It seems that the majority of new pad/slate style PC touchscreen devices being proposed and introduced by most non-apple PC manufacturers are in the 7" size range. If Apple is killing with the 10" iPad why are these companies convinced they know better than Apple re the right size for a useful pad?
WAG but perhaps all of the 10" touch screens are already earmarked for Apple and no one else can buy any?
Maybe they figure Apple has the market for 10 inchers sewn up, but that there might also be a market for something a bit smaller and more easily portable. It seems quite reasonable to me.
If you’re talking about tablet computers running Windows, I’d guess it’s a battery life issue. A CPU+chipset capable of running Windows consumes a lot more power than the processor in the iPad/iPhone. They can compensate by using a smaller screen which uses proportionally less power.
For Android tablets, I don’t know. They may feel it’s a market niche not yet dominated by Apple. (There’s a huge gap between the iPod Touch and the iPad.) Also, some of them (like the Samsung Galaxy Tab) are billed as replacements for smartphones, not a complement. (I know, you need a bluetooth headset to use it comfortably as a phone, but that may not matter to people who primarily use their smartphones for texting and internet access.)
Windows tablets are a dead end, have been and will always be. Windows (non-CE) requires too much hardware to run acceptably.
Android tablets? most likely because the current version of Android and the applications built for them aren’t geared around a larger display, so the people wasting their time on 7" tablets are using the smaller screen size to make running 480x800 palatable.
'course, I still think in most non-niche cases, the tablet is a solution looking for a problem, and never cease to be amazed at Apple’s ability to convince its devotees that they really do have a problem. And conveniently, all of those problems they didn’t know they had are conveniently solved by this nice expensive gadget that Apple just unveiled.
Price, mostly. For all the talk about an “Apple Tax”, the iPad and (to a lesser extent) iPod Touch are priced such that no one has yet been able to either 1) put out an equally compelling product at the same price; or 2) produce a lessor-but-still-compelling product that undercuts the iPad on price.
So far, the few entrants into that market have been both worse and pricier (I mean, have you seen the HP Slate? What a dog). Eventually someone will come out with a compelling Android tablet, but it hasn’t happened yet. No one has come out with a compelling Android-based iPod Touch competitor either, which is perhaps even weirder, given the amount of time it’s basically had the whole market to itself.
… but the device is then proportionally smaller and has less space for batteries.
FWIW, during last week’s earnings call, Steve Jobs claimed they tried a 7" iPad and that it was too small - his exact comment was 'dead on arrival’.
Yet an even smaller iPod touch is OK.
Well, Jobs was talking shit about the competition, so it’s kind of his job to rip their products.
The companies are not convinced. But they can’t put out a tablet with a 10" screen that comes anywhere near to competing with Apple on price and/or performance, so they are putting out some 7" tablets (some of which, hilariously, are still pricier than the iPad) in the hope that if they throw enough shit onto the wall some of it will stick.
Despite all the negative press Apple gets about being just a marketing company, the fact is that they have spent the past 10 years spending money relentlessly on R&D, and can now make high-quality mobile devices cheaper than anyone else.
Apple designs their own operating system, processor, battery, hard drives, chassis, manufacturing processes, logic boards, and more. No one else in the mobile industry has that much control over that much of their devices, and no one else has put as much effort as Apple has into miniaturization, power efficiency, etc.
So, they’re now so far ahead that they’ve released a product 6 months ago that no one can adequately compete with even today.
As an example - below is a picture of the iPhone 4’s logic board, and the HTC Evo 4G’s logic board (the iPhone 4’s main competitor at the time of release).
Apple’s attention to detail does not stop with pretty designs. It is not hard to see why the iPhone 4 is smaller, lighter, and has more battery life than the Evo 4G. Of course, I cannot show a similar comparison involving the iPad because no one has yet released anything equivalent to it.
Whether you like Apple’s marketing, business practices, image, strategy, etc. or despise them, they are simply way ahead of the competition from an engineering standpoint.
That’s explained in the article:
I’ve always thought of the iPod Touch as just a throwaway stepping stone towards the iPad anyway. It’s more than an iPod, but less than an iPhone, and is a perfect introduction to Apple’s products for someone who has either never used them, or has experience only with an iPod.
ETA: I forgot to answer the OP’s query: Because nearly every other manufacturer is stupid, behind the curve, and unable to actually anticipate what their (potential) customers will be wanting. Their products are never as aesthetically pleasing as Apple’s products, don’t work as well as Apple’s products, and don’t allow for adding new features. Plus, the people who work at the non-Apple companies talk like fags, and their shit is all retarded.
Actually, Jobs never actually said that Apple had tried a 7" tablet and found that it failed, and his DOA comment was made directly at his competitors bringing the 7" tablets to market. CEO’s raging on conference calls is always fun, even more fun is when they start wagging their dicks around.
I’d recommend listening to the entire diatribe: Steve Jobs drops knowledge on earnings call: calls out Google and RIM, says 7-inch tablets are 'DOA' (Update: complete Jobs audio!) | Engadget
In fact, you may be interested to hear that the article you linked to in turn links to an article that says there are rumors that Apple is actually planning on releasing a 7" tablet next year. http://www.pcworld.com/article/203013/rumor_apple_upgrading_ipad_releasing_7inch_model_in_2011.html
You can fit a Touch in your pocket. That alone is sufficient reason why there’s a market for it to be “OK”.
I don’t care what Jobs says. I mean, do you really expect him to say anything else? I mean, every big swingin’ dick on the planet will shit on something that they don’t make but their competitors do.
That is a really cool little comparison there, Absolute. Very revealing.
Apple is “designing” it’s own hard drives and CPUs vs buying them from OEMs? Really?
Did you check to see if Jobs’ explanation makes sense or did you just dismiss it because he said it?
Others have already explained to you why a Touch is ‘OK’. There’s a market for a pocket size device. There’s a market for a larger device that can easily display documents etc. There isn’t much of a market for something in between.
Supposedly Dell will release a 7" Android tablet later this year and a 10" tablet next year. I’m tempted by the iPad but the price is holding me back, so I hope that Dell (and perhaps HP) can offer something competitively priced.
Apple A4 - Wikipedia - “The Apple A4 is a package on package (PoP) system-on-a-chip (SoC) designed by Apple and manufactured by Samsung.” This is used in the iPod, iPad, and iPhone.
The new MacBook Air contains a solid-state hard drive designed by Apple that is lighter and more compact than an OEM SSD. See step 8: MacBook Air 11" Late 2010 Teardown - iFixit
Yep, that would actually be classic Steve. Remember in January 2008 when he slammed eBooks and said: ‘the fact is that people don’t read anymore…’. Then, a year later he introduces iBooks.