Most of the Android Tablets introduced recently are 10.1" to directly compete with Apple's ubiquitous 9.7” iPad. The fact that most of them have failed to gain widespread acceptance has confounded tablet makers.
Enter Amazon. Their new Color Kindle will sport a 7" screen and is clearly targeted at Barnes & Noble's popular Nook tablet. It will reportedly run a custom-skinned older version of Android 2 and will serve up books, movies and music. The 7" form factor was popular before Honeycomb and Tegra 2 machines were introduced, primarily because they could run Android phone OSes like Eclair and Froyo. The smaller size makes 7" tablets more portable--even pocketable--and easy to hold in one hand. Many large tablets are homebound due to their size, bulk and awkwardness.
Google officially frowned on the smaller tablets and encouraged licensees to wait for Honeycomb and the big screens. As a result, there are only a handful of mainstream 7" tablets out there: the Galaxy Tab, B&N Nook, The Dell Streak and the HTC Flyer. While it has been form factor that has been largely ignored by major manufacturers, cheap, 7” Chinese tablets abound, rebadged by companies like Coby and Archos/Arnova.
Can 7” tablets catch on? Samsung recently demonstrated a 7.7” tablet in Germany, but it is unclear whether it will ever be introduced in the US due to Apple’s patent infringement crusade. Since Steve Jobs has boldly declared that Apple will never make a 7” tablet, it is one form factor that Android could truly dominate.
