Having is a Mac is great. It's like having iTunes take over your whole PC!

Let's see how it's work out...

between ebooks and nettops and cell phones, the apple laptop will be a failure.

at best i think i read somewhere of some new device where as it has the screen on the left hand side reserved for ebooking and the second screen that is on the right side is like a tablet.

the entire device with two lcd panels closes like a book.

so clearly a single screen tablet is already an antique.

I'm personally going to get one of these if they become available. My uses are below:
1. Plex media player for my hard drive based movies & internet content. Plans for using as a personal media experience.
2. webmail & server monitoring
3. Skype video phone (have on my iphone but would be nice to have the video conferencing this is stated to offer)
4. internet surfing
5. ereader

So, if I can use the islate for these 5 items it IS worth the price of admission to me.
Just my 2 cents worth.

eReaders + Content + Social Networking = http://www.ereaderuniverse.com/page/copia-1

I think the market, not Joe Wilcox, will determine whether or not the world "needs" an Apple Tablet.

I couldn't have said it better. It's nice to see someone other than myself with a comment worth reading. Educating the obtuse can become quite draining.

The world needs what it sustains. As the tables come out and continue to sell well then the world needs it according to itself.

If this tablet has a fairly decent working on-screen keyboard - it doesn't have to be better than a real keyboard, just decent enough - that minimizes itself so that you can view the full screen, it can set a new standard for netbooks. That is, if it manages to greatly decrease the size and weight of the beast. That could be something interesting, if others follow the idea. Anything that increases mobility without compromising functionality too much is good. Other than that, I don't see how Apple can bring much more to the table. But I do hope to be proven wrong.

There may be others but they won't be as expensive and as feature locked as the iSlab. You can count on that.

To be fair, tablets are VERY USEFUL if you have a need. In particular, the convertible tablets from HP with windows 7 multitouch are some of the best I've used. At work, it is a nice alternatove to whiteboards. My wife, finds working with photoshop in a tablet very useful. It would be moreso with pressure sensitivity.

2 words: Knowledge Navigator: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WdS4TscWH8

Seriously, I can easily say a day when these tablet devices are inexpensive enough that one could be placed in every room of your home/work and coordinate with your iPhone. The devices would work together "in the cloud" to provide a customized social operating system type experience that would help plan your day (and meals) as well as communicate with others. The truth is our population is getting older, and while the iPhone is good for on the go, it is not large enough to create a functional UI in these environments.

Why the world doesn’t need another Hit W h o r e on the web.
Joe, we all know you're lucky to have a job...
Thanks anyway.

If it has this interface I could see it as a viable and desirable piece of equipment.
http://www.ted.com/talks...hrough_touchscreen.html

The iSlate(?) would have to be so very much more than just a Notebook meets iPhone for it to be a desirable must have. Unless Steve Jobs' name is actually Henry Starling then I can't see that happening. Anyone who says they'll sit down and tap away at a screen with their fingers as if it were a keyboard is either a liar or deluded. It will basically be an oversized iPhone meets Notebook and nothing more. My wife's son runs his own business and very sucessfully. He's asked me what I think about the Apple tablet (for that's what it is) and I've said I think it'll be a waste of money. He thinks it'll be something to use for e-mails, surfing, games and music - and that's fine. But that's all you'll be able to and anyway, don't netbooks already do that? Even writing short e-mails is going to be problematic, it's just going to be a pain - how exactly are you going to physically position a tablet into a comfortable typing position while still being able to see the screen? It's just going to be one great big smudge screen and the novelty will quickly wear off. The only way an Apple tablet would succeed is if it were just so unbelievably outstanding and could do things you never dreamed were possible. That just ain't gonna happen.

If this is truly a large iphone per se, then it will be a huge flop with the excpetion of the apple zealots. No multitasking is a death blow.

Funny, I thought the iSlab was a mega iPod. I agree the apple congregation will eat it up until daddy says enough and won't pay the bill anymore.

How do you know that Apple hasn't added speech-to-text with it's built-in mic? Dragon Dictation works on the iPhone and does a terrific job. The current 3GS can be told what songs to play and do other small tasks just by voice command. Speech-to-text is a logical fix to the problem you're envisioning.

It might not be handy in a crowded or noisy place or in a place where silence is appreciated, but most of the times it would work well. I have an idea that text input has been given a lot of thought by Apple.

Here's why an iTablet will be a hit..........because Steve Jobs will tell everyone they need one and hype it so much you'll have people standing in line for a week to get one.
Love em or hate em, you have to give Apple credit. They know how to market something even if it is junk.

This is true. Apple will flood us with TV ads and product placement marketing marketing in the 20 year old demo. Just by doing this with cool looking products, people will start to think, wow that is cool because it is on TV. Starbucks did this in the late 90s and early 2000s. Check out the movie The Terminal and you will see stabucks ads EVERYWHERE. Same concept.

Marketing alone does not make a product successful, if this were true Vista and Zune (the ugly brown "iPod Killer") would be a smashing success. Microsoft has spent millions to market these Mac rip products to no avail.

Innovation and quality are what make a product successful in the long run and Apple always gets an A+ in these departments. This is why I've always said Apple is the greatest company on earth led by the greatest CEO on earth.

This article is as off-the-mark as Mr. Wilcox's ridiculous contention that the iPhone would be a dud: http://www.microsoft-wat..._the_you_in_iphone.html

It is. Its sales are miniscule. Hardly anyone in the UK owns one. Outside of the USA, its sales are abysmal compared to the rest of the market, notably LG and Nokia.

Check your facts. iPhone sales are not "minuscule" and "abysimal" outside USA nor are in UK.
Your ignorance about the topic is evidence by the fact that you compare one mobile phone model (iPhone) with the entire lineup of other mobile phone makers, these line-ups consist of hundreds of model with prices that starts at 0-10$ vs. one high-level product that starts at 600$ or with high priced monthly fees. Ever heard the argument of market share vs. profits?
Please.

You ask what I could do with a tablet that I can't do with my iPhone or my MacBook Pro? Simple: take notes in meetings. I'd buy one for that capability alone. But it would require a stylus, which Steve Jobs has declared anathema.

More detailed argument here:

http://academicvc.com/2010/01/03/why-a-tablet/

Rabidcb,

Thanks for posting that link. It takes a special talent to get everything so utterly wrong, and with his predictions around the iPhone, Mr Wilcox has proven that he has this talent in spades; indeed, he should be required to post that link as a caveat with every piece he publishes going forward.

High-larious!

Consider that this is the same clueless moron that predicted the failure of the iPhone prior to it's release. http://www.microsoft-wat..._the_you_in_iphone.html

I'm not sure I agree, although only time will tell who was right, of course. Back in the year 2000, Steve Jobs gave a talk in which he laid out his plans for digital media and computers. I'll be darned if he didn't reveal his whole game plan, and you know what? He was spot-on. The stock price of Apple reflects the genius of his vision. While I'd be loathe to bet against Jobs merely on the basis of reputation, my own experience tends to confirm the need for a tablet.

I've got a desktop Mac at home, an iPhone, and a PC laptop required by my job. I love my Mac - it is a joy to use, it is reliable, stylish, and almost always works works well. My iPhone is my constant companion. It is a source of news while I'm on the subway (downloaded news Apps), reading (I have 5 ebook readers), and music/podcasts. I love it. I also love how it can take the front page of the NY Times and make it useable. On the bus or the subway, I can hold it in one hand while the other hand hangs on for dear life. On the bus, I can use Skype, Yahoo, Aim, Facebook, etc. And I can use Twitter either with or without a connection. I love accessing my Dropbox files, too!

But you know what? When I'm home, I prefer my Mac to the iPhone. My eyes are over 50 (even if my mind isn't), so I can use the larger screen size. I love the screen real estate that gives me multiple running programs (don't even want this on an iPhone). My PC laptop? I don't like it so much. Mainly, the screen is not that useful, even though it's a fairly good PC (I'm not going to discuss the constant displeasure with and frustrations of the OS). Also, carrying this laptop adds 7 lbs plus another bag to my luggage. With all the commuting and the walking, it's too much. It actually hurts my back and shoulders (my over 50 muscles, again).

I'd like a lightweight tablet size machine that would also display magazines in their proper proportions. I can read books on the iPhone all day, because I really only want to read the words, and the iPhone display is clear, bright, and the font size adjustable. But I love reading Wired Magazine - did you ever compare the paper version to the online version? NOT the same. If the tablet and the software can create a display with the aesthetic joy of the original, this *will* be a winer. If the OS is as pleasurable as the iPhone OS, this will be a big winner. Especially if it has all the panache and drool factor that Apple infuses into all of its recent products.

It will be interesting to see who is right.

Interesting article that, I believe, asks some logical questions. However I think you've given into too much of the Logical of Spock and jettisoned the Passion of Kirk. The geeks and nerds know what I'm talking about.

About "living up to the hype", I think we'll have to take a wait-and-see attitude on this to be absolutely sure. The same was said about the iPhone and yet it more than lived up to it and continues to captivate the majority of its users every time they pick it. If only it had service that worked better... sigh.

Your questions to us...

"What would you use an Apple tablet, or any other, for?"

The answer I think that best fits here is "What WON'T I use an Apple tablet for?" If you look at the dedicated tablet devices on the market currently from Amazon, Sony and Barnes & Noble, you see that, while they might do a few things other than reading, Reading is really their trick. They represent the famous 1-Trick pony. I think the iSlate will become the 100,000-Trick Pony. Just as the iPhone is benefitting greatly from the ever-growing App Store, this device will also have an App Store that position the iSlate as the Can-Do-Anything device. There will be overlap for sure of software from the iPhone's App store to the Tablet's. Most likely Apple will devise some way for the owners of software for the iPhone/iPod Touch to get a version for the iSlate at a discount. There is lots of software that I'd love to pay to have on both devices as long as it was really rewritten to maximize it's potential on the iSlate.

I don't think you've directed your question to the right people. You'd get much different answers (and accurate ones) if you asked developers what type of software they'll write. Some of it that will mirror much of what they're currently offering and some brand new stuff. Much of it will be completely new that just won't work that well on a small device.

As for me, while I'll use it for a myriad of things, the thing that I really can't wait is for magazine subscriptions. The reading now and the reading in the future. Magazines and newspapers have only been such temporal things. You read them and then you toss them. I hate the day when I have to heave out 6 month's of magazines. It happens twice a year and I just hate it. There are ways of storing them, but most people just don't care enough about magazines to do this. Or they care, but simple don't have the space... so... they throw them out really before they'd like simply because the stack they're creating has just gotten unruly. I look forward to the day when I have literally years of magazines that I can refer to anytime I choose -- Spotlight will be our friend when we need to look up subject that could be in any of a hundred magazines. I think it's going to be awesome to hold to our content like this. It will make them much more valuable.

"What in the answer to that question is something you can't do on an iPhone (or other smartphone) or laptop?"

