Comments on: Apple plots course for middle of mobile

For years, the PC industry has longed to make a compelling device that's bigger than a phone but smaller than a notebook. They have failed. Can Apple pull it off?

[Kimsh]

Wow, this guy not only has one eye closed, he is squinting with the one he has open. This is an amazing piece of Apple evangelism. CNet, please don't post this is news, it is clearly an advertisment.

[AppleSuxLeo]

It`s already being sold by the millions at Frys , BB , Staples , Amazon.
It`s called a NetBook...runs Windows , 10.1 inch screen , LED Backlit , 160 GB HDD lots of ports for USB 2.0 , LAN , HDMI OUT , wireless , 6-cell battery for around $400. A real computer. Not some half-assed , walled-garden Crapple device for way over $1000.

[Vegaman_Dan]

Be nice. It may be a very stylish unit that makes up for the price difference. Keep in mind that they would have to keep such a device below the iBook entry level price or threaten to gut that product line.

When pricing luxury products, you have to make sure you don't price yourself out of the market. Make it expensive, but just cheap enough to tempt customers to go without food or gas for a while to afford it. Always just slighlty out of grasp unless you are willing to suffer for it.

[Vegaman_Dan]

One thing that hasn't been brought up is the comparison between the netbook and the MacBook Air. Perhaps Apple will bring this thing out and while it is qualified as a netbook by every comparison in features to machines that cost 10-20% of the new unit, Apple can simply call it something else and refuse to let it be compared to a netbook.

It worked for the MBA. It's not a netbook either, even though the size, capacity, and features clearly put it into the netbook criteria in all but price.

If it has the 10" screen that many current netbooks have, then it becomes a big clunky item that is too big to put in your pocket and will have to be carried in a bag or loose like a laptop. At that point you might as well carry your normal laptop.

But that's the fun of speculation, isn't it?

[macfoxpro]

$400 or not, I'm sure if and when something along these lines of tech made by the Apple Company will be be a GOOD to GREAT, PROFITABLE product and will make Apple world that much closer to Apple Universe!! With that said, I am intrigued.

[qamaro]

Honestly for everyone who is comparing this new device to Netbooks and MID's is heading in the wrong direction. If you head down this logical road then it makes sense that a $600 - 700 price point is not going to work and it?s going to be product with deficiencies. In fact I do not see full desktop apps for this device with just touch screen capabilities (ala MS Office). I do see document viewers, flash, voice recorders and note taking as part of the suite (some of these are already available for the iphone/touch and are great for classes or meetings).

The fact is the true competitor for this product is the Kindle2. You get all the benefits of an IPhone / Touch (music, video, app library, WIFI / GSM ? Iphone only) with the benefits of the larger screen. So, it trumps the Kindle2 in that it has a better interface, better screen real estate, a more robust browser, better built in tech, apps and it has color for those that want that (like Hitachi's book offering).

Now those that think I'm wrong that?s ok but look at Amazon's recent move to purchase Shelfari. This move was to ensure that Amazon did not necessarily get locked out of any future or alternative online book market including the "iPad". Looking at it in this context you see the price would be competitive for the extra features so a Kindle2 is $360 + add color + wifi + video / music playback + applications (these extra features is where the iPad will differentiate and ask for the increase in price $599 - $699 is where I think its at). Now include any carrier subsidy and the price goes down from there. If it includes a mic then with Skype you get VOIP, for those without carrier service, as an option when you don't want to pull out your phone.

I found an interesting article at http://ireaderreview.com/ that seems to agree with this perspective.

'Q

[Vegaman_Dan]

To be in competition with the Kindle, it will have to have e-ink as the screen and not an LCD. A kindle can go days/weeks between charges. An LCD, even an OLED one would still have a battery life measured only in hours.

[abw319]

new iphone 3g pro
[URL=http://img125.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=40122_3g-iphone-3g-2008_122_799lo.jpg][IMG]http://img125.imagevenue.com/loc799/th_40122_3g-iphone-3g-2008_122_799lo.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

So will this be similar to the CrunchPad?

[funK96]

Apple will never release a tablet because they are pointless. The no brainer would be a $499 10in netbook.

[jypeterson]

Look at the potential markets for such a device:

1) Photographers
With bluetooth 3.0, true multi-touch (remember, Apple's patented technology?) and a compatible camera, you could literally transfer and edit your pictures on the fly. You would not need your 17" Macbook Pro until you were back at the office and able to see the raw pictures on your 30" editing monitors

2) Hospitals
This is really one of the only markets for the tablet computers and it has been poorly recieved anyway. If Apple came out with this device, hospitals and Dr. offices with electronic medical records (EMR's) would actually be able to be productive on the move. This is a huge issue with physicians right now as they are moving in hoards away from their old Palm devices and WinMo phones to the iPhone -- because the medical software makers are shifting development to the iPhone applications right now. Not to mention, this could enable on the go radiological image review and diagnosis.

