Internal Apple email shows support for 7-inch iPad

An internal email released in the course of the <a href="http://macnn.com/rd/264130==http://www.electronista.com/articles/12/07/31/samsung.defends.design.concepts.as.predating.apple/" rel='nofollow'>Apple-Samsung patent trial</a> revealed yesterday that executives at the iPad maker have been interested for some time in the possibility of a tablet device comparable in size to the Kindle Fire or Google's <a href="http://macnn.com/rd/264131==http://www.electronista.com/articles/12/07/28/how.does.googles.first.android.tablet.stack.up/" rel='nofollow'>Nexus 7</a>. As <em>CNet</em> <a href="http://macnn.com/rd/264132==http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-57486733-37/heres-apples-e-mail-thread-about-a-7-inch-ipad/" rel='nofollow'>details</a>, the email demonstrates that Apple does keep an eye on products other companies are releasing, even if those products are in a sector that doesn't compete directly with Apple's products. While no details on a possible device were revealed, the email shows that not all Apple executives were dismissive of the 7-inch form factor. <br><br>The email in question is from Eddy Cue, head of Apple's Internet software and services, to Tim Cook, Scot Forstall, and Phil Schiller. In it, Cue says that he has used a <a href="http://macnn.com/rd/264133==http://www.electronista.com/articles/12/04/11/galaxy.tab.2.to.compete.mainly.on.price/" rel='nofollow'>7-inch Galaxy Tab</a> and that he found the email, book, social, and video experience on the device to be compelling. Browsing the web, Cue says, is the weakest point of the 7-inch form factor, but that was not a major detractor.

Cue also says in the email that he believes "there will be a 7" market and [Apple] should do one."

The email demonstrates at least one point that Samsung has been pressing in its trial: that Apple does indeed take cues from its competitors at times. Perhaps more immediately important outside of the case, however, is the fact that a smaller form factor iPad has support within Apple's ranks. Such a device has been rumored <a href="http://macnn.com/rd/264134==http://www.electronista.com/articles/10/04/08/mini.ipad.would.target.reading.first/" rel='nofollow'>for the past two years</a>, but the success of last year's Kindle Fire and this year's Nexus 7 have reignited talk of a <a href="http://macnn.com/rd/264135==http://www.electronista.com/articles/12/07/03/analysts.stick.to.249.299.pricetag/" rel='nofollow'>comparable offering from Apple</a> in the offing.

Really?? They'll use that email as basis for saying Apple takes cues from other companies? That's too funny. And weak beyond belief. This spat between Apple and Samsung is getting tiresome. I feel sorry for the judges and the patent office, really. As screwed up as the patent system people claim it to be, I don't envy those tasked with awarding patents these days. I have not seen ONE story getting a comment from someone at the patent office on or off the record about what they do, how they feel about it and the challenges...

There is nothing within the actual article indicating that it was Cook who "continually" (or at all) pressed Jobs about a 7" iPad.

If anything, it was Eddie Cue -- and once again, MacNN editors screw up.

I think a big factor behind the 7" from factor is price (not usability) -- from a usability standpoint 7" is in the same space as the Apple Newton: to big to fit in a pocket and too small to be a desktop replacement.

With the Retina displays, Apple has the usable pixels of a 7" device on the IPhone and a reasonable desktop replacement in the New iPad.

Of course any business is going to watch what segments of a market are doing well.

There's only one problem with your argument -- that that's not what the article says at all.

Maybe an earlier version of the story put "Cook" in by mistake instead of "Cue," I don't know -- but even so (a pretty forgivable typo IMO, there are a LOT of players to keep track of in this thing), the initial part of the story makes it clear that it was Cue.

So I'd have to say it's you that screwed up.

This is, indeed, the case. The article had "Cook" in the subtitle at the time of ZinkDifferent's original post.

It would have been polite for the author of the article to have made a note of the correction.

I think a 7" iPad would be a huge success. What I don't understand is how Jobs' argument was the "experience" on a smaller display, yet people surf and email all the time on the tiny iPhone/Touch display. I use my iPad a lot, but I wish I had a smaller, lighter version. If they do release a 7", I'm definitely ordering one.