I don't see magazines really being pushed like I think they will most likely be on an Apple tablet. You can do magazines in digital format (I've had a Zinio subscription to Macworld, but it seemed to be kind of clumsy with a mouse and tied to a desktop [which I was]). Even on a laptop, you're dealing with a track pad, which I think is worse than a mouse. I think a touchscreen device is really need to navigate a magazine quickly and efficiently. Also, the size and orientation will be much more like navigating the real thing. Another thing that will help pump millions back into the publishers pockets will be creating digital versions of their past magazines. What was long considered to be dead content could suddenly have new life just as music from history past now has room to live again on the virtual store shelves of the iTunes Store. Sure, not all magazines will have the appeal that some will have, but many will.

Another thing I think we'll see is an uptick on board or card games being played by two or more. When the "cards" or "game pieces can be the same size as their real world counterparts, we'll see a lot more people buying these games and playing them. It's not that you can't play games between two people, it's that you just don't -- when dealing with an iPhone, iPod Touch or laptop. It kind of reminds me of the great table-top games back in the late 80s. Backlit and big, it was really just a giant tablet between two people. Sure there's this type of thing on the App store, but with such a small screen, it just doesn't make it practical.

Will the iSlate outsell the iPhone? No. But, will it change the way millions interact with the digital world? Absolutely.

What will I use a tablet or crunchpad or HP Slate or 8" x 10" iPhone for? Well I don't travel except when driving my Prius between work and home and I have a Panasonic Tough Book at work and an Apple MacBook pro at home. I also have a Verizon Envy (for voice calls) and an iPod touch (for apps only). There are millions of people who match my market "niche," many with the cash to buy what makes sense to them. I'm a reader of books, blogs, online papers, and media. I also subscribe to Netflix. When my wife is watching her shows on the family TV, I currently use my laptop as an e-book reader, a web reader, a Netflix movie viewer, and as a Microsoft Word and Excel and Visio and Powerpoint to develop, copy, and paste text to dropbox, Facebook and blogs like this. I could make this work indefinitely, but would rather not. Grow the iPod into an 8" by 10" device and you got my attention. Let me surf the internet and use scrolling to read newspapers and books in large font sizes. Let me do this for $999 and the sale is almost made. Tell me my iPod-Touch apps work here and the credit card is wielded. On man's niche is another man's universe.

I think you are missing the point about tablets.
If ereaders can sell for $260 and more, it shows the interests for high portability of a light product.
If the Tablet is a good internet device, ereader, music player and maybe video calls interface, that makes it a good alternative to laptops.
Most people don't use their laptops for much more...

The world may not need this, but Apple should at least try and who knows, it may create a new revolution. If enough people like it and it "trickles down" mainstream and spawns clones, who knows, maybe it can start to change minds.

The only constant is change, whether we are ready for it or not. We cannot predict what the computing future will be like, since this is being decided by the younger generation. Our generation who shunned notebooks over desktops, now most companies have notebooks. Our generation who shunned Apple newton, now iPhone/Blackberry/WinMo/Android is part of everyday corporate life. When netbooks came out, they said it would fail and not replace notebooks. Now netbooks are new reality and replaced notebooks for some people (Sales people, writers, students, or people who travel often). iTablet/iBook has potential to be that next evolution, but only way to know is release it and find out. The worst thing to do is not doing anything. Better to try and fail then never try at all. You cannot discover new things if you are not willing to risk something.

Great article, I too doubt the viability of the tablet as anything other than a niche product. Some have argued that they'll take a multimedia angle - sort of a Kindle on steroids. This makes little sense because as popular as the Kindle is it is still a niche product. Outside of airports and coffee shops I've never seen one in use.

Dialing into the iTunes ecosystem will prevent the device from being a complete failure but I seriously doubt it has enough "oomph" to make a place for itself as a mainstream device.

I agree,

It is simply Apple's answer to the Kindle. High res graphics, browser, etc. You wouldn't want to word process on something that sucks to type on.

I personally love e-ink and how easy it is on the eyes. A nice LED booklight makes it perfect for me.

Apple is an American company. So, I hope people buy the crap out of it. It's just nothing I would overpay for.

I could see these tablets replacing the whole consumer notebook market. Fact is, most consumers don't need notebooks and notebooks are too complicated for most consumers. You'll be able to stand it up and connect a bluetooth keyboard to it to get a more traditional desk top experience. It will be interesting to see if Apple can get it below $500 or $600.

Apple are only expanding their product line (MacBook Air and now this). Since they haven't captured the full-fledged computer market, but are having success with the iPhone, their thinking is why not try again with a different oomph inducing factor? But since this product competes with desktop Windows, it's not going to sell more than Windows machines.

http://munrostewart.word...l-buy-a-tablet-computer/

7 reasons why people will buy a tablet computer

This is a response to an article by Joe Wilcox from BetaNews titled The world doesn't need an Apple tablet, or any other. It's an interesting article where he basically states that tablet computers can't become as popular as PCs, laptops, mp3 players, and smartphones, because it is a niche product and is too much of a middle product between laptops and smartphones. He has some interesting points. Tablets have definitely had trouble becoming mainstream devices and part of that problem has been overlapping market segments and the fact people may not buy four separate computers including a desktop, laptop, tablet, and phone.

I disagree with his article though. The main reason that I believe tablets will succeed and become popular is because I think they will replace laptops for regular users. It's that simple. Eventually, a typical home user will have a desktop all in one computer, a tablet portable computer, and a mobile smartphone. They may have only one or two of them. So the addressable market is anyone who currently owns a laptop or netbook. Below are some points answering some of the questions he poses. These advantages that a tablet has over a laptop and other reasons are why I think Apple's tablet and other tablets will replace laptops and netbooks.

One good point is that tablet computers won't have a keyboard

Not having a regular keyboard is the big issue and a really good point. It was the same argument with the iPhone and makes an even better argument for tablets trying to replace laptops. But while touchscreen typing isn't as quick as a physical keyboard I think it will be good enough for a lot of people to provide the other benefits that a tablet computer gives you over a laptop. Also it will be better than an iPhone, allowing for four, six, or eight finger typing. That was a weird sentence I know. Anyway, there will eventually be small wireless keyboards that you can take on longer trips that work with tablets for whenever you can get to a desk and stand your tablet up. Or you can sync and do your longer typing on your desktop. I will admit that I think that touchscreen tablets that also have a keyboard like a traditional laptop will be popular for quite awhile, but I do think the great form factor of a tablet will be extremely popular as well and will win over every day users who don't need to type long articles. Just as now the iPhones and iPod Touch are quite popular but so are Blackberry devices and the Palm Pre with a hardware keyboard.

1. People will use an Apple tablet to do everything that they currently do on a laptop, but it will provide a better experience for doing those things.

It's not that new technology allows you to do new tasks usually, but it provides a better experience, is easier to use, provides a quicker way to carry out those tasks, and is more portable allowing us to use it in different places. A typewriter or paper and pen can help you write documents just like Microsoft Word can on a computer. A record player can play music just like an mp3 player can. But new and continually improving technology makes a better experience for completing all the tasks we do in life. Tablet computers will provide a better overall experience than laptop computers for many tasks, eventually replacing them or at least merging most of its technology with them. And it will certainly provide a better experience for many tasks than smartphones do, even if it is less portable.

2. A tablet has a bigger screen than an iPhone and also a larger keyboard.

Screen size is a big determining factor in what the experience is like when doing things on a gadget or device. Again, a tablet's larger screen won't necessary allow you to do new tasks that an iPhone doesn't do, but it will make the experience better. A tablet will make reading, writing and watching videos much more enjoyable and simpler to do on a tablet compared to an iPhone. Many other tasks will be better as well including looking at pictures, browsing the web, email and communication, games, and shopping. Basically anything you use a computer for can be improved in some way with a larger screen. You can't underestimate how much screen size can improve an experience. The tablet will also have a larger keyboard and some other features that are better than the iPhone, such as possibly a webcam and a good video chatting experience. But the screen size alone gives it a completely different and better experience for many tasks than a smartphone.

3. A tablet computer is more portable than a laptop.

Portability and size of computers are also big factors in determining your experience with a computer and when, where, and how often you will use them. Laptops, PDAs, and most recently netbooks and smartphones have allowed people to use technology while being more portable. A tablet certainly isn't as portable as a smartphone that you put in your pocket but it doesn't need to be. It's more portable than a laptop and easier to quickly take and use somewhere, whether that is to another room in the house, out for the day, or on a vacation. It's not a huge portability improvement like say a Palm PDA over a desktop computer. But it's still a substantial improvement, such as the Palm PDA was over the Newton's size, or current netbooks are over a laptop with a 15 inch screen. Not having to open the computer makes a tablet much more portable and easier to use on the go than a laptop. Remember those old Handheld PCs from HP and others that ran Windows CE and opened up like a tiny little laptop, before Pocket PCs were made. The Palm stylus devices and later Pocket PCs from Microsoft were so much better for quickly using. But tablets will also be lighter and skinnier than most current laptops and netbooks while still providing a good processor to perform tasks.

4. A tablet computer has proven multitouch for simplicity and current laptops don't.

------------------------- Continued at ------------------------

http://munrostewart.word...l-buy-a-tablet-computer/

Gruber said it best... http://daringfireball.net

You have to look at whatever this is as a new computing device. Current tablets are computers. Whatever Apple is making will not be.

I would hope it’s more then a bigger iTouch. That just screams limited market. You can’t compare a $600+ device to a Kindle as they are not the same. So I struggle with anything with no defined purpose with a big price tag being a success (however that is defined). I seriously am not going to buy a Apple tablet that only runs iPhone Apps / e-content.

I also question the usability of such a device is the lone way to interact is holding it (or laying it on a table/your lap) for any length of time. Back specialists are going to see in uptick in people suffering “Tablet back”!

So say everything we think is exactly what Apple announces – a 10.1? iTouch that is connected to iTunes ecosystem that now features e-content (books, magazines, text books). It will all come down to pricing of the device as well content. If it’s $500 or less and content priced attractively (books $5.00, text books $10-30, magazines $1 – 5) then I’d consider it but I feel pricing will take a few years to get there.

I (along with millions of other consumers) already have a iPhone / iTouch, Macbook, Mac, PC’s, laptop, Smartphones etc. What I don’t need is to further tie myself to Apple as the sole media publisher.

Now if this was a touch based Mac with Snow Leapord and ability to connect via bluetooth the iPhone / iTouch as a larger display, bluetooth headsets and keyboards for functionality – I’d consider the expense worthwhile and something that could REPLACE some of technology I already use.

I love the back and forth among Apple users who are saying both - The iPhone is lousy for consuming web/media/ebook as well it's great. There is a large personal perference in all this, even moreso then traditional computing.

And please teens, college kids who have little to no purchasing power outside of good old mom & dad are not any indication of a products success.

As noted success of this is defined by niche and considering Apple has always been niche whatever it sells well be seen as a "success".

I predict $799 with option for Verizon service to reduce cost to $499. Pricing for ebooks similar to Amazon.

I am pretty enthusiast about an upcoming Apple tablet. One of the reason is that I don't own an iPhone. I have a SE G700, it is a much smaller and lighter SmartPhone with a touch screen and a traditional numeric keyboard. I think it is a much more practical phone than an iPhone. But I like some other Apple products. I have a iPod classic, which, coupled with iTunes is a very good mp3 reader and I have got an iMac because it runs Logic Pro which I use for making music.

