Steve Jobs in 2010
Apple surprised absolutely no-one this week when it revealed its new 7.9inch tablet: the iPad Mini. The existence of the device had been fuelling the rumour mill for the better part of a year, so it was more a case of when Apple was going to announce it, not if. See also: iPad mini review
It hasn’t had the best reception possible, but to be perfectly fair to Apple, the original iPad actually received a pretty lukewarm welcome (take a look at this report from Tom’s Hardware) when it was announced and we all know what happened then. What does surprise me, however, is how strikingly the iPad mini flies in the face of Jobs’ address at Apple’s Q4 Earning’s Call in 2010.
Jobs was extremely outspoken and dismissive in his opinions of the seven-inch models when he spoke of the tablet market and any competition that may exist there at the 2010 event. So dismissive, in fact, that had he not sadly passed away last year I fully expect I’d be writing this article about some outlandish concept for a new Apple product we didn’t even know we needed until we were told it existed (iCar anyone?). Transcript provided by Seeking Alpha:
“...I'd like to comment on the avalanche of tablets poised to enter the market in the coming months. First, it appears to be just a handful of credible entrants, not exactly an avalanche. Second, almost all of them use seven-inch screens as compared to iPad's near 10-inch screen. Let's start there. One naturally thinks that a seven-inch screen would offer 70% of the benefits of a 10-inch screen. Unfortunately, this is far from the truth. The screen measurements are diagonal, so that a seven-inch screen is only 45% as large as iPad's 10-inch screen. You heard me right; just 45% as large.”
Well. That’s a pretty large and deceptive difference. This is given further context when he adds:
“If you take an iPad and hold it upright in portrait view and draw an imaginary horizontal line halfway down the screen, the screens on the seven-inch tablets are a bit smaller than the bottom half of the iPad display. This size isn't sufficient to create great tablet apps in our opinion.”
Aha. Now we’re getting to the core of the issue. Not only is the iPad used in an example to show its superior size, but the content of other tablets is brought into the discussion. Although the gap is closing of late, Apple still has more apps available on its store than the amount listed for the Google Play Android store. What else does Jobs have to add?
“... every tablet user is also a smartphone user. No tablet can compete with the mobility of a smartphone, its ease of fitting into your pocket or purse, its unobtrusiveness when used in a crowd. Given that all tablet users will already have a smartphone in their pockets, giving up precious display area to fit a tablet in our pockets is clearly the wrong trade-off. The seven-inch tablets are tweeners, too big to compete with a smartphone and too small to compete with an iPad.”
Bingo. This is the very centre of the matter. The late Mr Jobs makes an excellent point here. The purpose of the iPad was to bridge the gap between the smartphone and the laptop or PC in a better way than the notebook computer had. I don’t think anyone can deny it succeeded incredibly well.
Whilst the subsequent "avalanche" of tablets that flooded the market did indeed end up being no more than Jobs’ predicted "handful", Amazon’s Kindle and Google’s Nexus tablets have certainly proven that there’s a market for them. In Q3 of 2012, Apple sold around 15.5 million iPads, whereas the Google Nexus 7 scraped along with only 1 million and Amazon having sold around 5 million Kindles throughout the past year.
Back to the iPad mini which is the rather small, unimpressive elephant in the room that you’d be forgiven for missing. Let’s talk technical specifications first, comparing it to the other “tweener” tablets.
|
|
iPad Mini |
Google Nexus 7 |
Kindle Fire |
|
Screen Size |
7.9in |
7in |
7in |
|
Resolution |
1024x768 |
1280x800 |
1024x600 |
|
RAM |
512MB |
1024MB |
512MB |
|
Storage |
16GB/32GB/64GB |
8GB/16GB |
8GB |
|
CPU |
Dual-core 1GHz |
Quad-core nVidia Tegra 3 |
Dual-core 1.2GHz |
|
Price* |
£269 / $329 |
£159 / $199 |
£129 / $199 |
* Prices are for base model of each tablet where applicable.
So, although the iPad mini has the largest screen it doesn’t have the highest resolution. In fact, the only area in which the mini really does lead is on storage, thanks to a top capacity of 64GB compared to 16GB in the two rivals. The iPad mini is actually running the same (or similar) gear beneath its hood as the iPad 2, which was released 18 months ago - that's an extremely long time in tablet history. Although it is the most expensive of the three tablets compared here, it should be noted that the Nexus and Kindle Fire are being sold at a loss.
