When the Apple tablet comes out, are you in?
The gadget industry is waiting in suspense, wondering if you're going to buy an Apple tablet. Because if you do, they're going to flip the production line's on switch.
The ultrathin MacBook Air exudes some of the aspects of an expected Apple tablet, according to one analyst.
(Credit: Apple)Apple has a knack for creating new categories of devices. The iPhone arguably created the high-end smartphone segment and the design was parroted by dozens of device makers and carriers. The MacBook Air inspired the ultrathin laptop category.
The expected--and highly anticipated--Apple tablet would do the same. Manufacturing companies in Asia are eager to find a new category of devices to fill up their factories, according to an analyst I spoke with recently who monitors these things.
I will make an exception--which I almost never do--and not identify the analyst. He claims to have seen a prototype of the Apple tablet and would prefer not to be identified. (Yeah, I know, more than a few analysts claim they have seen the furtive device. But I will go out on a limb and say I trust him. He claims the MacBook Air has some of the aesthetic qualities of the tablet.)
The point is that many Asia-based manufacturers would be quite pleased if the Apple tablet was a success and, as a result, ushered in a new device category. Needless to say, companies like Dell, Sony, and Acer would quickly follow suit if consumers started snapping up boatloads of Apple tablets.
But Apple will stay above the fray, according to this analyst, offering a device that's very thin, light--and expensive. In other words, don't expect Apple to bring out a $199 tablet, as you may see from other companies that market a media pad-type device. Apple won't be bashful about charging more than $500.
Competing devices will vary widely. My prediction is that the market outside of an Apple-branded tablet will not be a Windows-Intel enclave. Like cell phones and media players, many tablet devices will likely be offered by carriers and device makers using the ubiquitous ARM processor that runs operating systems like Google's Android or the upcoming Chrome OS.
Why ARM chips? They're cheap, very power efficient (necessary for all-day battery life), and have enough horsepower to make a tablet experience compelling. Texas Instruments, Qualcomm, Samsung, and Nvidia are either offering chips now--or are slated to bring out silicon next year--that can easily scale up from smartphones to larger devices like tablets or media pads.
What's that? Don't think you would buy one? Don't think a tablet fills a market need? Get back to me a year from now when you have a sudden epiphany and find yourself in an Apple Store or Best Buy eying one as an essential adjunct to your inner circle of gadgets.
Brooke Crothers has served as an editor at large at CNET News, an editor at Dow Jones' Asian Wall Street Journal Weekly, and a senior editor at InfoWorld. His CNET blog covers chip technology and computer systems, and how they define the computing experience. He also contributes to The New York Times' Bits and Technology sections. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure. Follow Brooke on Twitter @mbrookec. 
Yuck.
When I think of a tablet I think of the Apple Newton which was more of an early PDA rather than a netbook/laptop and envisioned now.
If a tablet is a netbook with a swivel/touch screen, it's already been done rather nicely in the newly released Asus T91 with a 7 x 10 screen and only 1 inch thick. It is less than $500. Functionality and features without the Apple price bloat.
Apple needs to stick with what they know and that is toys.
I would likewise advise that you stick with what you know. Hopefully you are better at flipping burgers than you are at advising Apple on how to run a successful corporation.
Even Mac business users HAVE to run Microsoft Office or they can't do their jobs.
Unless their flipping burgers as you so noted in less than intelligent statement.
The mac platform has always been for designers and even now Adoble ships is Creative Suite for Windows first.
Hell, Apple hasn't even figured out to do multi-task on the iPhone/Touch with the exception of their own (Google/Yahoo) written sofware. And please don't use the excuse that it's the battery issue. Every other "Smart Phone has as good (if not better) battery life and they multi-task.
Go put your Steve Jobs pajamas on and head to bed, it's getting late.
None of which are for touch so are irrelevant to this discussion. In fact, to get them re-written for touch Windows 7 needs to have some real touch functionality and we all need to wait a few years for the fragmented dev community to catch up.
