Rumors swirl of smaller iPad

Associated Press

NEW YORK

Apple generates more gossip than the Kardashians.

There’s a constantly spinning mill of rumors about Apple products, most of which turn out to be untrue. What’s unusual this week is that talk has revived of a smaller iPad model, an idea company founder Steve Jobs derided publicly a year before he died.

Apple and its suppliers aren’t commenting. Rumors of a smaller iPad, or “iPad mini” have percolated ever since the first iPad was launched two years ago. This time around, they’re fed by media reports from South Korea, China and Taiwan, saying Apple has ordered Samsung screens that are 7.86 inches measured on the diagonal. That would make for a screen about half the size of the current iPad, which has a diagonal measurement of 9.7 inches.

WHY IT’S A GOOD IDEA

A smaller tablet would help Apple further its lead in the tablet market.

“From a competitive standpoint, we believe an iPad mini with a lower price point would be the competition’s worst nightmare,” says Shaw Wu, an analyst at Sterne Agee. “Most [competitors] already have a tough enough time competing against the iPad 2, as well as the new iPad.”

WHY IT’S A BAD IDEA

A smaller iPad would be a headache for software developers.

“Going to a different screen size ends up being a ton of work,” says Nate Weiner, the creator of Pocket, an application that stores Web pages and other material for later reading.

“If you take, for an example, an interface built for the iPad and try to cram it into the Kindle Fire, it just doesn’t fit,” he says.

WHAT JOBS THOUGHT

Apple’s late CEO made a rare appearance on an October 2010 earnings conference call to launch a tirade against the 7-inch tablet Samsung Electronics Inc. was set to launch as the first major challenger to the iPad.

“The reason we wouldn’t make a 7-inch tablet isn’t because we don’t want to hit a price point, it’s because we don’t think you can make a great tablet with a 7-inch screen,” Jobs said. “The 7-inch tablets are tweeners, too big to compete with a smartphone and too small to compete with an iPad.”