I see three compelling applications for an Apple tablet:
- I want a touchscreen version of Novation's Automap to control my music. It will soon exist on the iPhone or iPod Touch, but this is a good example of an application that begs for a bigger touchscreen.
- I want a portable device to look at photos. The iPhone is too small to make any justice to good photos.. the larger the screen the better. But I don't want to drag my friends in front of a computer either. By the same token it could make a good digital photo frame.
- I spend much time surfing on sites like this one.This kind of navigation requires minimal keyboard interaction... but I want two things: a screen that is comfortable enough for my eyes and a connection to my home wireless LAN.

Frankly the list of good applications I see for a tablet is much longer. The only thing that could prevent me to buy one is I was obliged to subscribe to a 3G contract one. I don't want a larger iPhone. I told you !

I've been hoping for this product for a long time, and I'll buy it immediately. The Kindle was almost there, and the nook was closer, but neither product offered enough to induce me to me stop reading ebooks on my Touch.

Look if you build an apple Tablet that can have forms written on it I WILL buy it. I had the HP tablet it wasnt bad but it was windows and dumb. Any thing apple as made has exceeded my windows machines. I for one am looking forward to this item when it comes out.

Does the world need a tablet? I don't know about the world. I only know about myself. Do I need a tablet? "Need" is a strong word. I can say that the one gadget for which I have been anxiously waiting for a very long time is a gadget that looks like a larger-screen iPod, with no cell phone functionality, but with a user-facing webcam, Skype-like capability, and, very preferably, a secondary eInk screen that can be snapped on and off at will for text reading. I don't want to use it to control my home appliances, but it would be nice if it could function as a caller ID screen for my landline telephone so that I don't have to get up while watching Rachel Maddow and walk to the phone on the wall just to see who is calling. Is there an app for that? Well, there should be.

I never thought I would get a personal cell phone until I was able one day to save the life of an infant trapped inside a car in the mall parking lot by calling security, using a cell phone I was required to carry for my previous job. I instantly became a convert. Since then, I have resigned my day job and become a freelancer, with no regular office hours, so the cell phone became more than just a what-if-there-was-an-emergency gadget. It is my business line.

And then the iPhone was born. I loved the idea of it, but I could not see myself using it. I like my phone to be smart, but I don’t like smartphones. I like my phone to have an impressive array of functions to support all kinds of voice-based, text-based, and rich-media messaging, including messages to myself (like shopping lists, sticky notes, reminders, alarms, etc.), but not much else. I have come to tolerate a still/video camera, but not really expect much from it. I have a 5MP camera on my cell phone, but I still don’t like the pictures it makes. I keep upgrading to a phone with a higher pixel count every time I renew my mobile phone plan, but the cameras keep disappointing me.

The point is that I don’t like to use my phone for anything not related to its basic function. Typing reports, watching (or, God forbid, editing) films or TV, playing games, using GPS with real time voice instructions to get to the football stadium to pick up my daughter, reading a book or the daily news, checking my credit card account, paying my electric bill – all of these cry out for a separate device. There are small apps that come with almost any cell phone on the market today for transient functions: calculator, unit convertor, timer, etc. These are innocuous add-ons that do not alter the basic nature of the device, and may occasionally even come in handy. And I like storing a few photos on my cell phone the way I used to carry photos in my wallet, but nothing more ambitious than that.

With this attitude, I was not looking forward to buying an iPhone when it appeared. I was, instead, looking forward to an iPhone-like iPod – the iPod Touch. When it finally appeared, I bought one for my wife as a birthday present. She still has that first generation iPod Touch, albeit with updated software, and she still loves it.

My wife was surprised that I did not buy one for myself. I told her although I love the idea of the iPod Touch, I was still not sure it filled the bill for me. I asked her to let me take her iPod for a brief ride to check it out for myself. I was still quite impressed, but the size was underwhelming.

I was sure Apple would rectify that. After all, they have from the beginning recognized the sensitive issue of the “proper size,” and they seemed to have concluded that you cannot impose a one-size-fits-all and come out a winner. Instead, in addition to the delicious array of colors, they marketed the iPod in an array of sizes to fit the largest segment of the population. What irritated me was that every time they tweaked their lineup, they seemed most interested in impressing us with how small they can make the device. The Shuffle, for example, became so tiny I wondered where they were going with it. But I had hopes that one day they would s*** their attention to the other end of the size spectrum and move on to a man-size iPod Touch.

Thinking about the size of handheld devices in general, I placed a credit card on the face of my wife’s iPod for size comparison, and the credit card won handily – by half an inch diagonally. What were they thinking, them people at Apple, I wondered. They expect me to watch Jurassic Park on a screen that is shorter than my J.C. Penney’s card? How big should an iPod be if it is to have a visual function that goes beyond scrolling menus? I took one of my business cards and cut it short so that it would match the screen of an iPod, and then made three more of those cardboard screens. I arranged the four cut cards in a 2x2 arrangement, and there it was! I imagined myself a Deputy Product Dreamer (DPD) at Apple, and I called the 2x2 invention iPod2. I measured it from corner to corner, and it was 7 1/2”. As a diligent DPD, I made five more of these cut cards and arranged the nine cards in a 3x3 arrangement. I measured the diagonal, and it was 11”. Now that is iPod3.

There you have it – a product lineup to cover every need and budget. Every one of them is essentially an ultra-portable storage device with flash memory, not unlike your typical thumb drive, but each one adds an increment of value, form no more than playing mp3 files to running graphic-intensive interactive apps. The visual fun begins with the Nano, graduates to the Touch, and hopefully does not stop there, but moves on to the logical next step.

Looked at this way, the large-screen iPod is not a middle child at all. It is the upper end of the line. It is the only child in that family that meaningfully fulfills the promise of video ultra-portability (or ultra-portable viewability). This yet unborn child would not suffer the middle child syndrome. It is the existing iPod Touch that could potentially suffer such a fate.

Such a device would still be hand-held, possibly with two hands, not one. Come to think of it, it is the only way to hold a hand-held device if you are going to type anything in it, play a game, or do anything. I really cannot figure out how people put up with the existing iPod in its present size. It feels comfortable in your hand so long as you don’t do anything with it, but to actually handle it, it has got to ergonomically fit two hands, not one. The increased size would bring it up to the ergonomics of adult human anatomy.

Such a device would also still be a pocket device – not your breast pocket, but your jacket pocket. It would still fit, at least the 7” version would fit, in a woman’s purse. It would still be ultra portable. You cannot say that about a laptop. The laptop is a portable full-fledged computer. You put up with its bulk, weight, and anti-ergonomic keyboard and mouse pad when you want to do heavy-duty work. Most travelers do not carry work, but they still need the Internet, email, Skype, YouTube, movies, games, books, and possibly GPS navigation – the things that an iPod almost could do if it used Extenze.

Most importantly, you would not have to spend 80% of your web-surfing time zooming in and out and scrolling sideway.
Would this be a niche product. Heck, yes. Does Apple make anything that is not niche? The Mac is a niche product. That has never stood in the way of its success.

What about connectivity and the cost of connectivity? You don’t need a 3G data plan for this device. It is not a cell phone that needs to be connected 24 hours a day, everywhere you go. That is part of the beauty of separating your eggs. This is a device where most apps work offline anyway – very airplane-friendly. You hook it to Wi-Fi just as you would a laptop (or tether it to your cell phone if you have to) whenever you want to do an online activity when you land in Wi-Fi land. Wi-Fi land is limited, you say, but it is expanding more rapidly than Israel did in its first 20 years.

I'm sorry, but I call bullshiat. We're not in the same place we were 5 years ago with this middling stuff. We're in the wireless cell / gps / interconnected world of the now, and just think of 2015:

http://mindtaker.blogspo...e-i-can-has-camera.html

Civilians really don't need laptops or even netbooks. They NEED something that facilitates what they want to do, which is communicate and share. That's my wishlist for 2015, have a read.

-Drunken Economist
http://mindtaker.blogspot.com/
http://twitter.com/drunk_economist

Drunken nice blog site u have, only thing is:

Obama is Gen X'r not a baby boomer (defined between 1961-1981)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_x

Google and Apple are not as "saintly" as you think they are. Apple and Google pick OSS and lock up the rest to suit to their liking. Anyone in marketing can create a code of conduct. It's up to individuals to follow them. Good and Evil knows no boundaries. Also don' assume that whole genX/boomers/genY/millenials share the same ideals because they don't. And taking care of the earth is everyone's responsibility. You think it's not that big a cause for concern...until people starting using your lawn/yard/porch as their personal dumping bins.

(Morpheus to Neo ) Free.. Your... Mind!

Most people think that the bigger screen will be the factor that would make the tablet a success. Here's an idea. Instead of bulding a new tablet, how about making it possible to hook a smartphone (be it an iphone or any other) to a "Docking station" of some sort that would enable it to a) increase screen size to 10-12 inches b) increase battery life thru a secondary battery on the "Docking station" etc, while at the same time share communication link (internet, phone numbers etc and OS). Would this be the ideal platform or what? Off the docking station it's a regular smartphone, plug-it in (actually hook it in, so you only need to carry one thing) the "Docking Station" and you have some kind of tablet.If somebody builds something like this I have the rights (..lol).

That's is a great idea, however...
By the time you add a screen, battery, add some sort of graphics communication processor you will end up with a basic ARM setup. Might as well add WIFI and you have a tabled that no longer needs an phone.

I made such a device (primary use was Windows SideShow) and now I don' have real uses for it.... The difference in btween a dumb graphics terminal (you call it docking station) and a fully featured tabled is just few dollars.

Anyway, nice idea... Could work ofor Android devices, since they are a bit more open.

I guess the critics aren't watching the users....

Over the last two weeks, with my daughters home from college, I have watched them at various times of the day lying on sofas or in their bedrooms, their Macbooks open, reading the news, listening to music, on Skype with friends, watching movies, doing stuff. Meanwhile, every morning, my wife sits down at the kitchen table with her Macbook and logs on to Facebook to catch up on her friends and read the news. After breakfast, she shuts down the MB and settles down with her Kindle to pick up where she left off in her book.

So what do I see for myself as an equally avid user of online content? I'd like a tablet that's big enough to watch a movie or TV on (sorry, my Touch is just too small), and can handle HD content. I'd like a tablet with a "page like" screen so I don't need a Kindle or rather, I can combine the e-book virtues of a Kindle like device but still satisfy my random need to access the internet in the middle of a page or send someone an email with a quote from the book (I'm Mr. Tangent). Now please add to my tablet GSM hardware so that it is also a phone if I want it to be (why not....if I'm going to need 3G capability anyway) and I'm happy. Allow the device to swap between Wifi networks to 3g where it needs to on the basis of keeping my costs down and I'll be impressed (my Blackberry Curve does this, so why not?). Does this negate my Blackbery? Nope - I will use a twin SMS card and move from one device to the other depending on where I am and what I want to do. The principle reason I was never sold on an iPhone was the size of the screen - sure, it's a tablet too, but a tablet too small to be useful. The touch keyboard is too impractical for intense messaging, hence my preference for a blackbery, and the screen too small for proper surfing, much less e-reading. So I carry a Macbook Air. Outside of the office, where I'm churning through a couple of hundred emails a day, I really don't use a keyboard much as I'm either reading news, watching a movie or shopping. I'm ready for my "iSlate" now....

