Steve Jobs: No smaller iPad on the way

Hoping to eventually get a pocket-sized iPad before long? Well don’t hold your breath just yet; Apple head-honcho Steve Jobs has all but ruled out the possibility of smaller tablet devices coming out of the Cupertino stable.

Speaking of the iPad’s domination at a recent company earnings call, Jobs dispelled rumours that a 7 inch iPad could be on the cards.

“This size isn’t sufficient to create great tablet apps”, said Jobs, “10-inches is the minimum tablet size”.

In a humourous knock at 7 inch devices such as the Samsung Galaxy Tab, he joked that smaller tablets would have to ship with “sandpaper to sand down [user’s] fingers to use the screen”.

“7-inch tablets are tweeners; too big to compete against a smartphone, and too small to compete with the iPad,” he continued, and also had some sharp words for tablets based on Android version 2.2.

“Even Google is telling tablet companies to wait for a new release of Android next year. What does it mean when the software supplier says not to use software for tablets, and what does this mean when you ignore them and use it anyway?”

Does Jobs have a point? 7 inch tablets do tread a blurred line between phones and slate devices, in a no-mans land that perhaps doesn’t need to be traverssed. The point about Froyo tablets is apt too, with Google themselves urging manufacturers to wait for their Gingerbread release.

Or perhaps, with the imminent release of the Samsung Galaxy Tab and a whole raft of other Android devices, Jobs is starting to feel the pressure of competition breathing down his neck and is on the defensive.

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