Report: Analyst views Apple tablet, sees Sept. launch
Concept art for an Apple touch-screen Netbook.
(Credit: Gizmodo)If you've been following the Apple Netbook gossip along with us the last few months, here's the latest tidbit, courtesy of Barron's:
A "veteran analyst," albeit a very anonymous one, has allegedly seen and touched Apple's rumored "slate-style" PC, which we like to call the jumbo iPod Touch. According to Barron's source, the new product will be announced in September, released in November, and carry a price tag of between $699 and $799. As previously reported, the tablet (or whatever Apple plans on calling) is ready to go but has been awaiting final approval from Apple CEO Steve Jobs.
As for concrete details about the device itself, the veteran analyst had only one thing to say about his or her hands-on experience: "The machine impresses with its display of hi-def video content. It's better than the average movie experience, when you hold this thing in your hands."
Now there's a shocker. (I don't think you'd have to be a veteran analyst to predict that).
The article also goes on to say that the PC industry is basically on pins and needles as it waits to see what Apple puts out. According to the phantom analyst, PC makers have paused production on next-generation Netbooks until they see what Apple's come up with.
Interestingly, while there's been a lot of talk about this being a media-centric device with a little Apple TV mixed in (what you'd expect from a giant iPod Touch), Barron's quotes Jon Peddie, head of Jon Peddie Research in Tiburon, Calif., as saying it will be a gaming machine as well.
"Gaming will be a big part of what this [the new device] is about," Peddie said.
However, as far as we know, unlike the veteran analyst, he has not seen or touched the device.
Comments?
Via Engadget via 9to5Mac via Barron's (subscription required to view full article)
Hunkered down in New York City, Executive Editor David Carnoy covers the gamut of gadgets and writes his Fully Equipped column, which carries the tag line "The electronics you lust for." He's also the author of "Knife Music," a novel. E-mail David. Follow David on Twitter. 
There have been tablet PCs that can stand on their own, they are just designed for business use. What you mean is there have been no tablet PCs targeted at Apple's consumer base, teenagers and others with lots of disposable income to blow on expensive toys.
with their own version of what will Apple offer in 2015?
Windows has been used on many tablet PCs already
most are oriented at business more than consumer though
If the heat dissipation drops low enough, these could be steri-wrapped for medical use without worrying about cooking the CPU. This would eliminate sterilization and cross-contamination issues in hospitals and labs.
(IMHO he's off - it'll be Acer, Dell, and HP who copies the hardware design - much like LG, RIM, and the like quickly mimicked the iPhone hardware design once they realized that they were losing marketshare to it).
There have been tablets before, yes - but pretty much all of them weren't much more than laptops with funky monitor hinges and a touch-screen lashed on (and they were too expensive, woefully under-powered, did the job half-arsed, etc...)
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/06/03/crunchpad-the-launch-prototype/
etc.
Slates have been done before. MS has already done a great job with tablet PCs. The software would need to be the differentiator.
The Diamond Rio predated the ipod and every other MP3 player. What's your point?
It will be Mac OS no matter what. The question is why type of Window Manager will it use? Will it use the iPhone's WM and API's or will it use standard MacOS Aqua frameworks....
Obviously no one can really know until it is released but It would make logical sense if they used a hybrid. This way the iPhone apps would be easily ported to run on the device (30,000 apps is quite a number) with some hooks for web apps based on Apple's current linuep. (Apple did recently invest in a server farm) The webapps would use webkit, and be part of Mobile Me.
Where do you think Apple got the concept from? The first browser based UIs were implemented ten+ years ago and sold as 'internet appliances'. This is not an idea that Apple pioneered. I would argue that Apple botched the whole internet concept as badly as Microsoft. And just like Microsoft, when they finally embraced it, they tried to reform it in their own image rather than basing upon existing open standards.
Yes Apple does nice design and implementation, but just as they did not invent the portable digital audio market, they did not invent the browser based UI. They did a nice job implementing it, but they did not invent it.