What makes you think "The Users" are only your family? You are forgetting about the millions of people who can't afford a Macbook for every family member. I've never seen anyone brag so much in one post.

I am a critic because it doesn't answer the biggest issue out there. How to connect the world. Not your rich family (or should I say Apple Poor family). I'm sure Steve Jobs is glad to hear you are doing great and can't wait to buy more of his stuff! :)

I am a proud owner of an Apple tablet, the 'Modbook', a modified Macbook from a company called Axiotron. I have had it since April of '08. And it is a complete niche machine... as it is now.

The took a Macbook, removed screen and keyboard, and replaced with a pen based Wacom screen (no touch on this). Under that is a full on Macbook, with all original ports, magsafe power, isight, and even the Superdrive. They even put a GPS in, but I have not found a use for that, yet.

When first announced, graphic artists, who use a lot of Apples, were chomping at the bit. (You may not have heard their voices in the latest round of speculations as they all seem to be under deadlines and don't come up for air a lot.) The idea of taking their art (and it is art, and what they can do is amazing) on the road, or even onto the couch, was heaven. I am not an artist, but I do like to sketch. My kids love to draw on it. It is fun and a lot less messy than their fingerpaints. But for serious artists, it was still a little too little. It was not the Macbook Pro with better graphics, et al. It did not have the shortcut buttons (al la Wacom and other digitizers) which hinders workflow. Screen is not bright enough.

The pros are many: portability; input is ok with several screen keyboards and handwriting software (bluetooth keyboard for when I need to type a lot.); for graphics people, not having the cable to their digitizers is great. The pen input is nice and precise, as I have had to edit many pictures, and have cut and pasted many people in, and out, with ease.

Cons are many, also: it's heavy (it has a platter hard drive, not a solid state); it can be warm to hold; battery life (a little less than stock laptop); no 3G unless i plug in my ATT stick (which is another monthly charge). No stand to hold it up when you are not holding it.

A very niche machine. But way cool, too. I can wander my office while researching, I can move from table to chair to conference room. I can put my feet up, and truly have a laptop. I can draw, browse the web, listen to music (again bluetooth, this time headphones). I can do most anything I can do on my Mac at home. (I also use pc's at work and home, so I am not a complete macaholic, but have found my several laptops a pain.)

If Apple wanted to improve on this, make their rumored tablet an iphone or ipod companion/ laptop killer. Tie the amazing iphone ease of interface with a bigger screen (a dock for iphone would be cool). Tie the 3G together for dual use on the road. As others have said, cooperation with apps developers has paid off. If apps and other programs could be shared between iphone and tablet, it could be a seamless workflow. Screen should be selectable touch and/or pen for more types of uses. Iphone has proven that on-screen keyboards are usable. Programable buttons on exterior. For software, give it the optical drive-sharing ability of the Macbook Air. 'These are a few of my favorite things'.

I hope your assessment that the tablet is a non starter is wrong, as I have found the laptop/notebook/netbook form factor undesirable, and current alternatives lacking.

If they built it, I would buy it.

Well, if it exists, it's nothing like a PC tablet, that's for sure. I don't think it will be earth shattering, but it would be terribly interesting (hence the hype), and I'd buy one if it was priced reasonably, which probably means no. It will probably be the predicted one-piece versus the PC style flippable screen - and if it's larger than an iPhone, will present an awkward, ergonomic challenge; you'll have to put it on a table, hold it up, or it'll have a stand of some sort. A totally solid state device, i.e. no spinning hard drive, would help in battery life, and battery technology is a rapidly advancing field. It could also have interesting military applications, but the DoD would have to get over the "gayness" of Apple. Or even better, Apple needs to get rid of the gayness - have some manly ads, get serious about marketing their products to business. Everyone who sees my Mac for the first time laughs - until they see me running 5 vmware virtual machines at once. The technical prowess of their devices don't come across in their advertising. It would be an interesting machine, a one-of-a-kind - and I like new - sign me up.

Joe, with all due respect, the reason you do what you do (a critic, of sorts) and don't work for Apple is that you lack vision. You see things as they are and think "No way!" Steve and the engineers at Apple see things the way they are and say "Why not?". Either that, or your hoping for a lot of hits by writing a controversial headline and blog. Many of the posters here have written many good reasons why the tablet will be success (as you requested). You should listen to them. As for the hype, you do realize that it is mostly on venues such as yours where this hype exists. Outside of the tech blogs, the world is pretty much unaware of the tablet, let alone hyping it. Two of my children that would be in the target demographic hadn't even heard of it until they heard me talking about to a friend. Joe, I suggest you calm down and wait for the tablet's release, get your hands on one and do a proper review. Then we can all wait to see if it sells 1 million or 10 million. By the way, don't underestimate the middle child, my son, who is a middle child is a surgeon.

Wayne, how about easing off the sanctimonious condescension just a touch.

Since you are aware of the fact that the author requested responses, you should also be aware that he doesn't need your advice to take what they say into account.

The Apple Tablet has hit the "front page" on Google News just about every day since before Christmas. The New York Times web site alone has run 6 articles in the last week either directly about the Apple Tablet or mentioning it as a major component of the main subject. CNN's web site has a headline for it on its home page as I type this. The hype has certainly expanded beyond "tech blogs".

And while your middle child certainly deserves kudos for becoming a surgeon, "middle child syndrome" is simply a metaphor, and the Oxford English Dictionary blog is probably a better venue for critiquing its validity.

And, in spite of your desire to turn Steve Jobs into Willy Wonka, Apple doesn't always succeed. The aforementioned Cube was a pretty big deal when it came out, but it fell flat on its face. The author is absolutely correct that the iPod and the iPhone did not take faltering technologies and fix them, but rather took successful technologies and vastly improved them. The notion that an iPhone that is 3 times as big would be just as desirable as an iPhone is extremely questionable, and that's essentially what a tablet is, and that's essentially what this article does.

"...what will really distinguish it from iPhone -- other than better hardware, larger size and perhaps flashier UI?"

Umm, better hardware, larger display and better UI are PLENTY to distinguish a new Apple tablet. Just four already-existing app categories: books, movies, GPS and games are more than enough to make an Apple tablet a winner (after all the totally lame Kindle was a best seller). And Apple will almost assuredly add some surprises.

As to battery life the technology is here now and improving rapidly; proven by the latest Macbook Pros and Nikon DSLRs (1000+ large RAW photos per charge). Better still no doubt in a 2010 portable Apple device.

@Sierra Dragon, I have to challenge your "winner" categories. You said books, movies, GPS and games is that correct? Let's go through those.
Books:
For the apple tablet to be as flashy as any Apple device that deserves the name, we all agree it'll have to have a glass display right? none of that synthetic stuff like the kindle right? well glass is heavy my friend. especially 10.1 inches of it. if you've held a kindle, the first thing you'll notice is the light weight. So yes im sure the reading app will be available, but it won't be a go-to device for reading because of its weight. Plus you thought dropping your iphone sucked? wait till you drop this and see what happens. Remember, it's glass.

Movies:
this is my favorite, because you obvisouly havent imagined this. picture yourself say in a plane, trying to watch a movie on your tablet. which is it, will you hold the tablet for 3 hours so you can lay back? will you lay it flat on your retractable airplane table and lean above it? or will you need some sort of dock? point is, the ergonomics dont work for watching a movie. you need a screen that faces you, and thats a fact not a lack of vision. thats why we put tvs on our walls.

GPS.
common, be real. GPS? you need GPS only when you're on the move. Will you really walk down the street with your tablet? remember it's glass :)

Games
Im not a gamer so cant speak knowledgeably on this but it seems a little large and not maneuverable no? unless it's all touch games?

WRT games, the corners of the screen provide space for any virtual-button control scheme desired. The problem with the iPhone is that there's not much screen real estate left for the game itself.

As for viewing ergonomics, perhaps Apple has thought of that. An external battery would serve good double duty as a stand, wouldn't it?

I've dropped my iPod Touch and it didn't crack but of course 10" is a lot more mechanically stressed than the Touch's 3.5".

biztec- I myself, and I have seen others, have watched whole movies on my Ipod touch on the plane...which requires both holding the device up and holding it close to my face...even while having a laptop in my bag...why not on PD laptop? I got movies on Itunes...someone is even selling a bean bag thing, called moviewedge for people viewing things on their Iphone/touch/other smart phones..I would glady forego bulk of laptop if it means I have to hold device

I think Mr. Wilcox will be(is) greatly mistaken. The tablet will be the best of both worlds. Cell phones are too small and laptops are to cumbersome. Is Mr Wilcox forgetting the growing popularity of the B&W readers? Add full motion media with a touch screen interface and you have yourself an intuitive media consumption device. Personally, I would like one about the size of the kindle and another that is larger. The smaller of the two would never leave my side.

Who was it from IBM that said that people will never need a personal computer??? I think Mr. Wilcox will find a place in history next to him.

here it is... http://www.rinkworks.com/said/predictions.shtml

@SaraLaredo - Great points, between Apple's experience with Itunes and with App store, they are positioned better than any entity to come up with a way to make a profitable and desirable ways to deliver previously printed content in digital form. If they can create a publishing version of Itunes for books, magazines, they could create money for publishers and themselves. Just sell the e-content for a price that subtracts cost of printing and physical distrubuting, add back in any extra cost of layout for e-use, and cost of e-distribution and sell the books at that price, Apple gets a cut for being retailer (much smaller than a phsyical retailer would recall due to their lower costs to retail e-books), publishers get a cut for editing, marketing, author hopefully makes the most, books could be cheap and everyone could still make good money for their part of bringing book to you.

Imagine Apple creating a great system to distribute book content to there tablet and then the tablet also allows you to view and share nice big gorgeous photos and videos you have personally shot, websurf/social network, watch tv/downloaded videos, play games that use touch screen and motion detection, and download apps to do things important to you like certain calcs, guitar tuning, bird spotting etc......you have a winner!

The only thing that Apple could do to really screw this up is charging too much initially. That, in my mind is how they killed Newton. Palm became big,so there was a market, they just went too costly at it. I know they like to charge a lot at first to get dollars out of early adopters, but they have to make sure this gets popular, and $1000 doesn't do, it $600 could.

Apple learned the value of cooperation and was rewarded with the runaway success of iPhone apps. Relationships will be key to success of a tablet, especially relationships with today's print publishers.

College students tell me they would LOVE to quit paying for and lugging around $300 textbooks. I would love to enjoy magazines, books and newspapers without having them become a housekeeping and storage hassle. Public school districts would love to quit spending millions on textbooks that become outdated before they can afford to replace them.

College freshmen nationwide already must show up for the first day of class with a computer that meets school requirements. Abilene Christian University in Texas issued free iPods or iPhones to all incoming freshmen in Sept. 2008. A properly designed Apple tablet combined with the right publishing relationships could change American culture, including education and publishing, in a VERY short span of time.

The genius of Jobs is his ability to produce game changers. I think Americans are ready for the right kind of game changer. The group that is already tech savvy — high school and college students — numbers 35 million in the U.S. Those numbers alone should make up an adequate market for a properly designed tablet connected effectively to publishing entities.

This is a good point -- what made the iPod the success it became was probably being able to easily buy music at $1 per song, a much cheaper price than trying to rip a CD and selling it used, while also providing a technical entre into the digital market for physical music manufacturers.

