[Robo]

I'm sorry. I'm probably a little more tightly wound than usual, right now. We cool?

Originally Posted by pscates2.0 Keeping that resolution of the iPad 2 changes very little in usability

My hunch would be to disagree, especially for typing.

Originally Posted by pscates And smallness/lightness obviously does count for something to many because I think that 11" Air is doing really, really well.

Nobody's saying that smallness/lightness doesn't "count for something." I love compact electronics!

The question is compromise. The 11" Air features comparatively few compromises to the 13" model. The keyboard is still the same. The screen is smaller, but on OS X you can stack windows. And it's not like everything on the screen is just smaller — it's a different resolution.

I don't think roughly halving the screen area on the iPad is comparable. I think it'd be too small to touch type on but too large to thumb type on, like the portrait keyboard on the current iPad. Existing apps that were just shrunk down would have smaller buttons. I think it would be too many compromises.

After all — trying my own hand at argument ad absurdum — if smallness/lightness is all that matters, why shouldn't Apple introduce a 7.85" iPad and a 6" iPad? Those 6" Kindles are popular! And it'd be so much smaller and lighter! But of course, the amount of compromises to get there does matter, and for the 7" iPad I just think it'd be too much. Just MHO.

Originally Posted by pscates Steve didn't want it, true. But he's not around anymore.

I don't think anyone's said that the only reason Apple should make a 7" iPad is because Steve didn't want it.