Tim Cook defends iPad mini and reiterates that Apple "would never make a 7" tablet"

When the iPad Mini was announced, Apple haters everywhere started tossing around the quote from Steve Jobs saying that Apple would never make a 7" tablet. Well, Tim Cook has decided to address those complaints, and reiterate that Apple will "never make a 7" tablet". 

We know, it's a bit confusing. Here's the direct quote from Cook:

The comments that I think you're referencing are comments that Steve had made before about seven inch tablets. And, let me be clear, we would not make one of the seven inch tablets. We don't think they're good products, and we would never make one. Not just because it's seven inches, but for many reasons. One of the reasons, however, is size... the difference between just the real estate size between the 7.9... versus 7 is 35 percent. And when you look at the usable area it's much greater than that... The iPad mini is a fantastic product. It is not a compromised product like the seven inch tablets. It's in a whole different league.

So, apparently, it's just that extra .9" that makes all of the difference between a "compromised product" and a "fantastic product". Cook also went on to call the Microsoft Surface a "compromised product". We can't say that we agree as far as the 7" tablets are concerned, but it certainly fits well into Apple's marketing campaign. And really, that's all this is. Tim Cook and Apple don't want to make Steve Jobs sound like a liar, and the company wants to sell iPads. If Apple can take a jab at the competition in the process, it will obviously do just that. It's not like Samsung pulls its punches against Apple. 

While the claims of the size difference are debatable, Tim Cook does go on to make a good point that because the iPad mini has the same resolution as the iPad 2 (which is another point of contention for those who don't particularly like Apple), the tablet can use all of the hundreds of thousands of iPad apps without any troubles. This is definitely a good thing, especially because it doesn't leave the onus on developers to update apps again after having to update for the iPhone 5.