Let's Try to Think This iPad Mini Thing All the Way Through
We're Talking About a Smaller iPad, Not a Bigger iPod Touch — I've seen a fair bit of speculation that, if Apple produces a 7-inch iOS device, then maybe it would be a bigger iPod Touch, not a smaller iPad.
Context & Ripple Effects
The 7-inch question has been running through Apple coverage all year: in December 2011 AllThingsD's roadmap said don't expect a 7-incher in 2012, then in April John Gruber reported Apple had a 7.85-inch iPad prototype in its labs, and last week Cast Irony laid out the case for a 7.8-inch iPad. What this piece adds is a framing argument: any such device would be a smaller iPad, not a scaled-up iPod Touch.
The distinction matters because it sets expectations for price, specs, and positioning — an iPad-class product would carry iPad margins and run unmodified iPad apps, while an iPod Touch-class product would be a media player first. The story traveled widely the same day, picked up by The Next Web, iDownloadBlog, and TUAW, though everything here remains rumor and analysis, not confirmed product plans.
First-order effects
- If Apple ships a roughly 7.85-inch iPad rather than an enlarged iPod Touch, the device lands in direct price-and-size competition with the sub-8-inch Android tablets that currently own that tier, instead of sitting above it as a premium media player.
Second-order effects
- Android tablet vendors' main differentiation at the small end — being the only option below the 9.7-inch iPad's price point — erodes if Apple enters that bracket with full iPad app compatibility, forcing them to compete on price or content bundles rather than screen size alone.
Third-order effects
- A smaller iPad would end Apple's single-size iPad strategy and turn the line into a size ladder, the structure analysts have long expected once the category matured past its one-product phase — with the open question being whether Apple protects large-iPad margins or accepts thinner ones to close off the low end.
The trend: The tablet market is segmenting by screen size, and the pressure is on Apple to extend the iPad down into the sub-8-inch tier where Android vendors currently compete uncontested.