So Rupert Murdoch made a comment on Fox Business News that there would be larger form-factor iPads. Or did he? Specifically, he said the iPad was “Pretty small to start with” but that there would “be more iPads” and other readers from competitors. In context, listening to the words, I’d think that he was talking more about the size of the market or impact of the iPad than the size of the device itself.
However, when talking about the iPad being small, he’s making hand gestures distinctly indicating the physical size of the device.
Interesting aside: he also said that “All media is going to go onto the iPad.” Not unexpected of course, but nice to hear from perhaps the largest media kingpin on earth.
Re: the size, this is interesting on a number of fronts:
1) He’s one of the few people outside Apple in a position to know. Not saying he knows, but if anyone would, it’d be someone like him.
2) He’s one of the few people who could understandably speak with impunity, NDA’s be damned. I mean seriously, what’s SJ going to do, put Rupert Murdoch in the penalty box? I don’t think so. Also, he said nothing that couldn’t be passed off simply as speculation over what some feel is obvious.
3) If true it makes Apple’s push for resolution independence all the more pertinent. Drawing vectors to points rather than dictating pixel/point size will allow Apple to release larger screen iPads, not to mention a higher resolution iPhone.
So assuming this is true……..I’m of two minds. On the one hand, sure, more screen real estate is always better within reason. But on the other hand every inch of screen size added means a decrease in portability or convenience in the form factor. Imagine a 15″ or 17″ iPad (just grab hold of the screen of your MBP and you’ve got it). Perfectly fine in a stand. In your hands…maybe a bit unwieldy.
Looking (much) further down the road, I think this also points toward increasing ubiquity of cloud storage and syncing. I’d love to have a 15″ or 17″ iPad on my desk, but a 10″ for the road, both of which were always perfectly in sync…
The iPad Alone 
He’s just rallying for a screen large enough to fit his Rush Limbaugh pictorial tribute
😀 For a minute I thought you were going to make a joke about his eyesight!
Eyesight…foresight. Neither one of them work.
On a side note, I’m not sure how I feel about a bigger ipad until I get my hands on the thing and really use it in the real world.
Can you imagine that an estimated 100,000 people bought something they have never seen or touched? genius!
Genius indeed…
Here’s where we are headed, my brothers:
http://www.techiecore.com/iboard-and-imat-after-iphone-and-ipad/
Believing is seeing.
🙂
I love this idea – the mobile iPad and the larger iPad for the desk that syncs and has a potential to run even more full desktop class software/OS
Regarding size, the iPad is different than we have thought of before. This is what I am considering. When I use my iPhone to interact with my home computer, which has dual monitors, my iPhone is not the same size or resolution, but still it operates as though it was. The down side is all the finger movments to look at everything. Move to the next generation, bigger screen space, same concept. Again I will see my two screens on my iPad, but since it’s about the size of my hand, maybe a little larger, maybe it’s a more “ideal” viewing size. Like the DaVinci’s Vitruvian Man, there are ratios of people that we all find more “attractive” because of something in our brain. Some are less attractive. Still they may have other features that are not seen that are attractive. imagine the iPhone as attractive in it’s own way, yet still not ideal. Imagine if the iPad was ideal or closer to ideal. Wil our brain like it more? So to conclude, the iPads size can not be compared to conventional screen size, because the interface is different. Yet again let me take one more step with you since you’ve read this far. Imagine that for now, the iPad is more suited for this interaction, yet the iPhone, or even a smaller version is ideal for the sixth sense type of interaction (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzKmGTVmqJs) So size is relative to the interaction that your working with. Even as da Vinci would say, man and woman must match in proportion to be in harmony. When his size is too big the harmany is gone. I think I have made my point, but I would like to know what you think about this concept.
Thanks for posting. I’m a big believer in the Golden Ratio (an easy Google). The funny part about it is that quite often we put or draw things in these exact proportions without intending to, simply because it “just looks right that way.” Architects, designers and planners are well aware or this ratio and others – and whether they ‘slave’ to those or not, I do believe there is truth in the idea that certain proportions are simply more pleasing to the eye than are others.
What is also interesting to me is the way ‘what is pleasing’ can change over long periods of time. I’m thinking specifically about ‘the ideal woman’ as depicted in art. It doesn’t take an art historian to see the quite-different shapes of women depicted in art as ‘beautiful’ over time. Imagine showing Raphael a picture of Twiggy 🙂
I wonder how those changing perception do (or don’t) play into those constant and otherwise ‘ideal’ ratios.
Yes, I’m sure there will be larger sizes and I expect far more than that in the near future. My long-term prediction for the iPad…
All the deficiencies of the iPad that all these imagination-challenged pundits are whining about were all purposefully chosen to achieve that $499 base price. Apple wants it to be as cheap as possible so it will quickly become a ubiquitous media consumption device. Techno-Geek pundits are great at tech-spec evaluation, but they don’t seem to know much about marketing and business “strategery.”
Don’t think for a minute that Apple hasn’t thought about a future “Cadillac” version of the iPad. Imagine the powerful features a $1,500 or $2,000 iPad would have. But, you might argue that Apple wouldn’t do that because that would compete with its laptop line, and rightly so…TODAY…which leads me to…
My Prediction: People are gonna find the multi-touch interface and the larger screen size so compelling and software developers are gonna make the iPad sing and dance in ways that Apple never thunk-of, that it’s gonna REPLACE the oh-so-quaintly-20th-century keyboard-and-screen laptop design within a few years. iPhone users will already be hip to this interface and new generations will not even think a virtual keyboard is a down-grade from a “real” keyboard. I’ve seen kids typing on their iPhone virtual keyboard while barely looking at it.
Sure, Apple will keep the old-school laptops around for a while, until enough of us physical-keyboard-dependant geezers die off, but the future is in multi-touch and OTHER ways to interface with our computing devices that we haven’t even thought of yet.
Thanks for posting Chris. I’m 100% in agreement with you. In one of my early posts I speculated about a convergence on both the hardware and software sides of the equation.
The software side: iOS and Mac OSX literally become one and the same. Apple has continued to hone the size of the OS and native apps (that’s what Snow Leopard was really all about). That trend continues – smaller, more efficient code. And another trend emerges: increasing amounts of touch-based UI elements embedded in Mac OSX. Simultaneously, iOS gets more and more robust (simple but powerful tools for file storage and management, simple but powerful multi-tasking, etc. Sooner or later, Mac OSX and iOS become the same thing.
The hardware side: exactly as you’ve outlined. OLED screens, carbon shells, larger screens, higher price points, etc. “Laptops” as we know them effectively go away but for the very few (as have gone desktops…) and/or develop exotic form-factors: detachable screens, crazy foldups, etc.
All very exciting. And I love your comment about “technology-challenged pundits” – spot on. They love to look at spec sheets, and have zero ability to understand the distinction between a feature and a benefit. Or, between features and a polished overall user experience. Their collective inability to see where this is all headed is mindboggling, particularly as they’re supposed to be the smart ones 😉