Apple, on the other hand, already have Cocoa Touch on OSX, 65,000 applications written for it, a burgeoning development community and a distribution mechanism which overcomes internet obscurity.
25 years on Apple are looking to re-invent the product category they created (& lost control of) and the battle for touch will be won before the first shot has been fired. Though I'm sure the pretenders will scrabble around desperately to capitalise on Apple's hard work again.
McD
You can also add inkwell..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inkwell_(Macintosh)
http://www.apple.com/sg/macosx/features/inkwell/
"None of which are for touch so are irrelevant to this discussion"
Consdiering the tablet portion is simply a mouse interface and pressure sensitive, then I'd have to say there are ... oh... hundreds of thousands that work with it.
But hey, if you want apps that particularly benefit from a tablet, perhaps you've heard of a little program called Photoshop? I understand it's pretty popular these days on Macs and Windows systems. :)
A wide iPod touch will suffice
Even somewhat smaller would suffice, as long as it had at least a 4x2.5 screen. Any smaller would not do for reading.
Class 1 bluetooth would make it the King of Kings & Emperors.
I think anything bigger or smaller just wouldn't make it.
It has to be small enough to carry around with you and big enough for the screen to be easily readable.
I had an HP Tablet, one of the really early ones, the Industrial Design was fantastic, XP Tablet Edition got a heck of a lot better after SP2 (it wasn't great before).
Personally I think Apple might make a really nice job of this, as long as it's not just a "fat" iPod Touch (but even then if they have some killer app I could be swayed). As for HP, if you're reading this - can we have one more like the early one? (I'd like something "unibody-ish" but with the keyboard and docking stand - can you put some proper grunt in this time? Core 2 Duo or better? Ta)
Dude... I have to use a tablet as part of work. Drop it once. Watch what happens. Above a certain weight class, flat screen tablets will always wind up with a cracked screen when dropped. Ergonomically speaking it's a nightmare to use. Prop it up and it's difficult to interact with screen, lay it down and you have to crane your neck to see it...
Another thing. Just because Apple puts it out there and the people buy it up doesn't mean it's good. It's a bit like the Xbox 360. It breaks down and red rings and the failure rate it way to high, yet it's seen as a success. Apple's new tablet will be the same. People will love it because it an Apple product and no one will question the need for it. They'll be like parrots attracted to a nice shiny object; they'll "need" it, whether they can use it or not.
In making these types of buy decisions some people are predominately logical/intellectually driven with little emotion, and some people are primarily emotionally driven with little logic/intellectual considerations, some people maybe find a 50/50 balance. As far as I can see Apple targets the 50/50 crowd, where the device is usually technically high end and feature heavy and also emotionally appealing. It is usually priced at a high profit point where you could probably endlessly debate its relative dollar value versus similar products.
Seriously, the notion that Apple creates product categories is too far-fetched. At best, all you can say is that they have a knack for industrial design and marketing which has built them a modest base of zealot fans. Their products are not especially innovative, they are just prettier versions of things which other manufacturers have failed to push effectively.
Maybe it is time for the Newton II.
I still have and use a MDD G4 from 2002, running the latest OS "Snow Leopard" 10.6. I haven't had any problems, ever. Can the same be said for your machine ?
All of my friends that use Windows machines, end up buying a new one about every 3 years. My Mac is 7 years old and still going strong.
Usually what Apple do is make a product that is so much easier to use than what existed before it pushes it into the mainstream. So sure, there were smartphones before the iPhone, there were MP3 players before the iPod - but Apple made them so simple "normal" people wanted them.
Seriously, the iPhone is a breakout product - it's not just Apple's traditional customers buying them.
Unlike Microsoft, Apple supports every product it has ever made with all of the software they have ever written for it. Want to patch that OS9 install? Go for it. Wan to patch that Windows 98 install? You're SOL.
Apple is more expensive, but that's how much a computer that works costs.
Pray tell, how are you running Snow Leopard on a G4, since SL is Intel-only?