Maybe they should call it Newton 2?
Apple vs PC - Wusthof vs Ginsu
No more valid than your comparison, but at least it fulfills your stereotype of pretension.
iPod vs Sony Walkman = ?
iPhone vs cell phone = ?
OS X vs Windows Vista = ?
You are right...let's dismiss this product. It is probably just more crap from apple...
the main reason why people choose Windows over Mac is for business applications
"iPod vs Sony Walkman" = hardly a valid comparison
"iPhone vs cell phone" = there are plenty of cell phones i would rather have than the iPhone
"OS X vs Windows Vista" = I don't know about you (well I do, actually) but I much prefer Vista
I would agree with your last sentence if the sarcasm was taken out of it.
"iPhone vs cell phone" I want a cell phone to make phone calls. Nothing more. For that use, there are a lot of cell phones that are better than the iPhone. Not just based on the price, based on their performance as a phone. I'll take a Samsung t209 over an iPhone, as a phone. And that is a really cheap phone.
Uh, strictly speaking, the quote is about "competing designs", not Netbooks.
And since netbooks as a rule are not tablets they are not competing designs.
Its a bit of a stretch at this point to say a $799 Apple tablet form-factor super-pod is going to compete with $299 clamshell netbooks. Especially since the stated strenghth of the super-pod, HD video playback, isn't even a feature of netbooks to start with.
Steve Jobs has said Apple sees no reason to compete with Netbooks and he is right; he doesn't have to. Apple as a rule sees no reason to compete in every sngle PC category; only the ones that make money by the truckload. Buying empty marketshare is a distraction to him.
Netbooks are first and foremost about cheap mobile computing.
Apple does mobile; they don't do cheap.
It has nothing to do with waiting until September to see what Apple does. It's waiting until October (or whenever MS makes it crystal clear), to see what MS does.
What are you talking about? I did a search online for this conspiracy theory of yours that Microsoft is intentionally forcing netbook producers to limit their development and found nothing. CNET has nothing on it either. What's your source of this information? It sounds like something the DOJ should be investigating if this is true. You may be on to something huge and could potentially bankrupt Microsoft, forcing them out of business and freeing the world of their forced slavery of the human race!
Or... you could be just making it up. I'm just curious where you got the outlandish notion from.
See: http://www.engadget.com/2009/05/22/microsoft-publishes-maximum-windows-7-netbooks-specs/
"Maxipad"???
I presume I don't need to bother with the /sarcasm tag? Good.
AAPL has outperformed MSFT by something like +700% over the past five years. MSFT missed the First Call estimates this most recent quarter, both in revenue and profit.
Plus, Apple owners always end up at the top of every customer satisfaction survey. If saving money is so awesome, why aren't more Microsoft users happier? Can money buy happiness? Well, when it comes to technology purchases, maybe it can.
But keep it up, Shelly. Comedy is a great start to my morning!
maxiPod."
Your name has wings
as a teenager (with a brain, i can't vouch for the rest of them....) I will spend my money else where. i wanted a device that was touch screen but bigger than a iPod touch. That Crunchpad(still waiting for it...) seems more to my use than this. it's a nice product, just not my cup of juice.
I also like the idea of larger keys for typing. Maybe my mom can get some use out of it. She couldnt now because she cant type on such small keys on the iTouch.
When I am playing a PC game and want to look something up on the net without Alt+tabbing I can do it on this thing.
I don't know where to put this one in the Apple lineup, and I don't think Apple does either. It may be a new market niche all together.
Where's the demand for a netbook coming from anyway? Business users who need to travel light and need something more powerful than a smartphone but don't want to fire up their notebooks? Students who use them in classroom scenarios? Or geeks who just want the latest and greatest? IF Apple does something like this, it will be innovative and won't be an afterthought--a product that HAD to be released because of all the rumors. It will be designed so that people will WANT to use it. If anyone compared their current line of products and software with everyone else's--who do you think is having more fun working?
