During Apple’s Q4 Earnings Report, Tim Cook reiterated that Apple would never make a 7-inch iPad, thus fulfilling the prophesy of Steve Jobs. But wait. Didn’t Apple just announce a 7-inch iPad? Not according to Tim Cook.
Say what?
As Tim Cook described it to Kulbinder Garcha of Credit Suisse, when Steve Jobs said that Apple would never make a 7-inch iPad, what he meant was one of those small 7-inch tablets with an unusable display. And so Mr. Cook reiterated, to our amazement, “We’ll never make a 7-inch tablet.”
Really.
The iPad mini is different, Mr. Cook went on to explain. It has a larger physical display area (by 35 percent) than the other small 16:9 aspect tablets. Presumably a larger display makes it more pleasing and easier to see content. Also, Mr. Cook explained that the iPad mini has a standard 1024 x 768 resolution display, like the iPad and iPad 2. And so it can run all the 275,000 iPad native apps.
And of course, a larger display (7.9 inches) with a 1024 x 768 resolution would appear to solve the problem of fumble fingering a small 7-inch device … as Mr. Jobs described it.
So all is well in Apple Land. The company has remained true to the vision of Mr. Jobs by affirming that it would never build that darned contraption that Steve Jobs said Apple would never build.
And thus we have, behold, the 7.9 inch iPad mini. Prophesy has been fulfilled, all is right, Apple can move forward, and Mr. Jobs can now rest in peace.