One more secret document became public today form the ongoing battle in court between two smartphone makers, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (LON:BC94). An internal email containing discussions by Apple’s top executives for a smaller version of the iPad was released today in the court.
This fact came up during the short cross-examination of Scott Forstall, Apple’s head of iOS software. But the short cross-examination, revealed enough to get the attention of the whole world. The revelation was in complete contrast to the comments by late Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) co-founder Steve Jobs’, who was against the idea of a smaller version of iPad, in 2010 his reply to the smaller version of iPad was, “The reason we [won’t] make a 7-inch tablet isn’t because we don’t want to hit that price point, it’s because we think the screen is too small to express the software. As a software driven company we think about the software strategies first.” He went on to say the 7-inch form factor “isn’t sufficient to create great tablet apps.” But an email between Eddy Cue, head of Apple’s Internet software and services, and top executives including, current Apple CEO Tim Cook, iOS software chief Scott Forstall, and marketing chief Phil Schiller, suggests otherwise:
The email dates back to January 2011 read, “Having used a Samsung Galaxy, I tend to agree with many of the comments below (except moving off the iPad). I believe there will be a 7″ market and we should do one. I expressed this to Steve several times since Thanksgiving and he seemed very receptive the last time. I found email, books, facebook and video very compelling on a 7″. Web browsing is definitely the weakest point, but still usable.”
From the email Samsung is trying to score over Apple with the point that Apple takes clues from the products of its competitors.
This piece of evidence clearly suggests that Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) which does not have a 7-inch version of the iPad, had top executive interested in making one.