Content providers need a full-color ebook form factor with locked-down digital distribution of content. iPod's HVGA is too small for this. Hello 1280x720 @ 10" with PowerVR 3D rendering stack behind it.

Sky's the limit with this. Textbooks can actually have animated bits . . . like from the FUTURE.

I find it very amusing that there are whole articles discussing, analyzing, and picking apart a device that as far as we know DOES NOT EXIST!

The elephant in the room on this is battery life. The Kindle works well because the eink screen doesn't chew up a lot of power, the battery life is actually pretty good. The iPhone isn't nearly as good an ebook solution due to much poorer battery life (though if you have constant power its okay, but its not going to work on a three day trip with no chargers).

A tablet is going to suffer the same problem, what is going to power this thing to have anything resembling decent battery life?

@Tridus You asked the $64,000 question.

The tablet will have more internal real estate for a much larger battery.

Wayne, no matter how large the battery, answer this: will it run for up to 7 days online, or 14 days offline, as the Kindle DX is purported to? No laptop or smartphone can run on battery power for longer than a few hours, let alone DAYS.

However lame b&w ereaders may seem, no tablet computer can compete with the battery efficient functionality of e-ink.

husterboy is absolutely correct. If such a magic battery existed, it would already be in the MacBook Air (and dozens of other laptops), which has far more "real estate" for batteries than will a reasonably sized tablet.

The reason why eInk devices get the mileage they get is not because of "real estate", but because eInk requires very little power to change state (turn pages) and none to maintain that state, and since that's pretty much all they do, they are able to run for a week or more without a recharge.

Any kind of multimedia device is going to draw far more power. At best, netbooks get around 8-12 hours of battery life, and that is by having a huge honking battery hanging off the display hinge. Tablets will not have a hinge, and consumers will not want a tablet that does not lay flat, so a big honking battery is not an option.

The MacBook Air gets 5 hours of battery life, and you can bet that Apple hasn't been skimping on battery to get that. The requirements of a tablet would not be much less, so the battery life wouldn't be much more.

This shouldn't really be a problem. I have a 17" laptop that gets over 6 hours of battery life. I don't have to have a device that gets a week or more of battery life. When I take a tablet on a plane, as opposed to a book, a few hours will be plenty. I can plug it in when I get to my destination. I would imagine most people aren't using this days at a time without access to an outlet. Just as they don't with the iPhone or Touch.

Which would I rather have, a clunky dedicated e-reader that gets days of battery life, or a tablet that gets hours of battery life, that can function as an e-reader, as well as a portable computer that I can surf with, listen to music, and well, anything a custom app on a computer can do.

The battery life will not be a big deal as far as sales, unless it only provides 1 or 2 hours. And I doubt that will happen. The big factor for initial sales will be price. $600 for a device that is miles ahead of a Kindle or Sony e-reader will work. If they come in at $999, then that's a different story. If some of the publishers were smart, say The NY Times, they would offer $100 off the price of the tablet for a 2-years subscription, or something like that. AT&T subsidized the price of the iPhone, why not the tablet?

For anyone reading this who is unfamiliar with Joe Wilcox's writing on Apple, you might want to read this column he wrote last November:

http://www.betanews.com/...-Nokia-in-Q3/1258169110

(if you read it and don't see what I'm getting at, skip to the comments at the end). To put it mildly so as not to spoil the fun, I wouldn't buy a used car (or a new one, for that matter) from this guy.

I think you're not taking into account how many of life's activities the computer has been eating lately -- music, movies, TV, books, newspapers, telephony... and still it seems hungry. When Microsoft launched their tablets the computer and toaster weren't the only two items left in our lives. And laptops are little help, being the most deceptively named product this side of Country Time Lemonade.

These days I am so desperate to get out from behind a table and chair for at least some of my life that I put up with my iphone's too-tiny everything in order to do it. But for everything except "Scramble" I'm constantly thinking "man I wish this thing were bigger." Still, maybe that puts me in the rarified 10 percent you... hey where did you pull that number out of, anyway?

Disclosure - I don't use a Mac, my wife does however. I myself am still very tightly tied to my keyboard on my dell laptop and HTC Touch Pro.

Joe, you likely grew up on the keyboard as the most functional input possible for the computer. Given the confines of your experience and lack of imagination, I have no doubt that this article feels very accurate to you.

Input into the computer using a keyboard is temporary. Long term it will certainly be hooked directly to our thought/brain and to think that between now and then the keyboard will remain the best input....is very naive and short sighted..a common theme for someone your age after growing up with one type of technology and being afraid of the next.

Case in point, besides commenting on silly stories like this one, my days on the computer are somewhat straight forward... using Chrome I visit the same dozen sites and click links around to get informed. For fun, I search one or two words on youtube and again click crazy to view videos. Not much keyboard input yet.

Around the celebration in my life, I'm busy importing videos and photo's into Picassa and draging my mouse like crazy around organizing the photos, hitting buttons to apply various settings/filters and of course taging people that show up in a list with the click of one or two keys.

what used to be chat is now skype or google voice/video chat. I like most people speak more with images and video than text.

Yes indeed, given your line of work and perhaps the tools you use on a daily basis text input via keyboard seems like the only type of input you are willing to accept. But you (and frankly I) do not represent the growing teenage population.

A few key points for you to consider:

The average teen sends 80/texts day.
Multi touch is on the radar for Microsoft / Google / Apple for smart phones, laptops and desktops. It *is* replacing already a large part of our input on the computer already.
The iPhone is doing just fine against similar smart phones with full keyboards.

Apple has always taken the extreme and in this case said "Give me a functional device without a keyboard using the iPhone and MacBook as your inspiration." Forget about it competing with 3.5" smart phones or 13-15" laptops, Think of it as the first step to the new style of human to technology input.

Now, as I disclosed before, I'm not an Apple fan, just an informed consumer. It's success or failure isn't going to be because it's caught in the middle of two segments or because tablets are already failures, it's going to be based on three things:

1. If apple can get the hype going heavy enough for people to try it (like the iPhone)
2. If apple happened to capture the correct type of replacement for the keyboard
3. If multi touch technology , processor speed and other factors can support apple's vision

Finally to address your cube statement... you associated Apple's stock tumble to the cube. I suppose that the iPhone's release also destroyed the US economy? A single product failure isn't enough to tumble a company, they made many bad decisions that nearly destroyed the company.

They failed with the newton only to succeed a decade later with the iPhone
The Mp3 Player was out years before the iPod but it was the $500 5GB iPod that created the entire digital market.
In 1999 they invested in a new OS direction only to have it pay off 6-9 years later.

@johnfrafam "Input into the computer using a keyboard is temporary." It's not temporary. The keyboard and mouse motif will be around computers for a long time yet. But the keyboard motif makes much less sense for portable devices. Natural user interfaces make more sense. Less keyboard the better, I say. There, Google is beginning to take the lead tied to tasks that are really important to people in an everyday mobile context. Voice search and Google Goggles are but examples of the future of mobile user interfaces. But all of this makes more sense on a smartphone that's carried all the time (or nearly so). Not on a tablet.

I'm not saying there is no market for an Apple tablet. I'm simply asserting that it is a niche market, rather than mass market. That's assuming the tablet would functionally fall between an iPhone/iPod touch and laptop.

The article tackles a controversial subject quite well. The problem for me is I'll never get over the picture of the Apple Exec trying to stuff a netbook in his jeans. I see myself standing frozen as my Apple Tablet hits the airport concrete as I juggle my Starbucks coffee. The beauty of a laptop is its case. I love my IPhone and I think I learned to read a book on it very well, so long as the content interests me. The NYT is a snap to read. Small is beautiful, and the author is correct in many ways, except for one...Steve Jobs is nobody's fool and he still has time to decide to make a slightly larger phone, with multiple app capability. 20% larger and he has a winner. After all Apple Exec's except for him have nice fat asses.

"What surprises me most about the excitement and early analyst sales projections: No one is talking about addressable market."

What in the world...?? Are you seriously trying to say you didn't see any of the articles on daringfireball, macrumors, arstechnica, 9to5mac not to mention all the "what's it good for besides toilet-browsing?" quoting?

It's not no one talking about the addressable market it's *everyone* talking about the addressable market!

i commend Joe for taking a stance and a chance with this point of view, and it's a valid question raised. however i feel people are forgetting the portable dvd player and although the laptop did diminish this market, it in no way supplanted it, especially with budget-conscious familie with kids to entertain. reading through the comments, and from other personal research i've conducted, the iPhone / iTouch devices are indeed too small for most people to feel comfortable reading a book or watching a movie. i've proposed in the past on my own blog that Apple will release an 11" netbook in the style of the MacBook Air: something really light, and really thin, and with a bigger screen than most netbooks. maybe it won't even play dvd's but it will have an SD card slot, something that still is a big missing link on the iPhone i feel. imagine if iPhone played mpeg, avi, xvid, etc... and until the pico projector comes to iPhone, this netbook will definitely have cred. and as Joe pointed out the Apple trend of entering existing markets, a kick-ass netbook still makes even more sense than an overgrown iPhone.

PS Further to the Home Automation point below, remember that Apple took an investment in iControl (http://www.ehomeupgrade....tion-app-for-the-iphone/) in 2008. I think the tablet is bringing together a long-term strategic vision laid out as part of iControl and the home management integration. I suppose we will see shortly.

I think the tablet will be a huge success if priced reasonably and have multifunctional ability. I know that many owners of laptops use them as portable devices within the home as well as on the go. A smaller computing device larger than a phone is necessary to be read easily. Also, the presence of color will greatly enhance its use as a e reader. Just as there's a TV in every room, there will be a portable computer eventually connecting to the TV for individual internet programming, games, etc. People on the go don't let the size of the medium discourage them from carrying it with them. Let's not forget that radios, CD players, books and the like have been carried for decades. The tablet, hopefully, will be the ultimate portable digital communication and video entertainment device until a better one comes along.

agree with ako6 - great tablet with great purchasing system and beautiful content could make this go way beyond just books. If people are paying nearly $400 for something that is a crappy ereader, how much more would they pay for a good ereader that delivered better content on which they could also websurf and they could play games and watch movies...Kindle gets you just books, and people are gobbling it up...how bought books, better econtent in an itunes/app store, videos, music, web access for a few hundred more

no, apple is not the value player, you could get books for way cheaper than any ereader, you can get internet for free at library too, you can get cell phone service on pay as you go for 1/20 the cost of an Iphone data plan, but still some people pay, and they are not jsut apple snobs, but people who have the money and appreciate waht they get froman Ipod or a Iphone...yes, they are others that deliver almost as much as half the cost, but same can be said about Mercedes

How many books could one purchase before the price of the "i-slate" is reached? Who knows? I'm sure many appleheads will buy it because they want to have the "coolest in thing." My sentiment is "why bother". Are you so starved for time that you have to download the latest book that you MIGHT NOT LIKE. At least at a bookstore or a library, you can actually read some of the book. Used books and paperbacks are dirt cheap.

