Like you suggest, I'm sure Jobs had a hand in the current lineup, he's admitted to have tested out tablet prototypes of varying sizes. But for a guy who's always loved playing hard to get, the mini release didn't feel very Jobsy. He liked watching the competition struggle for a bit, then swoop in at the 11th hour with the perfect solution so we can all go "ooh" and "aah."

The iPad mini was defense. So I credit Cook with the speed of timing more than anything. Zero games. We asked for it, we got it. When has that ever happened in Apple's history?