Samsung official claims Apple plans to release 7.85-inch iPad this year:
Adding to rumors of a smaller iPad from Apple, an unnamed Samsung official allegedly told an Korean publication that the company plans to release a 7.85-inch tablet later this year.
(Via www.appleinsider.com)
Hmmm. Can’t imagine why someone from Samsung would want to start a rumor that Apple will release yet another iPad later this year. Can’t see why you’d want to start such a rumor, hoping that some less-informed people would hold off on buying a new iPad now to wait for the next one that’s just around the corner.
Of course, we saw this same sort of rumor before. Last year, in fact. Right around the launch of the iPad 2. Wasn’t true then. Isn’t true now.
Sad, first that Samsung is desperate enough to try this. Sadder, still, that some people will fall for it.
Apple has no reason to release a smaller tablet. Smaller tablets aren’t tablets. They’re oversized iPods. And no one is buying them.
The Amazon Kindle Fire is the one 7-inch device that at least saw some success in its initial launch. How the numbers have been since, we have no idea. And the Kindle Fire is not really a tablet computer. It’s a color eReader and movie device, but not much else.
If Apple has some sort of device that’s bigger than an iPhone but smaller than an iPad in the works, it’s not going to be a variant of the iPad. It would be an entirely new device, created to serve some other purpose.
To paraphrase the late Mr. Jobs, a 7-inch iPad wouldn’t be better at anything.