On the ereader front, Apple could do more than jsut kill
Kindle in way itunes killed other mp3 players, Apple could extend market just as Itunes and App store did. What content are people getting on ereaders now? mostly books...but with a good Itunes type experience, people would pay to read digital newspapers and magazines! if you got gorgeous, well laid out, instantly viewable content on a gorgeous reader, some would pay...shoot I still pay to get some print magazines delivered to house for this reason...would love to get them digitally and save them on a great ereader...would be awesome for cookign mags etc...also, get a very nice looking newspaper in beautiful colors every morning, I would pay something, not a lot, but something, as long as its not klunky like web pages and ads did not take forever to load...so I might pay 2 dollars a month for a gorgeous version of NYTimes...and I still see the ads, they still make ad money, wouldn't that make some serious change for content providers and Apple? Shoot, people used to get almost all their MP3s for free, and now they pay money on Itunes, go figure. If Apple was reasonably generous with revenue sharing with content providers as they were with developers for App store, there could be a whole new market for content, just as those struggling with creating Web and PC games found a whole new market in App store. Shoot, I see a market for well written how to guides etc...again, I wouldn't pay a lot, but I would pay something for something a bit better than web/youtube quality.

Completely disagree, here's why: http://www.andrejkoelewi...-huge-media-convergence/

I'm at a desktop all day at work and spend lost of time on a nice, big screen laptop at home, and have a dumb phone and a hand me down Ipod touch...while spouse has Iphone. Having used the Iphone and Ipod touch, I can totally see the appeal of the tablet, if it does certain things.

But before I say what I see as the appeal of tablet, the killer issue is what Joe brought up, the cost of an always on everywhere data plan...if the tablet is an additional data plan, it will not be as widely adopted, if you could tether an exisitng Iphone to tablet, then you would have wider base of potentially customers. But rumor was tablet would be with Verizon, and ATT is not letting people use more data. If they tablet phone/data could come at no extra cost with existing phone, the tablet would be a no-brainer hit. But even with just wifi, I think popularity of Ipod touch shows there is still lots of potential.

What I like about Iphone is touchsreen and instant/everywhere on. If I want to quick check directions on way out door, I will always reach for I phone, not laptop, as laptop must boot up. Shoot I check the temperature on the Iphone sooner than I look out at the outside thermometer, because its fast. I also like Iphone is portable, not like laptop....but a tablet could be portable enough for me, if its something easy to have in car, carry into a restaurant, coffee shop, friends house.

I would use tablet for the following things I currently do on other devices: Games - better screen than Ipod touch, touch screen and movement sensing way better than laptop which I have never played game on, better graphics than Nin DS, great games at app store, more on the way). Websurfing/news/videos - I read news every mornign on laptop, would prefer slighlty more portable tablet for this, as I do not eat while reading on laptop, but do read books and newspapers while eating and also watch TV during breakfast, especially would prefer if do not have to wait to boot up and I think tablet, with proper back support would replace TV a bit as I could surf easy with touchscreen and wathnews videos. Social networking - commenting, tweeting, facebook would be nice on tablet as long as keyboard well thought out, currently do this on laptop. Ereading - I wanted a Kindle this year (almost $400) but decided to wait to see what Apple tablet may have to offer, if it is $600 abd has good ereading system, I'd pay the extra for a more pleasant Apple experience. GPS - If tablet is portable like say a netbook, Mac Air, and has mobile phone data connection, I would keep it in car. Phone - might even work for this if I could use dumb phone connection when I'm away from tablet, and blue tooth when I have it with me, I'd pay for a simple phone for times I need most portable...I know this is a stretch, but kid can hope.

The main niche I see Apple really cleaning up on is doing to Ereading what Itunes did to MP3s. The Kindle is eerily similar to clunky MP3 players prior to Ipod. The other is gaming, as a big Ipod touch offers an upgrade to PSP, DS...doesn't replace desktop gaming or Xbox, but neither did WII...with touch screen, affordable games in app store and motion sensing tablet, lots of fun could be had. The app store is another appealing thing, a tablet could be improved app-store delivery device. Many apps already lend themselves to a bigger screen, more will come.

Maybe apple could throw in a curve, like an alternate to qwerty keyboard...typing with thumbs on bigscreen could be improved...

While I've been holding off the purchase of a Kindle and (skeptical of the CrunchPad), a properly engineered Apple tablet could make me a buyer. My iPod Touch is too small to read books (or surf the web for more than a few minutes). The Kindle is too small for me for sustained reading as well. My notebooks are too big and cumbersome for book reading or music listening. I will happily buy a light tablet if it meets these needs. The "niche" here (if you must call it that) is a very, very, large one.

"The point: Apple's stock has once again reached record levels, buoyed on the hype surrounding a product that may not even exist."

This is why people think you are a lousy writer, Joe. Every halfwit knows that AAPL was overvalued and came crashing down in 2000 because of the Internet Bubble (you may have heard of it?) and had nothing to do with either internal or external expectations for the cube. It's pretty clear that you are saying: Hey, there is no analogy here at all, but who doesn't like hearing about the failure of the Cube, so I'll blow a paragraph or two trying to draw an absurd analogy that doesn't make any sense to once again point out the Cube failed and that Apple suffers hubris, and I, Joe Wilcox, wish their stock would go down because I don't like them.

@TF123 The dot-com crash certainly precipitated the 2000-2001 recession. Apple came down because it over-anticipated Mac sales and got socked with 11 weeks of inventory when computer sales tanked. During holiday 2000. Apple executives are on record acknowledging Cube inventory problems. Shall I go back and pull quotes for you?

Yes, please. Please provide a link that demonstrates the 2000 run up and the 2001 crash were attributable to the Cube and NOT the Internet Bubble, if you seriously believe that.

Really? Your post, your argument are weak: are you really going to make it weaker by attributing Apple's stock increases of '99-00 to hype anticipating the Cube? That the Cube caused Apple's stock to crash (while coincidentally hundreds of tech stocks were)? Seriously? Please, try and keep making that point.

@TF123 Of course macroeconomics can't be ignored. But Apple had a huge build up of inventory, mostly Cube models. I've got some links for you -- and not for stories that I wrote:

http://www.macobserver.c...cle/2000/12/06.10.shtml

From CNET, Oct 2000: "On a conference call with analysts, Anderson said lower-than-expected PowerMac G4 Cube sales accounted for $90 million of the company's revenue miss. Jobs told analysts that while the Cube is 'the ultimate Macintosh for high-end consumers and professionals,' many people find the price tag too high." http://news.cnet.com/App...3-247259.html?tag=mncol

From New York Times, Jan 2001: '''Apple made tremendous progress in reducing channel inventory,'' he said. However, in a discussion with analysts he acknowledged that the company's disappointing G4 Cube desktop computer was still its highest source of backlog." http://www.nytimes.com/2...arter.html?pagewanted=1

Need I produce more? Apple executives consistently attributed the inventory backlog to the Cube and acknowledged pricing was too high. By your logic, the current recession should have crippled Apple, too. Instead, Apple flew high about the recession. Most certainly the 2000-2001 was a mitigating circumstance, but one that likely would have had much less impact on Apple if not for the Cube.

Yes, your quotes confirm my point. 90 million shortfall out of a total shortfall of 600 million. 15% of the total picture. 85% of the shortfall was do to other products before Apple had the iPod and the iPhone and the iTS. How many distinct products did Apple have then? 7?

"By your logic, the current recession should have crippled Apple, too. Instead, Apple flew high about the recession. Most certainly the 2000-2001 was a mitigating circumstance, but one that likely would have had much less impact on Apple if not for the Cube."

No, by my logic, events chosen at random a decade apart are not necessarily analogous. (Although, Apple was hit needlessly by the recession, and then battled out of it.) By my logic, one or two statements about one of several products in response to a question does not equal attributing blame. (By my logic, Apple was getting whacked down 70% in 2001 no matter what -- even if the cube succeeded.) Etc.

Joe, seriously, I have no problem saying the Cube was a bad product that failed and hurt Apple. However, it's absurd to claim that a runup in 2000 was because of "Cube" hype and that the Cube was in any way Apple's primary problem at the turn of the century. Of course, you've claimed one quarter's decline in Mac marketshare indicates that "I'm a PC" is a huge success so I don't see any reason to try to convince you of anything rational. No one takes you seriously anyway. But I was just trying to help — Dvorak could stir the pot for years but eventually everyone gets tired of the shtick. Literally, this weekend, you became that "dumba** Wilcox" to thousands of people who've never read your byline but will mention you first the moment you are wrong.

P.S. I love how for you it was just "the recession" of 2001. It was this huge freaking thing called the Internet Bubble that sucked any and every tech company into it. Yes, the recent recession was worse, but not in relation to the irrational valuations of all of tech in 2000 and the subsequent crash. Don't be silly by trying to dodge it as "that recession, oh, about ten years ago."

Ok since apple has said nothing we cant assume what the motive for the device is. Being that for this moment only we are assuming the tablet is real. I for one dont believe it's real.

But lets think about this. For some strange reason ebook readers are huge. I think it's gay, but that another story. The device could be apples move into the ebook market. And no, not just for ebooks. It will have all the functionality of a ipod touch. Which means app store and all. Making ebooks or so easy to do. It's a KINDLE TERMINATOR. I don't know the price but i really thing it can't be more then 400. I think 3G might be a option for reduced cost but i dont see it being required. It would also make for a nice media device on trips and such. Being the screen isn't so small as a phone.

Yes the iphone can do all of this, but on a much smaller screen. This is why i dont watch video on my iphone much. I just dont like veiwing stuff so small. I wouldnt get a itablet, but i can see it being big if.

1. It was 400 or less. Which is possible since the iphone costs less then 200 to make. A tablet while bigger would reqire less cutting edge harder. Smaller means more expensive, we all know that. So Apple could still make a big profit. And take control over the Ebook market almost overnite.

2. No contract which means no at&t. Why cause it limites the market for a device that will be aimed right at ebook people. At&t could offer a contract to there customers but it can't be required.

3. Doesnt need to be a big iphone. Camera would be nice but not needed, but front webcam would be great. iPhone OS tweaked for the tablet would be easy and the right idea.

4. Say hello to the corporate world. This device could be big with companies. Shipping companies use devices much like a tablet so customers can sign digitally when recieving a package. If the device was capable to work on any network this could be a big plus.

Now like i said. I don't think this thing is even comeing out. But it could work if it did. I would not buy one but many would. Just look at all those idiots buying 300 dollar kindles.

As retired Chief Information Officer for a U.S. Air Force Medical Facility, I purchased several types of tablet PC's for my doctors after I had a wireless network installed throughout the facility. This devise was pretty much a noveltly. Combersome to carry, software had problems reading input, holding them on your arm with the heat source directed from underneath was hot on their arms. Needless to say, a novel device does not always meet the expections of the user. They lasted about 4-6 months and were transferred to other orgizations. How long they were used is unknown.

In line with Joe's point of view, I've always thought of "tablet" as a mode, not a separate device.

I use both, an iPhone and MacBook Pro. I still really want a tablet (not necessarily Apple one) for:
a) Kindle reader. I use iPhone for that, but bigger screen would help. MacBook is useless here, I need to hold it sitting, standing or lying
b) Twitter, RSS, News, Facebook reader. Consuming the content is for me the main activity comparing to creating one. I want to sit on the sofa in the evening, drink wine and read. iPhone too small, MacBook has to be in one position and has no touch screen (which I think is great for navigation)
c) MacBook (or any other notebook) is just not comfortable enough for evening reading. I want to hold that thing in one hand (in bed, kitchen or sofa) and browse the web. iPhone is great, but not for home, it's too limited because of the screen size.

