There has been much speculation about 7-inch iPad and despite the fact that the company's ex chief Steve Jobs had publicly ridiculed
7-inch form factor, the speculations have refused to fade and die. But it looks like that industry pundits are finally ready to accept their defeat and accept that probably there won't be any 7-inch iPad, at least not in 2012.
Research firm Wedge Partners has released a new report and has concluded that Apple is not planning to launch 7-inch tablet this year. The firm analysts Brian Blair wrote, "Jobs was emphatic in his view that 7-inch tablets were dead on arrival and we believe it would be unlikely to see the company test the waters in this category anytime soon.”
Apple's late co-founder Steve Jobs had famously trashed 7-inch tablets, saying, "We know developers aren’t going to deal well with these different sizes and they have to change their software every time the screen size changes. When we make decisions on 7-inch tablets it’s not about cost, it’s about the value of the product when you factor in the software.”
Wedge Partner also suggests that Apple is likely to continue manufacturing iPad 2, even after the introduction of iPad 3. However, in such a case iPad 2's price may be dropped to $349 to $399 range. This move will help Apple in catering to price sensitive market segment. This view point has already been corroborated by other research firm Piper Jaffray.
Though iPad 3 may not arrive in fun size pack, but it is expected to come with several modifications. iPad is likely to sport higher resolution. It is also likely to have faster process. Some rumors also suggest that Apple may extend its voice controlled personal assistance software Siri to iPad.