There is a Difference Between 7 Inches and 10 Inches

Today’s big tablet news is the rollout of the Apple iPad Mini and all its related stuff. As always, we’ll be looking through the smoke and mirrors to help our clients understand just if, how, and where such a beast meshes (and does not mesh) with established enterprise usage, tasks, operations, budgets, providers, security, and more. In other words, we will help our clients understand the realities and the most-likely effects on who they are, what they do, and how they do it.

Based on the vast majority of business, trade, and analyst reports we read, a tablet is a tablet is a tablet.

Unless, of course, you actually buy, use, sell or develop for, tablets.

Anyone with experience in tablet usage reality knows that what works with and on one screen does not necessarily fit, work, or succeed on a larger or smaller screen size. This is basic Touch UI 101 stuff. A lot of things do work well, or even acceptably, on different sizes and shapes of screens. But not every screen, and not every form factor, can or should be seen as a 1-to-1 substitute or cost-effective replacement for any other. Not every tablet is a suitable replacement for any other tablet, regardless of size.

Yet, we continue to read and hear about how Apple is rolling out a 7-inch iPad to protect its tablet marketplace; how the Kindle Fire is threatening (or not) Apple’s tablet dominance, how smartphones are threatening to replace tablets, vice-versa, and so on.

It ain’t necessarily so. Just as there are opportunities for various size and formats of smartphones, there are tasks, places, environments and applications better suited for 7-inch or 10-inch (or other form-factor/size) tablets. And with the introduction and disruption of MSFT entering with a slightly different size and form-factor tablet series, there’s even more difference/distinction/delineation possible and likely.

Throwing all these into the same “Tablet” bucket ignores important context that directly shapes how the tablet is used and for what, by whom, where, and when.

What defines reality for any type of communications and computing device is combinations of operating system ecosystems and usage environments. Developers are best off focusing on suitability of their software to both these factors; IT buyers are best off setting these as core parameters for evaluation and purchase (and successful, low-cost IT orgs do just that).

Most tablet makers will offer broad lines of hardware; the most successful ones will guide their developer ecosystems into the most suitable use cases and markets. And we will start to see much more and more experience-based differentiation between smaller tablets and larger tablets. By YE 2014, we will see rapid and huge growth in industry- and task-specific tablets and apps as makers and sellers work to differentiate themselves.

The markets will have learned by then not every tablet is the same; not every touch-screen device is a substitute for another. Some stuff works well, or OK, in lots of environments. As with very other IT hardware ever developed, there will be improvements that help to blur the lines between tablets (and OSes).

But 7 inches will always be smaller than 10 inches. Each lends itself to different experiences, techniques, and outcomes. It’s time the market (and marketing) gurus learned this lesson.

Most research firms can explain what happened; some can explain what is happening. Saugatuck Technology excels at understanding both in order to explain what else is likely to occur, and to guide its clients toward the actions that deliver them the greatest business value while enabling the safest business path.
To accomplish this, and to continually improve the value of Saugatuck’s work to clients in a Cloud-obscured marketplace, Saugatuck SVP and Head of Research Bruce Guptill pushes his team to continually re-examine and re-invent the company’s research programs to focus more on the costs, benefits, effects, and value of an ever-changing mix of technologies and providers in different markets.
Guptill’s own technology and business background laid a solid foundation for such a flexible, yet stable, approach to IT research value for clients. His technology research work includes mobility, collaborative IT, telecom, data networking, web commerce, and electronic marketplaces; his research work for enterprise IT and business clients includes return on IT investment, total cost of IT ownership, and business planning for IT. His research and guidance on vendor channel management, market identification and development, and buyer behavior analysis has enabled hundreds of established and startup IT providers to find, enter, and profit from new and traditional markets, while helping to guide user enterprise leaders toward optimal IT procurement and vendor management.
Guptill’s research background includes several years as a VP and research director with Gartner, senior positions with TeleChoice and Robert Frances Group, and editorial work within the IDG companies, including four years as a writer and editor with NetworkWorld. His marketing business focus was honed as VP of marketing for firms ranging from custom development providers to non-IT firms in aviation and other industries. His sales and channel experience started by traveling with a sample bag, then working for IT VARs, then advising telecom and wireless carriers on partner choices, to developing partner programs for traditional and Cloud-based software development firms and ISVs.
Guptill holds an MBA in marketing and finance, and a BA in the psychology and business of mass media communication. He is licensed to fly airplanes, drive boats, and sell houses; he is also a certified baseball coach, serves on the boards of regional civic groups, and is a serial home renovator. Married with three children, Guptill resides on Cape Cod in southeastern Massachusetts, and is a lifelong fan of the Red Sox, Patriots, Celtics, and the University of Connecticut Huskies.

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