--former PC user
It's all up in the air. Apple may never do this at all. It's just a rumor.
Macs are front-line machines in some of the challenging places like science laboratories (Argonne National Lab and Livermore). The video editing suite typically runs on Macs at TV studios and ad agencies. This is "serious" high value work, and big bucks are at stake. Toy or tool?
Macs are quite excellent tools. So are Windows machines. Windows machines are however the preferred gaming computer with most of the gaming titles. So there you go.
'Nuff said.
It seems some on this thread play with their 'non-electronic' tools far more often than they should. Lack of blood flow to the brain....
Of course PCers can't use the other MS line of defense here: Mac are no good for gaming.
It seems that MS supporters want to claim that PC's are the tools and Macs are toys, and at the same time PC's are for games and Macs are not. It's a classic case of cognitive dissonance.
schools and colleges are the 'natural' eco system for this device
the MBair as well...apart from price!
already schools have adopted the Touch as e-book reader and wi-fi connected browser
there are more students than male 20 something games players..(and trolls on here) who argue all things PC are 'better' whatever that means.
to most 'better' is what works for them...mostly not needing a resident tech geek to repair fix and disinfect the winOS every day/week/month
for those that like that sort of thing..that's why PC were invented..for all the backroomer geek techs..
(to keep them off the streets!..and in these forums)
Textbook makers rake in the cash by releasing new verions of the products every couple of years. There's a market for used books as well. Even with some serious hard core DRM in place, making the textbooks digital would invite nearly instant piracy and ruin the value of any books being sold. Look at the demographics of users of torrents for trading pirated items and those of high school and college students. It's the same age group, so when forced to pay up to $200 for each text book when they know they can just get a torrent fo it, the temptation to get the pirated version will be huge.
I just don't see it happening.
with their own version of what will Apple offer in 2015?
Works nicely.
Starting at $499, too.
Several sweet models in the $599 range.
"Works nicely" ???
Do they come with Kool-Aid packages?
I would really love to sit on my sofa and read stuff on something that doesn't feel like a chunky computer, , has a screen big enough and turn pages by a single sweep.
Only reason i do not like the kindles is that they are too dedicated.
But i do not know if it is even possible to feed that screen for a reasonable amount of time with a body that slim.
if it is too hot or cannot deal with netflix (not powerful enough for web apps) it'll be a dud
my two cents
A device like this is fantastic for regular screwing around (playing games, watching movies, surfing the web, emailing, and writing down a few notes), but for practicality in the average consumer market I think it fails. My point of view on many of our consumer technological goods is that they are time wasters. And that is exactly how I see this Apple tablet. Just another iPod Touch but with a seven inch screen. I want my tablet to be geared towards a more intellectual service rather than a fun and games one.
As a developer, this platform would be interesting...gps/g3 enabled would make a great mapping tool, book reader, game platform, photo/video viewer.
Unlike the PC tablet market, having fixed boundary hardware, makes it so much easier to create software for a device. You know exactly the capabilities and can design to maximize the users experience within that environment. It's the game console paradigm, but with open development tools that anyway can use and create with.
- by Daniel-Castaneda August 3, 2009 10:42 AM PDT
- Seems like a nice idea...but how do you type on that thing?
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- by August 3, 2009 5:24 PM PDT
- If this is real, i hope it has some sort of stand that can pop out on the back. or perhaps a third party vendor would make a stand for it. i could totally see myself setting it up in a stand of some sort, and it would have bluetooth and wifi built in, so it would work flawlessly with a wireless keyboard and mouse. i would just buy a apple wireless keyboard and use my mighty mouse with it at home and use the onscreen soft keyboard on the go.
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Showing 1 of 3 pages (114 Comments)I would hate to type on it.
My iphone is not bad, becuase i can use my thumbs, its small enough, but that tablet is 10 in so its too big...maybe if it had a wireless keyboard, or some kind of a hard key board because it woyuld be hard to use it for emails, etc.