It was a real surprise when Steve Jobs appeared at the financial results conference call for Apple's Q4 2010 results. He commented some topics, including launch of rumored 7-inch iPad. Jobs criticized such size, saying that it was too small:

7" screen is only 45% as large as iPad's screen. Hold an iPad in portrait view and draw a horizontal line halfway down. What's left is a 7" screen...too small. There are clear limits to how close elements can be on the screen before users can't touch accurately. We believe 10-inch screen is minimum necessary.

So Apple’s CEO kills all rumors that Apple is going to launch new 7-inch iPad.