Apple's Jobs was open to making a smaller iPad: Executive

(REUTERS) - Steve Jobs was receptive to Apple Inc making a smaller tablet, a senior executive said in a 2011 email revealed on Friday, fanning speculation it plans to make a mini-iPad to take on cheaper gadgets from Google Inc and Amazon.

An Apple mini-version of the market-dominating 25.4cm iPad could counter increasing inroads made by tablets such as the Kindle Fire and Nexus 7. But the company has never confirmed the intensifying talk of such a launch.

Vice president Eddy Cue urged then-chief operating officer Tim Cook in January 2011 to build a 17.78cm tablet, according to an email from Mr Cue that Samsung Electronics presented as evidence in a United States (US) patent trial.

In an email addressed also to software chief Scott Forstall and marketing head Phil Schiller, Mr Cue said he believed there was a market for a 17.78cm tablet and that "we should do one".