7-inch it is — Right sizing the tablet!

Ever since Apple launched iPad everybody wants to know what will happen to it. Many were just waiting for the trend to evolve.  Millions of  iPads were sold since its launch and a new category is born – tablet PC. Tablet PC will be a $40bn business in 2011. It is hard to ignore that big a business and it becomes important to analyze the trends in the Tablet PC market.

The most important feature of the Tablet PC is the form factor. What size should it be and what size is the right size. The screen size measured diagonally plays a very important factor in look, feel and usability. Apple’s iPad is launched with a screen size of 9.7 inches. There are speculations abound that Apple has tried and tested every conceivable size in its labs to finally arrive at 9.7 inch. Though true, Apple cannot decide the size for the consumers. It can only suggest. Other manufacturers who are waiting in the wings to see the iPad market take-off has announced several tablet models. There are close to 100 different models, either launched or to be launched in the market.

An interesting trend has emerged from the analysis of 42 tablets. 50% of the launched and upcoming tablets have a screen size of 7-inch. 38% of the models have a screen size between 9 – 11 inches (including iPad).  7% or 3 tablets have screen size between 11 – 12 inches. 2 tablets  – Dell Streak and Sharp Galapagos – have a screen size between 5 – 5.5 inches.

A little caveat here. Most of the 42 tablets analyzed are yet to be launched. The specs were taken either from the manufacturer website or other tech blogs. The final product specs can vary and sometimes the products might never be launched. That shouldn’t take away anything from the trend though. In 2 years, all the tablet manufacturers will have all sizes and shapes available. We just have to look at the largest selling screen size and what the highly adaptable humans can adapt to.

Here’s how the tablet screen sizes are faring so far :

Tablets which are part of this analysis :  Notion Ink Adam, Olive Telecom Olivepad, Samsung Galaxy Tab, Binatone HomeSurf, Cherrypad , AT &T Tablet, Cisco Tablet, Apple iPad, ZTE Light ,Infibeam Phi , RIM Playbook ,Toshiba Folio 100, Sharp Galapagos (2 models), Asus Ee Pad, Asus Ee Pad, AlessiTab, LuvPad, WeTab, Onkyo tablet, Viewsonic Viewpad 7, E-Noa Interpad, Archos 101 (4 models, Velocity Micro Cruz Tablet, HP Zeen C510, CSL DroidPad Spice Mi700, Best Buy Rocketfish, Hannspree , Viewpad G, Viliv X10, Pandawill GPad G10, ICD Vega, Camangi Webstation, Compal Tablet, Elocity A7, Foxconn Tablet, MSI Tablet and Dell Streak.

It would take 6 more months for these tablets to be launched. After which definite trends will emerge. From the data we have so far, 7-inch screen is going mainstream.