3) Students
Notes, white boards, et cetera would be implemented with ease. Students would get the usefulness of a Mac, collaboration and communication like an iPhone, and readability in a light, small package. I would have loved to had one of these in college instead of carrying around 30 - 40 lbs in books with me (I did actually have a LG Phenom Express which was fabulous for school).

4) Families and mobile entertainment.
Do I need to really explain here?

5) Business users
Mobile document editing, reading, and presentation software ready to go. Most business people who I know that have iPhones only take their laptops with them for editing and presenting. Everything else is done on the iPhone. If you can leave your laptop/desktop at the office and use the iPad to be your presentation machine and use your iPhone for the remote it would be the killer mobile office. With Bluetooth you could just take a keyboard with you to make longer edit sessions available.

This list would go on and on. Apple won't do netbooks. We already are seeing the impact it is having on the PC manufacturers and on Microsoft. They are hemorrhaging cash because they cannot compete with a no margin product. The PC manufacturing heyday is over. Only the consolidated conglomerates will survive with the boutique custom PC manufacturers. Remember eMate, Gateway (HP owned now), Brother, Compaq, and others? Purchased or out of business. It's not over yet either now that Dell is struggling just to survive.

And Apple wants to join in the the netbook party because?????

[sciontcya]

I don't get your post?
You seem to be making a great case for MAKING it, then say Apple won't?
They said similar things about the iPhone - it's in ALL the markets you listed above - and dominating them!
I think you were 50/50 on your post - I'll keep the forst 50! :)

SB

[jypeterson]

I am making the case that Apple will make their midsized mobile tablet/iPad device, but they WILL NOT make a netbook as we know them today. Their tablet/iPad will be sold in the $700-800 range while netbooks sell in the $200-300 range. Big difference.

I could have been clearer on this, and I though I was -- so I'll just clarify.

[Kevin Baron]

Cosider this. It cost less then 200 for apple to produce the iphone. Cost saving happen all the time. The average netbook is 300-350. One would assume wrong that apple would have to pay more to produce a netbook of it's own. Cause if indeed they do use the iphone OS. they would need to only spend more money on a larger touch screen. The rest of the hardware would in fact be less costly. Due to the fact they wouldn't need to spend extra cash on smaller hardware. Being the iphone already uses a min. of 8gigs which is the same opening number as most netbooks. So indeed they could make a iPad for lets say 300-350 with 8 gigs and still make a profit. Plus knowing full well they have a app store already primed and ready to add to there profit margin. It would not just be a netbook but a netbook that would trump anything out there now.

[godzero]

This product (if it exists) follows the usual pattern of Apple product development. After innovative companies have put out first-of-kind products, gone through the mis-steps and mistakes, Apple comes up with a version which it claims to have "invented". (Remember, their color computers, laptops, PDAs, music players, smartphones, etc all came after those products had already been on the market, sometimes for several years.)

This is smart as by the time Apple makes its move, the processing power available has increased while the cost has dropped (cf. Moore's Law), many of the flaws and pitfalls have been revealed and their product is obviously more advanced that the predecessors.

Apple makes very fine products, although expensive so as to keep their margins relatively high, but continues to make false claims as to "invention" and "innovation". With the advent of iPhone 3.0, I'm waiting for their IP lawsuit against any other cell phone that has copy-and-paste. ;-)

I suggest this "iPad" thing be called iSlab, iSlate or even iTablet - if they MUST keep the "i" prefix going.

If they do it right, meaning it has a video camera, wifi, Bluetooth, cell modem, etc, it will sell well - I'd certainly like one.

[azzuro2006]

I doubt Apple will really go into this category in a big way. They may have a slight larger screen for the new iphone/ipod touch but with overall size staying the same with thinner form factor. To compete in this category you need to offer a lot for a low price and i can't see apple competing with netbooks. An iPod touch's price is comparable to a netbook as it is. I can't really see them competing in this space.

well I have 3 tablet PCs. Have been using them for about 5 or 6 years. The first 2 needed a stylus and the third has a touch screen. All are HPs. The first 2 had those funny detachable keyboards but they stopped making them in that form factor. I miss the option to remove the keyboard.

I take mine to meetings and take all my notes in handwriting - along with drawings etc. Then I transcribe them to circulate. The handwriting recognition is marvelous and saves me hours every day in retyping. Students do the same. And it's so light it's a dream to take with me when I travel. My current one weighs less than 5 lbs and it is heavier than the first 2 which weighed just over 3 even with the keyboards.