There is huge potential for gaming on a tablet with a decent input solution and ample storage. The iPhone's limited touch screen space currently makes virtual gaming controls clunky. Expand that space by even a small margin and gaming potential explodes. World of Warcraft on a tablet is not so far-fetched and Apple's revenue model is more likely to support such a deal, versus the onerous financial models of the current platform giants. (Note that Blizzard has been hinting strongly about an interest in developing for alternate platforms) Hmm... commit to a two year subscription to WoW and get a partially subsidized tablet? Sign me up!

I didn't even consider playing warcraft on a tablet. Potentially it could be very effective, just touch to use something on an actionbar!

However, It would be difficult to manage where your character is looking, the direction they are going, strafing and zooming in and out with just a touch screen.

I'd be down for two year subscription for subsidized tablet though. Worst case I'd just use it on my dekstop and use the tablet for other tasks.

Yeah, I like the concept of your action bar controls (especially with plenty of room for my fat, error-prone, fingers). Perhaps they will also find a way to optimize accelerometer "look"? If so, that just leaves the directional challenge to solve. Hopefully, there's also some new input technology on the way. Good stuff!

I'm with Gruber on his speculation that Apple's goal with an alleged tablet is "redefining the experience of personal computing..."

My MacBook Pro hinged screen/keyboard design seems anitquated compared to what a big iPhone tablet might be. Heck, I use my iPhone for many tasks even with my MBP sitting close by.

It may be interesting to revisit the above article in a year or two if iSlate is forthcoming.

This assumes that everybody already has a laptop, a desktop computer, and a smartphone. I use an unlimited plan "dumbphone" (pretty much as dumb a phone as you can find, besides having a camera), and I have a desktop computer and a Zune HD for some limited amount of mobile internet.

I'm about to be going to college, and I imagine that a apple tablet would be a cool easy to use touchscreen-netbook. If Apple does release a tablet computer I can definitely see myself buying one to use in college. I imagine that many other people who don't already have an iphone or itouch who need to get a laptop of some sort would see an Apple tablet computer as a very good option, just as I do.

Personally I would have a desktop PC at home so I could continue to use my Zune for music, and I would have the Apple tablet computer to function as a laptop but with a little bit more varied functionality and a cool touch screen like the Iphone.

Middle ground is good for people who could use both but don't have either.

Edit: Also, I've wanted an ebook reader for a long time, and I imagine this product could fulfill that need as well. A versatile touchscreen laptop has a lot of potential.

I'm typing this on a 1st gen Macbook on my couch. I see the tablet replacing this (I also run a tethered MBP on a 24" LCD, a Mac Pro for serious stuff, and a dedicated Win7 box for game development).

Microsoft may have failed with tablets before but that was just part of their general failure with handheld platform. Hint: stylus: bad! finger: good!

It's difficult to know how niche the tablet is going to be. I see it as a kitchen table thing, to surf the web while eating. A couch thing, to control the DVR (touch is the best for navigating a UI) and/or watch movies remotely (my favorite use for that will be on the treadmill in the gym, I currently use a iTouch for that but it's a wee bit small). Home automation. A PSP/DS killer (it WILL have awesome 3D performance). New media consumption model with micropayments to publishers (Apple taking 3 pennies out of every 10). It'll be great to grab when commuting via train or carpool.

The form factor is key -- big enough for a virtual keyboard. I think the device will succeed or fail on how well it duplicates the utility of a netbook. The future is interesting.

Excellent comments and ideas on how you would use an Apple tablet. Thanks to all the commenters. I have a few additional questions to everyone saying yes they would buy an Apple tablet and mobile phone and computer: Would your significant other or child? Your parents? Your neighbors? I ask because there is always going to be a niche market of geeks for pretty much any tech device. The iPhone and iPod are mass market devices. Do you really think an Apple tablet, or any other, would be, too?

Apart from the notepad part of it that students from the age of 14 to 25-26, all people working and needing a notepad and books(including tech companies and journalists especially), which for sure will find it very convenient, its e-magazine/e-book/e-newspaper part of it along with all the movies, browsing and music, as well as all the applications that will come along with it over time, make it useful to such a large number of people that it cannot be considered a niche market.

Joe, you just answered your own question.

Before Apple, smartphones and MP3 players were niche geek devices. Then Steve Jobs got his hands on them and voila! From geek-only to mass-market appeal in one generation.

Same will happen with tablets.

@halgreene MP3 players belonged to a niche category for a couple more years after iPod shipped. BlackBerries already were mass-market smartphones before iPhone shipped, and sales increased significantly afterwards -- all before imitating Apple.

I'd think the Apple tablet could be a 'netbook for the rest of us'. The current netbooks are rather nerdy, with small cramped keyboards and a desktop OS squeezed in the miniature form factor. A bit like putting a Nokia Communicator ( http://europe.nokia.com/...unicator/specifications ) and an iPhone side-by-side.

I just don't think it could have anything innovative enough to justify a $600 price tag. Especially not to be used as an ebook reader. I just got a sony reader for christmas. It was cheap, it's small, it has an incredible battery life, and best of all it has the cool paper like, no glare display.

Of course we can only speculate about how cool it might be at this point, but it's going to take more than an apple on the back and a couple cool but ultimately useless apps to get me to buy one.

WE HAVE RADIO! Nobody is going to spend all of that money for a box just so they can see the parson reading the news! Television is a joke!

I will agree with abeery. Also by looking at Apple's past and especially at the iPhone history. Before the iPhone Windows mobile existed. If it was predicted by any1 that it would look like the windows mobile, just improved(which is exactly what it is) and taking advantage of all its capabilities, no one would be able to say how big a success it would be. As in the past with the iPhone, i believe that most of the predictions and what every one is talking about "a big iphone" is wrong. Steve Jobs and people working in apple have learned how to think "out of the box". They will bring and promote a completely new experience to the tablet market. A market for the tablet already exists, as it did for the iPhone with windows mobile. It just hasn't exploited yet. the name iSlate suggests that it will surelly have a stilus included. It will take the whole reader experience to another level. I believe that the new tablet will be a must for every person related to education or in business. It will be you personal hand written organiser/Filofax(what all people prefer to iCal since writing down your program is much more preferred), your notepad you will take to university or meetings, your your book you need for uni and u will be able to underline and then undo and redo and take notes on without caring, all your newspaper and magazine collections . It will improve the experience of all students and anything annoying which books have, including damage to books, volume, weight, huge libraries. Instead of carrying a 20 kilo bag to the library you will carry only a 0.5-2 kilo tablet computer. And on top of all that, it will be your portable computer that you will be able to take everywhere without a second thought. Don't get confused or excited all this is not from an "insider" source but seeing what Apple did with the iPhone making all of us very excited I believe that again now they will be thinking one step ahead, even further than our and my imagination.

I agree with the home automation and reading txt comments. If I can get a device that is the same proportional dimensions as the iPhone but in about an 8.5 x 11 size I would immediatly grab it. Especially useful if a company made a waterproof case that I could use the device in a hot tub, outdoor or garage environment without worrying about splashing water on it during use. It would become the perfect coffee table home automation remote, garage computer, around the pool computer, kitchen device, and general utility device to have with you. Sure the iPhone is nice, but a larger version would be great, especially for us older consumers.

Cliche as it is, I'd love to read the morning paper on it. I already do that on the iPhone. If it controlled my TV and sound system, I'd love that. I already do that on the iPhone, but it's just a bit clunky. For me, it would be the living room and kitchen computer, not necessarily personal, but maybe a shared family unit for video, audio, the web and magazines.

My laptop is for work, it's always somewhere in a bag with the battery out after a day in meetings and I feel like taking an unnecessary risk balancing it somewhere on the breakfast table with the 2 year old anarchist splashing milk on it. There's no casual ease to it, nothing like the way I always pick up the iPhone for surfing at home even with the laptop only a few meters away.

In a way, for me it could be the third screen in Ballmer's vision of three screens and a cloud, but instead of a stationary Xbox, this one would be mobile.

(I wouldn't that kind of a device if it required a phone contract, though. Then again, I don't know what kind of device Apple may or may not be coming out with. And if it had video out, it just might replace my laptop.)

The iSlate is Apple's next step into HOME AUTOMATION - a huge emerging market currently underserved by the likes of companies like Control4. It gives Apple an opportunity to integrate the iTunes / Apple TV home multimedia expertise along with the iphone/app store ecosystem into an entirely new and emerging market. The iSlate - used as a home automation control center along with its other natural functionality - suddenly gives it a reason to exist (it attaches to the home dock and controls eerything from lights to thermostats to music and TV while allowing you to browse the web etc when you are on your couch). Apple can jump onto the ZigBee 802.15 standard for home control and automation while creating a genuinely user-friendly interface to manage home media etc. This is not a mini-me PC to carry around: it is going to be a home automation and media center solution that displaces product that currently can cost $10k+ to set up and then don't work well. (See the $299 Control4 application for the iphone as an example.)

Joe, I respectfully disagree. Tablets and Slates are the logical future. The typical computer user has LEARNED to live with the limitations of traditional laptops and desktops. I use Microsoft OneNote for all my meetings because I can type OR draw a diagram to illustrate a meeting point. The ability to mix text with hastily drawn graphics is normal in paper note taking but typically absent in typed notes. I've been using Tablets for years as both an R&D Software manager and a Seminary Student/Presbyterian Pastor. I have found it to be an irreplaceble tool in both environments. I suspect your lack of fondness for the platform has caused you to conclude the platform has no merit to anyone besides a few passionate geeks. Students, Managers, Engineers and Pastors (anyone needing to take and search notes with drawings) will benefit.

Let's be clear, here. There is no market for this thing, right? Sort of.

Let's look at mobile MP3 players, pre-iPod. There were very strong entries from Creative, Rio and Archos. I owned an Archos 20GB MP3 player about 3 months before iPods were probably conceived of. And for the time, it ran like a dream. Truly. It needed four double-A batteries, it ran on a 2.5" notebook drive that heated up to frightening temperatures and it was a brick in my pocket.

But it worked. It worked well. I loved it to death--literally. It died. It just stopped turning on after two years. I resisted the iPod adoption craze. Too popular and I must be too smart to follow popular opinion. Six months without an MP3 player later, I bought an iPod. And I loved it.

Pre-iPod, I would bet there were maybe, at most, $500m-$1b in business done for MP3 players. And then the iPod came. It didn't just change the game, it became the game. 5GB for $400 became 20GB for $200 became video and then phones. What market was Apple trying to tap there, the relatively small $500m-$1b market? Come now.

They wanted to tap a market and blow it up. And they were successful. Last year, iPods sold over 15,000,000 devices. Not counting iPhones. I would wager that when iPods were first being looked into, there weren't 15,000,000 people who thought of a portable MP3 player being viable.

What people seem to fail to recognize in all of this is branding. Google is threatening Apple in every way it can - it just took the #3 spot for web browser market share with its infinitely inferior Chrome.

