subject: whether Apple"s iOS or HP"s webOS 2.0— the device itself had better be properly pocketable [print this page] whether Apple"s iOS or HP"s webOS 2.0 the device itself had better be properly pocketable
if your correspondent is to accept the limitations of a dumbed-down computer based on a mobile-phone operating systemwhether Apple"s iOS, Google"s Android, Microsoft"s Windows Phone 7 or HP"s webOS 2.0then the device itself had better be properly pocketable. In other words, no more than five inches wide. At two-thirds the width of an iPad, such a device could be carried in a jacket pocket with little difficulty. A form factor that size (say, 4.8 inches by 7.5 inches) would provide more than enough room for a screen measuring seven inches along a diagonal. That, in fact, is precisely the screen size most of the computer and mobile-phone makers rushing out tablet PCs (including Acer, Asustek, Cisco, Dell, HTC, Motorola, Research In Motion and Samsung) have focused on. Earlier this week, Apple"s combative boss, Steve Jobs, heaped Acer as07b41 batteryridicule on all the seven-inch tablets poised to enter the market for being both too big and too small (the iPad has a 9.7-inch screen). "Seven-inch tablets are tweeners: too big to compete with a smart phone and too small to compete with the iPad," he told investors at Apple"s quarterly meeting on October 18th. "The current crop of seven-inch tablets are going to be dead on arrival."
Perhaps more than anything, Mr Jobs"s sarcasm reveals how concerned he really is about both the coming avalanche of seven-inch tablets and the 3.0 version (Gingerbread) of the Android operating system that most of them will sport. He swears that Apple never had a seven-inch iPad in the works. If it didas component suppliers in Taiwan insistyou can see why Mr Jobs would want to bury it, at least for the time being. The iPad may not have been the blockbuster product market watchers had Acer aspire 5100 batteryanticipated. Even so, an impressive 7.5m units have been bought since it was launched five months ago. Introducing a smaller, cheaper version at this stage would only cannibalise existing iPad sales. At the moment, Apple"s profit margins on the iPad, especially the more expensive models, are truly humongous.
Besides, it has been difficult enough getting "apps" for the iPhone rewritten so they can work properly on the iPad"s much larger screen. Introducing yet another screen size would mean that three versions of iOS, Apple"s mobile operating system, would then be in circulation, each with its own developer needs. Mr Jobs has savaged Android, the iPhone"s nemesis, for fragmenting into multiple versions, as Dell inspiron 1520 batteryeach phone maker adopting Google"s open operating system has implemented a different set of features to differentiate its products. Writing apps like the Twitter client (TweetDeck) for Android phones, Mr Jobs insisted earlier this week, "presents developers with a daunting challenge." Not so, TweetDeck"s chief executive fired back. Apparently, TweetDeck needed only two programmers to do the entire job.
