:2). Roughly the same size as a magazine or sheet of paper. But the screen is too small and the bezel too big. That was a concession to the technology available currently and when it was first released, so I expect as technology improves we'll gradually transition to a 12" screen for full-size tablets.