NY Times: Apple Developing Smaller iPad

Apple is developing a smaller iPad.

According to The New York Times, the company is planning a new tablet with a 7.85-inch screen at a lower price than its current iPad, which has a 9.7-inch display, in order to compete with the latest offerings from Google (Nexus 7), Amazon (Kindle Fire), and Microsoft (Surface).  The article, which cites unnamed sources, says the new tablet will be available later this year.

Here’s why Apple should consider going in the other direction – and build a bigger tablet.

If Apple wants to build a better iPad for the business market, it should go bigger, way bigger.  A larger iPad would make it easier to work with documents, and associates everywhere would rejoice. How much bigger? Maybe a screen as large as a yellow legal pad.

True, it’s not as if the latest offering with its retina display is lacking.

At its current size, the 9.7-inch iPad is perfectly suitable for reviewing documents. As New Orleans attorney Jeff Richardson has written about the popular GoodReader app:

[W]here GoodReader really shines is in reading and manipulating PDF files.  GoodReader is one of the fastest PDF viewers on the iPad, so it is easy to swipe back and forth to read a case, a pleading, etc.  You can even just tap on the right side of any page to advance, tap on the left side of the page to go back.

But a smaller screen would make document review nearly impossible, while a larger screen would ease the strain of pinching and zooming to read the miniature text of the latest court opinion.

Perhaps Apple will consider two sizes, a smaller version for consumers and a larger version for businesses.

A smaller, less expensive iPad would be fine for weekend reading and occasional web browsing. A larger iPad would be tailor-made for attorneys and other professionals who review, organize and annotate documents away from the office.

Or maybe it’s a moot point and Google Glasses will help us all read the tiny print on the page.