OK…so not all tech journalists made it successfully through geometry. According to the Apple website, the iPhone display is 4.5” x 2.4”, which is a screen area of 10.8 sq in.  The iPad display is 9.56” x 7.47”, for a total screen area of 71.41 sq in.  The ratio of screen real estate between the iPad and the iPhone is 6.61.  So, 5 times the cost for 6.61 times the screen area seems like a good deal to me. 

I think you need to account for the bezel on the ipad. The size of the ipad is what you quoted, not the actual screen size

Does this indicate that iPad pre-orders and reservations are going so well that Apple wants 3 million more iPads than originally planned? Anyone know how many were built initially?

Simple a^2 + b^2 = c^2, therefore 9.56^2 + 7.47^2 = 147.1945
So the actual size of the ipad diagonally is 12.132 inches (approx.)

The ipad screen is 9.7 inches diagonally.

OK…so not all tech journalists made it successfully through geometry…

As I’ve always said, there are three kinds of people in the world: those who are good with numbers, and those who aren’t.

9.7 inches at a 4:3 ration would be 5.9 x 7.8 inches, for 46 square inches. The iPhone screen is 2.9 x 1.9 inches (3:2 ratio), for 5.6 square inches. So, the iPad screen is about 8.2 times bigger. It’s resolution, incidentally, is 5.1 times greater.

this thread is hilarious

The 9.7-inch display is more than twice the size of the iPhone 3GS screen and costs five times as much.

Despite all the banterings of the math geniuses in the comments, the quote from the article is still technically accurate.