In a collaboration with Macrumors, CiccareseDesign has produced a papercraft mockup of what the rumored 7.85-inch iPad Mini would look like… and you can even print it out and hold it in your hands yourself.
So will Apple really release an iPad mini? I seriously doubt it. There’s a perception that Apple needs to release a 7-inch tablet to compete with the Kindle Fire, but it’s not the 7-inches that makes the Kindle Fire popular. In fact, the 7-inch form factor is widely reviled by users and reviewers alike, proving the wisdom of Steve Jobs, who once said that 7-inch tablets were “tweeners” and Apple wouldn’t release one. All Apple really needs to do is come close to the Kindle Fire in price, and all Apple needs to do there is either figure out a way to subsidize the current iPad, or sell last year’s model at a much lower price, similar to how Apple offers the iPhone 3GS for free. Heck, even the analysts agree.
What do you think? Does Apple really need to release a 7.85-inch iPad mini?
John Brownlee is a writer for Fast Company, and a contributing writer here at CoM. He has also written for Wired, Playboy, Boing Boing, Popular Mechanics, VentureBeat, and Gizmodo. He lives in Boston with his wife and two parakeets. You can follow him here on Twitter.
27 responses to “Is This What Apple’s 7.85-Inch iPad Mini Would Look Like?”
Produced a mockup akin to just stretching down a normal iPad in photoshop?
hahaha exactly what i was thinking..
“will a 7.85 inch iPad look like a 10.1 inch iPad with a 7.85 inch screen” should be the title
The Kindle Fire is not popular because it’s seven inches; it’s popular because it’s $200.
I’d use a 15″ iPad but not a 7″ one.
Maybe a 7.85″ iPad could be too? Not so likely but it’d be cheaper.
Oh so their theory is that it would like a an iPad with a 7.85 inch screen? Interesting, definitely not what I would have guess…
That was sarcasm, just in case anyone would miss it.
Agreed. A 12 or 15 inch would work as a great laptop replacement.
Maybe Apple should do it if only to lock up the 7 inch screen suppliers. Hah!
Having said that, there are many people who would like this form factor because of book reading.
Go for it Apple
Surprising that one would need a picture to see what a smaller iPad would look like..
@readers:disqus my friend’s step-aunt makes $85 an hour on the laptop. last month her income was $7961 just working on the laptop for a few hours. Follow the instructions at Online Income Solution and set up your account… makecash1. com
I think they should make it either a 7.85 inch iPhone or a 5.675 inch iPhone with an edge-to-edge screen minus space needed for the external parts that go where they usually go.
Zoom.. Notice the difference in size of the icons.
I don’t hope that :\
There will be no iPad Mini. Probably ever, but certainly not in 2012. Apples product philosophy is not going to deviate from Jobs’s vision anytime soon, and he hated 7″ tablets.
It’s not necessary but I’d buy one…
WHY? why are people actually wasting their time writing blogs etc about this 7″ iPad……. it will not happy! it will NEVER happen, we all know this!!! Steve said it! Apple are to grown and spend TOO MUCH money some would say on developing and testing!
I normally just let the pointless post’s on this site slide without bothering too much but this 1 was just 1 too much!!!!!
It won’t happen, we all (well, us that actually know about apple and haven’t just jumped on the bandwagon since iOS devices have been released) know that Apple do not panda to what other companies do!
Apple innovate! they don’t follow the crowd! and they DONT COPY what little companies like Amazon do with their Kindle!
maybe the people that have time to write stuff about pointless products should maybe go over to cultofandroid!!!
it will not happy! lol xd and ye i don’t see this happening
I am absolutely blown away by this photo.
Who would have thought a smaller iPad would look like a smaller ipad.
it would be pretty cool i guess
The perfect phone size for me, would be between 5.5 inches and 6.5 inches. The same could be said for my entire family and several of my friends. That being said, if I gave these phones to a very good friend of mine and her family, oh dear god, these phones would be way to freaking big for them. 3.5 inches is like the largest they can handle. But, if you if you give their phones to my family, we simply could not use them, because they are way to freaking small.
The point being. There is not THE perfect size. 3.5″ is NOT the optimal size for a smartphone. I know tons of people who will laugh at that because 4.5″ (if not larger) is the optimal size for them!
Same is said with tablet’s. I have countless of people I know, where 7 inches is THE perfect size. why? They read a lot and a tablet that size is far easier to carry around than a big honking iPad. Some people I know, a tablet with a screen size between 11 and 13 inches is the perfect size!!!