No, I would disagree with this. Apple has a knack for taking a concept and making it relevant to the average person. As a general rule I do not think that Apple is truly innovative but they produce products that tend to take the basic concepts further and in such a way that it is attractive to a large market.
The idea of "zealot fans" is also rather misleading. I'm inclined to suggest that Apple would not have "zealot fans" if it wasn't for the non-Apple fans who insist that their way is correct. You only need to "defend" your platform when it is under attack. I highly doubt that there would be Apple zealots if it wasn't for nitwits like shellcodes_coder.
i will be upgrading to a newer more powerful tablepc sometime in the next year and will consider the apple offering as well. i am a professional software developer and have been on the microsoft platform since windows 2.03. i definitely am curious if apple will reach a tipping point where apple becomes less closed and commercial software development becomes more attractive on their devices.
Too bad it seems like ascertaining purchases based on real productivity-based needs (as opposed to desires and cravings) is not very commonly practiced in tech. Or at least on CNET.
Devices like this just give people an excuse to bring their work home with them. Maybe if they didn't, then the divorce rate would drop, and people wouldn't die of stress related ailments as often.
Why do we insist on working our butts of for 60% of our lives, then spend 30% sleeping and the last 10% worrying about work.. As the man said, you can't take it with you... Not even your Ijunk... So live a little.
Any craftsman will tell you that selecting the right tool is very important. He will also tell you that most of the time price is not the major factor when buying that tool. But you sound like you need a long vacation. You appear to be one of those people you rail against in your final paragraph.
When my clamshell cell phone died, I got an iPhone, and it's literally changed everything about the way I use computers. Minds, like umbrellas, work best when opened, and all I can say is, Apple's products work for me in my personal/music life. I use Windows XP Professional at work, and it works just fine for all the needs I have there, with zero to very few problems. In fact, I like XP quite a bit. Again, it just depends on your needs.
So what DOES give sparrow joy?
Therefore I must be careful how I spend. I buy Apple products for the value and stability of their products. Recently I gave a friend of mine a PM8600 that was bought in 1997 and although SLOW by today's standards. It still runs great. Also, I have in use a MDD G4 from 2002 with the latest OS ($29).
That's twice in this discussion you've made the same claim. How *exactly* are you running Snow Leopard (which is Intel-only) on a G4 Power Macintosh?
Tablets are the next netbooks.
High-end Smartphone??? Dozens?? Exactly what was "new" in the iPhone that others parroted? touch screen? nope my xv6700 had that, games and apps? nope had that too, multitouch? ok I'll bite now just name at least 24 other devices with it to justify "dozens".
Now as far as keyboard-less tablets go, I'm guessing you've never heard of the Archos 7?
Do me a favor and crawl out from under that powerbook you're living under and catch up with what's out in the technology world before you go writing articles.
The author said Apple ARGUABLE created the high=end smartphone segment. I would say Apple redefined what high-end smartphones are. Before it was just for work for most people using one. Now, people because of Apple people realize it can be for work and play so they definitely redefined the category. Also, devices might have apps before Apple but it took Apple to show the industry how to execute this idea. There might have been touch-screen devices but yet again it took Apple to show the industry how to make the touch-screen user friendly so it seems human nature to use it. So, maybe Apple do not create categories but it definitely leads the way in innovating those products further. iPod and iPhone is a classic example. MacBook Air was not a runaway success like some of the other devices but it helped create competition in the segment of the laptop market where industry previously assumed no demand.
So, I really wouldn't compare the upcoming Mac tablet with Archos or any other device till I see it. It might be a bust but given Apple's history its a fair bet to say it most probably won't be a failure like Apple Tv. Maybe, not a runaway success like iPhone and iPod but I think it will experience about the same success rate as Macbook Air.
No interest whatsoever"
You are very much part of the Mac cult and very much interested in things Apple, or you wouldn't be here posting your opinions.
- by Perry_Clease August 30, 2009 7:49 AM PDT
- Well Brooks I would have to wait and see an official one before stating an intent to purchase one or not.
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