If Apple comes out with a tablet with no keyboard I would definitely consider it even thought I prefer windows. If you have never used a tablet you probably cannot image how easy they are to use. Since my phone and PC are both touch screen I find it hard now to use anything that is not.

I think this is the wave of the future - especially since now people are more used to touch screens I think the niche market will be expanding.

[HaroldEB]

As someone who purchased an iPod touch to surf and read email and never plugged in the earphones, a sub $500 device is of interest. Apple already has a small wireless keyboard that could be used at a desk at home work or on the road to supplement a touch screen. I like being able to pick up my ipod in the morning and almost instantly check my mail. I can quickly scan my mail and later, when I have more time, start up my MacBook and read the messages that require a more in depth review.
HEB

[MoKraak]

This concept is exactly what I've wanted for years. I have owned several small Fujitsu tablets, a Toshiba convertible and a Fujitsu ultraportable in the past but the OSs passed them by. I also have two iPod touches, one on my nightstand and one on the end table that I use for quick and easy fun. I just wish the screen was bigger! The Touches are instant on, always work and are guaranteed to put a smile on my face one way or another.

[Warhaven]

I expect that for whatever sub-notebook-type-of-thing that Apple comes out with, it's not going to be what we're all expecting. While it may be a sub-notebook by classification, it's going to have/do things that are both unexpected and forehead-slapping-"Why didn't I think of that?' kinds of things. Either that, or they'll manage to somehow shrink the MacBook Air into a Kindle form factor.

Either way, it's not going to what we're expecting.

[GlennCaton]

Sad thing about this whole mess is that going to netbooks, Modbooks, or other network devices sacrifices phone functionality.

Apple seems to have given up on non-touch/non-visual interfaces. One of the things that I really miss when I converted from my high-end Samsung phone to the iPhone was the voice recognition engine. When combined with a Bluetooth headset, I could do a great deal of the stuff I needed to do with the phone using just the voice interface. This meant I could drive, cook, and use the computer, while I used the phone, wrote notes, or made calendar entries through voice recognition. Voice recognition was in the 98% accurate range untrained, and was driven off of an American developed voice recognition chip. The voice system was VERY power efficient and could go a couple of days between charges.

I can imagine a wearable unit that could be supplemented with a wirelessly-linked touch screen half again the size of the iPhone. Such a unit could also be supplemented with a Bluetooth keyboard for more intensive text entry.

The Newton concept promised all of this and an AI-based assistant. It was a sad aspect of Steve Job's genius that he could not recognize the brilliance of his opponents vision and continue to develop them. The Newton was just way ahead of its time. It needed better handwriting recognition, better screen technology, better power management, a better operating system that would be able to support multiple dedicated functional engines, and a solid telephonic integration. Cell phone of its period were still very large, very dumb, and very power hungry.

Times have changed, however. What is needed now is an extensible platform. You can't make incredibly cheap, efficient, powerful, small, and power efficient desktop replacement/tablet computers. Some folks just want a semi-smart phone. Others want a phone/internet device. Some folks just want an a wi/fi internet device, and don't want to combine it with a phone. Some people will want it all and won't mind paying for it. I think that a robust, multitasking-multithreaded, fully capable OS will have to be the basis of all of these devices. You will want a common user interface and capability set so that, as users needs grow, they won't outgrow it with solid state memory and LSIC devices being able to be made so cheaply, why not take a run at a multiprocessor approach to the architecture?

I could see the OS and primary processor being the center of the architecture with additional processors being added for more complex and capable application capacity. Additional processors dedicated to voice recognition and synthesis, graphics, handwriting recognition, power management, I/O management, and telephony could be added to support user dictated functionality.

This sort of functionality, flexibility, and power would not be cheap, but as Microsoft is discovering, a cheap, but frustratingly buggy platform is not the way to success.

[nodnarbh90]

Something similar to the "palm pilot" data entry system would make the ipad much more attractive to me. A lined notebook page that can be written on with a stylus and then converted to text would be awesome. That coupled with a pdf reader for textbooks would allow a student to leave an entire bag at home.

[east77]

If they add bluetooth support the iPad won't need to be held up to the ear to function as a phone. Just need to come with a good headset.

[drfrost]

What do I need it for?

What can it do that the itouch can't that isn't better served by a laptop?

If there are good answers for those questions, some people might be interested. Off the top of my head, I can't think of anything.

ALSO.... if they're going to halfway in between an iPod and a laptop/netbook... they need to open up the system. A closed/highly secure system is ok for my phone/ipod (I say "ok" because it's certainly not ideal) but there's no way I'm going to get a "computer" that I can't run my own applications on... I don't care how well it's made.