“I’m going to wait for Apple to release a smaller version of the iPad, then I’ll buy one”. I hear this a lot from people who feel that a smaller size would be better for reading eBooks and keeping things organized. Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO and Co-Founder, must hear this a lot as well as he has made it vehemently clear that Apple will never, ever make a smaller iPad. Despite a number of smaller tablets due to arrive from Samsung and BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion, both being well-received and expected to be quite successful, he feels strongly that a smaller size won’t work and predicts such smaller tablets will be “dead on arrival”. I’ve now had enough time with the 7” Samsung Galaxy Tab to say that he is completely and utterly wrong.

Jobs made his comments during a recent earnings conference, in which he was speaking about Apple’s financials with reporters who took the opportunity to poke him repeatedly about the iPad’s upcoming competition. While the iPad has a 9.7” screen, Samsung and RIM’s devices have opted for a smaller 7” screen and so the question being wondered aloud is if these companies have hit upon something that Apple overlooked. “(seven inches) is useless unless you include sandpaper” Jobs responded, “so users can sand their fingers down to a quarter of their size”.

At the time his comment seemed silly. If touchscreen controls work well on the iPhone’s 3.5” screen, why would 7” be too small?

Samsung Galaxy Tab 

Yesterday I spent some time trying out the latest prototype model of the Samsung Galaxy Tab. The 7” tablet is due to launch in Canada in mid-November through both Rogers and Bell. It uses Google’s Android operating system and, no shock, the touchscreen controls work just fine. The more I played around with the tablet, the more I began to notice a few difference and have come to realize that Steve Jobs is both right and wrong.

Apple can’t make a 7” iPad, but then Samsung can’t make a 9.7” Galaxy Tab either. The two products are both very different approaches to the same idea.

The Modern Tablet

Although tablet computers have been around for a decade, the new generation of tablets are based on a different idea. From Apple to Samsung to Research In Motion, the process is about taking a universe that was created specifically for smartphones and bringing it to a larger screen to explore what new possibilities are available.

There’s a problem, however, that occurs when you make something bigger. At a certain point it starts to fall apart. If you take a touchscreen menu system and then double or triple its size, you run the risk of losing its proportions, of the spacial relationship that is carefully measured between swipes and gestures and the organization of menu systems and icons.

Apple Gets Ambitious

With the iPad Apple decided they did not want to merely make a bigger iPhone so they purposely enlarged their mobile universe until it broke. Taking their software up to the point of being three times in size meant that it would no longer work as well and so they spent years recreating it, tweaking it, and tailoring it towards a larger sense of space. They wanted to be ambitious, they wanted to aim for a product that would open up a new sense of screen space and therefore allow for innovation.

Apple's iPad, large enough to display information in new ways 

The iPad has many familiar applications, but through split-screen modes and pop-up menus they each feel different in us, they have been laid out or organized in a different way and many app creators have followed suit.

The problem for Apple is that their iPad experienced is tailored for that size, if they were to scale it down the split-screen modes and organizational changes they’ve made would become awkward. Apple could simply load a smaller iPad with the iPhone’s software instead, but then it wouldn’t be an iPad, it would merely be a bigger iPhone and that’s not what they wanted to do.

Samsung Gets Crafty

Samsung is in a tough place. They’ve had to react to the success of the iPad and so do not have the years to invest in customizing Google’s software to match the iPad’s 9.7” size. They need to have a tablet on the market now, not later. Their solution has been to do what Apple would not. The Samsung Galaxy Tab is literally a bigger version of Samsung’s Galaxy Vibrant. The interface, menu, and organization of features are identical. I had both devices in my hand for a side-by-side comparison and missing are all the little tailoring tweaks Apple has done with their products. Samsung’s is just a straight transfer of concept from a smaller device to a bigger one.

Samsung Galaxy Tab, a smartphone at twice the size offers new uses 

At three times the size of a smartphone, Google’s Android software wouldn’t work as well for a touch device, but two times is just fine. Some polish on the graphics and it works really well.

While Apple is using size to discover new features and functionality, Samsung’s approach let’s them use size to find new uses for existing smartphone features. They both offer interesting uses and I feel we will see people use both tablets in very different ways.

Attack Of The Smaller Tablets

It seemed odd to have so many companies eager to follow the iPad as a trend, have not copied it in size. Everyone is aiming for a smaller screen, a smaller form factor, and now I feel I understand why. While simply transferring over their smartphone platforms over to 7” or 8” screen will allow these companies to respond to Apple and put a viable product on the market, over time Apple’s more ambitious approach may be lead to new innovations that the others won’t be able to match and so the catch-up game will start all over again.