During yesterday’s Q4 earnings call, Steve Jobs didn’t hold back when commenting on Google, Android and RIM. Another subject to feel the wrath of Jobs was the iPad’s competition – namely the current crop of 7″ tablets being announced and released. Jobs’ verdict? They’re just too small.

But Apple’s talismanic CEO and co-founder didn’t stop there. Jobs claims that upcoming 7″ tablets will be ‘dead on arrival’ and are just too small – around 45% of the iPad’s 9.7″ screen size. Jobs goes on, saying that Apple believes that if a touch interface is to work in tablet form (obviously iPhones are a different matter) then anything smaller than an iPad causes various UI elements to be too close together, causing issues with touch recognition and responsiveness. Now I’m no engineer, so I’m going to have to stake his Steve-liness’ word on that.

Steve-o even goes so far as to say that all competitors putting out 7″ tablets should also include a sheet of sand-paper. Why? Well, to file down your fingers of course.

The upshot of all this is, we can finally put all the rumours of a 7-inch iPad to bed, which is surely a good thing!

[via Engadget]