Apple's 2012 iPad strategy apparently doesn't include the long-rumored 7-inch model, according to the latest insight from analyst Brian Blair with Wedge Partners. On Friday, Blair revealed that the "iPad mini" remains a mythical idea largely invented by the rumor mill. Blair tells investors that there is no credible evidence or supply-chain chatter to suggest that such a product from Apple will soon arrive.
"Jobs was emphatic in his view that 7-inch tablets were dead on arrival," Blair says, harkening back to the famous comments made by Steve Jobs during a 2010 Apple earnings call. “One naturally thinks that a 7-inch screen would offer 70 per cent of the benefits of a 10-inch screen,” the late Apple CEO said last year. “Unfortunately, this is far from the truth. … The reason we [won't] make a 7-inch tablet isn’t because we don’t want to hit [a lower] price point, it’s because we think the screen is too small to express the software. As a software driven company, we think about the software strategies first.”
In short, Blair says, Apple may have tinkered with the idea in the lab, but we “don’t expect a 7-incher. While we believe Apple has tested 7-inch screen prototypes for over a year, we don’t currently expect the company to release anything in the 7-inch size in 2012.”
On the other hand, Blair thinks Apple will release the iPad 3 early n 2012 and then significantly cut the price of second generation iPads. “We believe Apple is highly likely to keep the iPad 2 on the production line after the launch of iPad 3 and offer it at a lower price point in an effort to address demand at the mid-tier, what we view as the $249 to $499 range. We believe iPad 2′s price could drop to the $349 to $399 range with Apple offering a single 16GB model.”
Source: All Things Digital
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