If Steve Jobs was still with us, I’d dread to think what he’d say about such a step backwards in innovation. Each iteration of the iPad has fit more into less space, so to make something smaller – with outdated hardware – just for the sake of it seems contrary to that philosophy.
The entire idea of the project seems to fly in the face of all that the company has been doing in recent years, first with smartphones and then in creating a tablet market where nobody thought there was one. Apple has already proven that 10in tablets are the winning size, purely from sheer volume of sold units. The battle has already been won, but it seems now Apple wants to take the dregs of the market that it left to its competitors as well.
About the author:
This guest article was written by Mark Atkinson who works in customer care for Refresh Cartridges
Comments
sip said: Steve Jobs main attribute was misdirection Apple is also not all that secretive just because it doesnt comment on rumours -- Apple controls leaks to give you just a rough idea what may be coming next from their RampD labsAlso i think this piece was written before the white iPad-mini totally sold out within 6 hours and the 16GB black version in 35 hours Every other manufacturer will be drooling -- will be interesting to see actual numbers All the others had better sit down and seriously consider their continued participation in this marketWhen competitors start dissing your product theyre in serios trouble -- read this and weephttpappleinsidercomarticl
Eclvvin said: This is silly This analysis flys in the face of a similar iPod history Clearly the Nano and shuffle could also be thought of as a step backwards then with less storage and feature than their competitors Maybe you could be forgiven for lazy analysis which ignored the operating system or iTunes ecosystem bak then when you did not have a historical precedent as you do now
AdamChew said: Apple cannot release a retina display iPad mini to compete with the iPad 4 because it is not good marketing Although they said they dont mid the cannibalisation bute it is suicidial to do so
steve_webb said: If Apples decision makers still value Steve Jobs opinion then the iPad mini must have been designed for people with smaller than average fingers kidsThe iPad mini is a fully functional iPad that is better than the iPad 2 in every way except possibly size - at a more than fifteen per cent discount It should appeal to the big three schools parents and holiday gift shoppers The new and improved version of iBooks Author can only help The fact that it costs 35 per cent less than the retina display iPad is just another point in its favor
Jdanosborn said: The problem is you are looking backwards not forwards Steve also focused on the moment and the future Given the developments in the market and his fierce competitive spirit I think what has happened is what he would have done as well Also we have heard that the iPhone 5 was the last version that Steve had input into I think we can assume a similar story around the Mini As he himself said dons ask yourselves what I would so do what is right I think its pretty clear that Tim and Jony are doing just that Steve would very proud of where his company is today and perhaps his last and least appreciated skill will be seen as human capital and organizational design
Harry Jones said: Agreed Mark Even if Steve Jobs did indeed approve the iPad Mini while making conflictingnoises in public then Im almost certain that in the current climate he would have insisted that it knock the socks of the competition rather than providing asolution which is in reality equal to the established and cheaper Google equivalent
Eran Nurmi said: Mark you are so stupid If you understood anything about RampD you knew that development of iPad mini started long before Jobs died iPad min was Jobs idea You are just stupid enough to believe what Jobs said Remember when Jobs said that no one reads books anymore And soon after that Apple released iBooks iPad and iBooks Author See the pattern No you dont because you are stupid
ciparis said: Steve Jobs approved the iPad mini project -- you seem to have under-researched your article Mark
Computer Source said: Probably not but Apple definitely need this iPad Mine But I am sure about the price
Jurassic said: A look at the stark contrast between the iPad mini and Jobs comments back in 2010There have been times when Steve Jobs changed his mind example when he said videos would never run on iPods but this isnt one of themJobs was talking about the current 169 7 tablets which are too small to do any significant work onBut the iPad mini has a display that is almost 40 larger than 7 tablets It is in fact a size in between in display area 7 tablets and the full-sized iPadDuring the presentation for the iPad mini Apple showed a comparison of how noticeably larger the display is than 7 tablets they used the Nexus 7 as an exampleIn this case Steve Jobs comment holds true It is doubtful that Apple would ever make an iPad with a display as small as 7 tablets
BobBarker1 said: As a longtime Apple user I learned a long time ago to never trust Steve when hes bashing the competition In fact when he does this its almost a slam-dunkthat eighteen to twenty-four months later something will come out by them that is close to the very thing hes bashing