The reason why Steve jobs said that 3.5″ is THE optimal size for smartphones and 4.3 inches is simply too big and that 7″ inch tablet is too small, and 9.7″ tablet is the perfect size is: Profit margins. He needed to have an excuse. That’s it. If Apple made tablets ranging from 6 inches to 13 inches, they could not make NEAR the amount of money they are making on each and every iPad now. Why? Because instead of having to make 1 tablet size, they would have to make like 5 or 6 different sizes. Same with the iPhone. It’s far, far, far cheaper to make 1 size than make 20 different sizes.
The thing is, one size dosen’t fit all. There are people where 7 inches is the best tablet size and others were 13 inches is the best tablet size. There are people where 3.5 inches is perfect for a phone and others who need 6 inches to be a perfect phone. Apple can make just one size, but they will be losing the optional costumers who want/need a smaller (or larger) device. There is a reason why HP, Dell, Samsung, Nokia (still?) are selling more devices than Apple. It’s because they have a huge verity of options. They have something for everyone. Apple dosen’t.
I would like a smaller tablet for travel….and a 17″ for home use. The current ipad is great for reading at home or business use.
You don’t know what you’re talking about. At all.
Apple’s design decisions are not driven by profit considerations.
They design products that FIT the user experience.
All else follows from that.
“They design products that FIT the user experience.”
If Apple, truly, deep down, cared about the user experience they would have made a verity of iPhones and iPads from the beginning. Because, they would have simply known that one size does NOT fit all. There are some people who want/need a phone with a 4 inch display. Or a phone with a 4.5 inch display and with some, 5.5 inches if not larger. They would have realized that some people want to have a 7 inch tablet. Some want a 8 or 9 inch tablet. Or even a 12 inch tablet. If they truly cared about the user experience, they would have offered a large selection of sizes to choose from.
Profit margins or user experience?
I know countless amounts of people who dropped the iPhone for a phone with a larger display. Reason was, the iPhone user experience was simply horrible. The user experience on a phone with a larger display is far better than what they were getting with the iPhone. That being said, you give those phones to some other people I know, and they simply could not use them because the phones are too large.
Same with tablets. Again, I know quite a few you have 7 inch tablets. Matter of fact, a few have a 7 inch tablet AND an iPad. The #1 reason why some have both a 7 inch tablet AND an iPad is because the iPad is way to big to carry around. And to read from. They (literally) leave their iPad at home and take the 7 inch tablet because it’s far more easier to carry around. And the reading experience is far better on a 7 inch tablet than a larger tablet.
Profit margins. That what it is all about. Apple simply cannot be rolling in the profits they are making now if they have a selection of iPhone or iPad sizes. It dosen’t deal with user experience! If it truly deals with user experience there will be a selection of iPhone, iPad sizes because one size does NOT fit all.
If Apple TRULY was designing products that FIT the user experience, there would have been a (semi) large selection of iPhones and iPads to choose from (size wise). But there is not.
I for one thought a smaller iPad would look larger than the iPad. I feel so dumb now.
Steve has repeatedly lied about not making something, only to have that something released a few months or a year later.
User experience isn’t just about size… The size of the iPhone is based on typical hand size… You can reach 99% of the surface area with one hand and your thumb… Any larger and you’d have to use two hands. So from a design stand point for usability, no need for a larger phone. Most people I know are happy with the current size form. The ones complaining just want something new, not necessarily bigger.
The iPad is great for casual reading of magazines and journals and large text books, gaming, emails, browsing, etc. but for extended periods of reading novels, can become quite heavy and tiring. I would like to see a LIGHT 7″ version of the iPad, the iPad Mini, for reading novels at a reasonable price. But Apple isn’t keenly interested in selling books which this size factor would be best for so we may never see this size form… Dell and HP are selling more devices than Apple? Tablets? Where do you get your info? PCs? We’re not talking about that here…Having too many products can confuse the consumer and thus sticking with just two colors for the iPhone and letting the multibillion dollar accessory market take over for creating colorful covers and periphs, Apple’s made the right decision including sticking with the same basic design of the iPhone 4 for the iPhone 4S. Redesigning, retooling, repackaging, etc. cost hundreds of thousands of dollars for a new form factor not just for the iPhone but for accessory manufacturers…McBoner
An interesting article about phone screen size:
http://gregstechblog.blogspot….
The ipod touch is being obsolete. It’s too similar to iphone. What’s the way to differentiate? Create ipad mini.. I think this perfectly make sense.