Comments on: Report: Apple working on large-screen iPod Touch

Blog cites three independent sources as saying we can expect a 7- to 9-inch screen in the fall of 2009.

[terminalblue]

this will be the apple netbook

[cbaisa]

i think 9 inches would be to big to be ultra-portable. if it was 7 inches i could see that working. still, 9 inches would allow for full hands typing.

isn't this what we've seen in star trek for 30 years? visions of the future always include flat touchscreen devices about this size. it was only a matter of time.

i might really enjoy having one of these for netbook computing. my only concern is office 2008 support.

these could also be a great vehicle for cloud computing.

apple's app store is what makes this really competitive. a device like this could afford to have a weak processor because of the simplicity of the apps run on it. still, office4mac support would be killer awesome and i would definitely look into getting one.

it may not be the first of its kind, but you better believe apple knows how to do things right (except for the square nano)

[Vegaman_Dan]

With a 7-9" screen, the unit would not be a PDA or a music player, it's a netbook / laptop. It won't fit in the pocket, so that means it is a two handed unit.

If you have a display that size, you need a physical keyboard. The Apple virtual keyboard simply won't do the job if you are using a screen with that much real estate.

If it is going to be a Touch with just a larger screen to compete with netbooks, then it will find it to be a very poor experience. Not when there are Linux and Windows based netbooks with more power, more options, and the ability to run applications from their big brothers.

Pricing- the 32Gb version is $399 ( I bought mine at $499 for the first gen- no early adopter credit for me like there was on the iPhone- drat). If this new unit could be at the same price, then it might have a chance, but that just doesn't make sense. As it would carry the Apple name and logo, I would expect a price easily around $600+. At that price, it simply cannot compete.

It's an interesting rumor, but the rumor of a Mac tablet have been going on for years. Even Apple has debunked that one time and time again.

I would not hold my breath for this one. I just don't see it as a logical leap.

[SpiritWater]

This is only good for industry use. It would be interesting to see if they do create one and how they improve upon tablets already in the market. It might be a tough sell. Good luck Apple.


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[Vegaman_Dan]

I could see the Touch interface being used for some Point Of Sale kosks like self checkouts. It could probably work in a lot of embedded device applications where WinCE and Windows Mobile are being used now.

However, this IS Apple, and unless they build the hardware, they would never allow the use of the OS or any of their products in an embedded device based upon their past history.

[Andres_A]

A camera would be very interesting....though I wouldn't exactly buy this device if it came out next fall because I think the ipod touch right now is already a great ultraportable internet device, though this larger "ipod touch" would surely appeal to a bigger crowd...

[jsnowbordr47]

Yeah, as much as I hate Flash (bogs down my Mac Pro, and it's the most counter-intuitive program in the Adobe suite) I wish the iPod/iPhone had support for it.

In response to all of these manufacturing based responses.

They should add something to the "Made in USA" Label, like "Made in USA by Union Labor" Union labor is the main reason why the US has such a bad rep in certain fields of manufacturing. However, I still believe in "Made in USA" when it comes to lawn equipment, all my gear is MTD powered by Briggs & Stratton. My cars are all 260,000 miles and powered by GM built in Janesville Wisconsin. If we could get rid of or at least limit the power of the labor unions so that assembly line workers are paid wages that they deserve to be paid (people with no education shouldn't be paid more than someone with a B.S., M.S., or Doctorate). Until then, US manufacturers in all industries will have to continue to outsource to be competitive with foreign manufacturers.

[anhtney]

It would be kinda stupid devolping this. Since windows 7 is comming out soon we will see more tablets with multi-touch, actual flash players, real web browsing and will be 1/2 the price of this large screen iPod Touch.

[Andres_A]

Actually what I think is just Apple trying to give the tablet market revival and start taking chances of making a tablet popular again by using what is in the iphone/ipod touch and put that into a bigger screen with more features.

[1812dave]

Now that I have an Acer Aspire One (it's a netbook), I can get a great experience on the web in an 8.9" screen formfactor with 5.5+ hours of battery life. It's got XP, and it loads up Firefox in 6 seconds, which is quite a mean feat. All my other PC's and laptops in the house are far slower to load Firefox. Even a newly reformatted XP desktop PC, which takes about 15 seconds to start Firefox. Not sure a large Touch is going to be as cool as the little current Touch...

[Andres_A]

Yeah netbooks are probably much better than tablets due to the fact that they are much cheaper and maybe a bit more portable than a tablet, though the processors on tablets are a bit better. I think the current generation of the touch is fine, it already is a great product. So probably if apple came out with this "tablet", I would still stick with the current generation touch.

[1812dave]

If the new, larger "Touch" doesn't have Flash, I'll still need to use one of my computers for some of my web surfing. APPLE! -- put Flash on the Touch already!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Benigna-Marko]

my neighbor got the ipod touch for christmas. wow, if only we would have known - i instead got the ipod chromatic which I thought was great and cool and now I see him with the ipod touch and I am wow, I could have paid ane xtra few dollars and gotten the touch. well, I will certainly have to wait a while to get this one. but the screen and the touch is so much nicer than mine.
although i do love the gold color of mine
Benigna Marko

[jmpetersen]

A six x nine iPod touch hits a demanding, rich and fast growing section of the economy, us old farts. I don't care if it doesn't fit my pocket, I need to see the damn thing, and have icons big enough for my old fat shaking fingers.

[Benigna-Marko]

In all the technology out there this one is awesome. Just purchased one and I am enjoying it. Plan to hook up a phone line as well.
Benigna Marko