[officemonkey]

Jobs used to disparage a product line while secretly working on a superior product. Anyone remember 2009 and netbooks? Jobs dissed them the entire time Apple was working on the iPad.

The "sandpapered fingers" bit was just Jobs saying "small tablets are junk. We're working on the problems so our product won't be junk."

[nchlswu]

I'm being pedantic, but wouldn't the Air be a more appropriate netbook comparison?

As for the sandpapered finger thing, I imagine that you're right, but at the time, I wouldn't necessarily think the sandpapered fingers comment was just blowing smoke.

I'd guess that Jobs was simply conveying his findings at the time. Obviously, this is purely speculation, but the in years leading up to the iPhone and iPad touchscreens and software weren't that great and users weren't familiar with them either. I'd wager that the testing that went into touch-target optimization led to results that made Apple/Jobs uncomfortable with releasing a 7-inch.

[officemonkey]

>I'm being pedantic, but wouldn't the Air be a more appropriate netbook comparison?

The Air predates the brief netbook craze. The netbook was supposed to be the cheap computer you can take everywhere. People were surfing the net from their couch, using it on long commutes, and bringing them everywhere. The iPad pretty much killed the nascent netbook market.

The Mac Air took a couple iterations to get popular, but it's now cannibalizing the college kid/small business person's laptop. The Air might be as light as a netbook, but it's not a cheap compromise, like the netbooks were.

[huggyface]

I'd guess that Jobs was simply conveying his findings at the time

Apple had itself pretty tied up with two form factors, with no near term hopes of coming out with a form factor between the two. Jobs was simply trying to undermine Samsung's efforts (though Android succeeded in doing that for him). Seriously, if 7" doesn't make sense for a touchscreen interface, how could a 3.5" screen possibly make sense? Only in Apple world is a 7" tablet simply a 10" shrunken.

[huggyface]

Jobs was specifically criticizing the size and not a specific implementation. Even Apple apologists hold them as realizing it was an important market some time later.