With the industry revving its engines for the third and fourth quarter, the iPad rumor mill has also begun to pick up with reports of a smaller 7-inch iPad.
At this point, the reports (like most things Apple) are unconfirmed rumors, flowing from Taiwan where most gadgets are built, if not designed. Last week, DigiTimes' in-house analyst team predicted that Apple was prepping two iPad revisions: an upgraded 9.7-inch iPad, with a new ARM Cortex-A9-based processor and 512MB RAM, plus a 7-inch iPad using the Cortex-A9 processor and an IPS panel with a resolution of 1024×768. The current iPad uses a 9.7-inch display.
DigiTimes pegged the 9-inch iPad launch for the first quarter of 2011, with no time given for the 7-inch model.
Although the DigiTimes report seemed to be informed speculation, Taiwan's Economic Daily News has also weighed in, claiming that the 7-inch iPad is also real. Unfortunately, the Chinese-language paper is not viewable on the Web, at least in English; PC World's Dan Nystedt reported that the paper confirmed the previous DigiTimes report.
One of the iPad's chief criticisms is that it is not much more than a larger iPod touch, a criticism that has been dispelled by Apple's most recent sales figures. A smaller iPad would most likely not dramatically improve the portability of the device, as it's still larger than a pocket. But a 7-inch iPad would be on par with the Barnes & Noble Nook and slightly larger than the redesigned Amazon Kindle, which includes ts traditional 6-inch display but a smaller border.