(note: I do not own anything Apple-related but an iPhone and iPod, I haven't touched a Mac in 15 years. I've played around with Safari and Chrome. A lot)

But Chrome isn't just a browser. Google has plans of its own OS (also called Chrome, because the name is apparently that great) and I would wager has its basis in Android. Multiple versions of the same OS brand in multiple types of devices. Apple isn't stupid. You really think they'll make a big, fat version of an iPhone with the same OS? Are you huffing rhino feces? Apple doesn't half-ass this stuff. Expect something big.

Is there a big tablet market right now? No, of course not. If Apple waits until there is, they'll be in line behind 20 other manufacturers. They want to make the market. Say all you like about "swinging big," they've done it for a decade.

I personally despise the arrogance and pretension that follows most of Apple's electronics entourage. But they deserve at least a modicum of respect for the enormity of what they've accomplished the last few years. Don't underestimate them, they'll make you regret it.

I think success of the iSlate depend on the following:

1. weight/size of the device
2. viewing angle
3. network download/uplaod speeds (Wi-Fi and Wireless)
4. Virtual Keyboard design
5. CPU power- to render the graphics, dual core
6. Cost (may be around $700K is ok)
7. Local Storage and support for Network Storage
8. various interfaces- HDMI, USB, etc
9. Document format support (MS Office etc)
10. Multimedia format support, MP3, MPEG, etc
11. function as an eBook/Kindle
12. function as a Cell Phone / Video Phone
13. Built in camera -HD Movies, picures
14. Support for BlueRay/DVD/CD discs
15. Support for extended battery life
16. Support for 110/230 V
17. GPS / Navigation support
18. Speach recognition / Text to Speach
19. Durable- Shock/Impact/Water resistant
20. Sleek UI/UX

A few points.

1. I have an iPhone and love it. But the screen is too small for many of the apps I use regularly. It's too small for Safari web browsing, too small for games, too small for image viewing, too small for video, and too small for GPS. It does work for all of those which I value when I'm out and about but it isn't what I'd reach for if a tablet of laptop were simultaneously available.

2. The iPod Touch has been a monster hit for Apple. It has sold far beyond their own expections. Most kids either already have one or want one. It's an iPhone without the cellular connection. It's easy enough for kids to use. It doesn't require their parents to buy an AT&T contract. It's affordable. Most of these same kids would like the iSlate better because the bigger screen is better for games, images, video, and GPS.

3. OS X and Windows 7 provide user interfaces that are better than ever before but still too complex for many users. Can your grandmother handle disk navigation? Can your 10 year old work through the complexities of Microsoft Word's menus? Much of the population is still 'computer challenged' despite modern user-friendly operating systems. A lot of them, perhaps the majority of them, can use the iPod Touch but can't handle Windows 7. The iSlate aims squarely at them.

I agree on all those points, but for me, I only need a couple real reasons to have an Apple Tablet. One, I read a lot on my iPod Touch and it hurts my eyes after several minutes. I would like a big size iPhone just so my eyes won't hurt while reading. And also, I like to listen to classical music while reading. If I can do those two things, I'm good to go.

The Tablet is going to be more convenient than reading with a laptop in bed, and it's going to have more functionality than an Kindle, which means you're be able to watch movies in bed, read in bed, listen to music in bed and surf the web in bed. And if you want to carry on business while waiting in line at the post office, a Tablet is going to be a lot more convenient and easier to hold than a laptop.

And I would question why Mr. Wilcox thinks that it's so important for Apple to hit a home run and sell a gazillion devices with every gadget that they put out? Has it occurred to him that Apple may want the niche market? In fact, isn't that exactly what they have with the Mac?

In fact, didn't Steve Jobs, in his brilliant presentation of the iPhone in 2007, shoot for just 1 percent of the cell phone market? Those very words was in his keynote. It seems to me that Apple regularly shoots for niche. Premium products are niche, the iPod being an exception here.

"...which means you're be able to watch movies in bed, read in bed, listen to music in bed and surf the web in bed."

Hmm... I still remember the good ol' days when there were only two activities that people preferred to do in bed.

(Hint: They both begin with the letter 'S'.)

Snooze and Sleep? ;)

Heh... okay then, three activities. :)

What, do you Snore?

*grin*

I saw a device recently where you insert your iPhone or iPod in to a slot and dock it inside the device. The device has a much larger screen, allowing you to watch video from your iPhone or iPod on a much larger screen. I have, for some time now, thought it would be great to dock the iPhone on a dock that is connected to a 24" monitor. The dock would also supply wrieless keyboard and mouse connectivity, as well as USB 2/3, eSATA, and FireWire a/b for connecting external devices, like printers, flash drives, and storage. Now, imagine if this new tablet is a step in that direction, where some day you would dock your iPhone in to the larger device. The iPhone provides the "always on" connectivity and wi-fi, the docking tablet provides a larger screen and other possible enhancements. The problem for Apple is they can't cannibalize themselves overnight. Yes, there will be a huge performance gap between phones and laptops for some time to come, but for those who want to watch Youtube, send and receive email, use a search engine, watch a movie, read a book, and listen to music, a tablet with an iPhone dock would be very appealing.

Here's a link to one such device to which I'm referring:

http://www.i-luv.com/pro....asp?tab=1&idx=1325

Keeping all other variables the same, I would say that this point of view regarding the tablet form factor is spot on. Existing tablets lack the "killer app" that make them a sensible/better alternative to a laptop or smartphone.

I purchased a Bamboo Pen & Touch a while back and ended up returning it almost immediately. As an input device, simply having a different - and more cumbersome - alternative to a mouse was a productivity killer, not enhancer. I was really looking for a way to interact with digital content in a different way. That is, I was hoping to be able to use the stylus on all content. For example, when someone sent me a PowerPoint presentation I wanted to mark it up with my changes. But the hardware had to work within the existing limitations of the software.

If Apple puts out a tablet the way others have put out tablets, there is no reason to believe that it will be any more successful than other attempts by other companies. However, if Apple is able to break through with a killer app that takes advantage of the form factor and finds a way to improve productivity - not just provide another "toy" for geeks to tote around - then they may evolve the tablet into another break-through product.

Think Kindle plus iPhone plus Dragon Naturally Speaking plus Wi-max plus Logitech Harmony remote and an on-demand/dynamic keyboard. All stuff that non-computer users use daily. That way they could make the iPhone smaller, attack the mid-range notebook market while leaving in place their high-end laptops, iMacs and Desktops.

It could be about money. iTunes, you know, app store, stuff like that. A bigger screen to better surf. Just a better UX for the existing infrastructure -- that which, for some, makes the iPhone a compelling purchase -- if you're bought into the itunes, app store, etc., this just basically is a UX upgrade for that experience. If it was an upgrade to, say, a 128GB iphone with a 2Ghz processor, for instance, no one would think it was as big of a deal as they do. Not that it wouldn't be a big deal, but it just wouldn't be as big a deal.

It is annoying, though, this whole thing and the stock price and all the rumors and the second or twentieth coming or whatever. If it won't fit in your pocket, well, maybe someone can figure something out -- but I do see that as a potential problem. You would, of course, junk your iPhone for this. Or trade it in, or whatever. You wouldn't have both.

Maps would be easier to deal with -- easier to find your way around -- bigger screen. Websites would be easier to navigate -- more screen real estate. Apps, games, would be easier to deal with, album art would take on a new life of its own.

One problem that could be solved, is that of the inability to ergonomically adjust your laptop's keyboard and its screen. Here, with a wireless keyboard (or USB, microUSB, or what-not), you could set up a more ergonomic situation, even perhaps create a third-party marketplace for ergonomic docking situations, something to prop up your display while you type away on the inevitably detached keyboard. So that's actually a win for ergonomics, when you get ready to get down and type, you'd be WAY better off than with a laptop, FWIW.

But can you combine OS X proper and the app store, and the iphone, and itunes, and so on -- a bigger iphone running OS X? A smaller laptop that you can buy apps for? This might be a bag of hurt. And speaking of bags of hurt, what about Blu-Ray? Ever? C'mon, at some point, why not? A 27 inch screen, an Apple TV, but no Blu-Ray? I dunno about that.

I can see a bigger iphone. I can see apps for content creation (where you'd use a keyboard). The ergonomics argument, as usual, probably just gets ignored. Shame, that. I don't see a laptop replacement. I see a bigger, better iphone, a device where you'd dump your iphone. Many other possibilities exist, but they'll probably have to materialize via "there's an app for that".

But it is kind of gauche, this whole rumor and speculation thing. I want a Lexus, or a Toyota, you know, a good, reliable car. Just like I want a good, reliable, computer or smartphone or wireless network or internet connection or whatever. This whole shrouded in secrecy, cult-like mentality really just puts an immature damper on what would otherwise be a sophisticated, quality set of products from a company whose primary objective should be similar to Toyota's or such -- high quality, reliable products that represent a good value.

Having just come off of a what eventually turned into a mentally terrifying attempt of being a vegan for three months, I have some fresh ideas about what happens when you deprive your mind of meat. Not eating meat really changed me, I really started looking outside of myself for some kind of stability, I lost sight of the big picture and almost lost my mind. It's nice to back. But that's just me -- everyone is different. But I am skeptical about what happens when one cuts out the meat -- very skeptical. I feel like I've been holding my breath for 3 months or something and just now came up for air when I started incorporating some meat into my diet again.

The idea is plausible as a bigger, better smartphone, but with the abrasive hype, it's like Bill Cosby said one time -- it's like your favorite meal served to you on a filthy garbage can lid. Just grow up and take it serious Apple... if you crank out good products at a good value, you'll do just fine. Stop it with the inferiority complex, and have a nice talk with Dell while you're at it.

Why a tablet? My phone does everything, but nothing well on a screen too small to use comfortably.

What I want is a tablet that acts as my mobile computing hub. Give me the following in my tablet: GPS, notebook sized touch screen, 3G, and Bluetooth. That's it.

Separately, I'll want an earpiece for a Bluetooth cell phone, a pocket camera, and a folding keyboard. This will let my tablet do everything my iPod and MacBook does with the following advantages: lighter, longer battery life, better connection options, allow me to use my earpiece as a digital voice recorder, digital microphone, and speech recognition input device, let me use my camera to take pictures, scan bar codes, and use as an OCR input device, provide navigation instructions while I'm walking/bicycling/driving on screen and/or in my earpiece, all with a screen large enough to read eBooks comfortably. And I get to add or upgrade ad-ons whenever something better comes out without having to replace the tablet.

Notice that the tablet's main ability is to run software, connect to the internet, connect to my Bluetooth devices, and provide a sizeable screen. I don’t *want* a bunch of junk built into my tablet. I just want a mobile communications hub. And let my cell phone consist of just an ear bud and a microphone – the way it should be.

The author of this posting has lack of vision. When Apple announced iPhone, Microsoft CEO Ballmer laughed at it (http://www.youtube.com/w...=C5oGaZIKYvo&fmt=18). You are doing something similar. In another year, we will laugh at this posting.

There are demand for a device in between a smart-phone and a laptop/netbook computer. I have been waiting for a device that can enable me to read a full A4/US Letter sized page without straining my eyes (like a Kindle DX) and has the features of a smartphone & web browsing.

I would like a tablet for an e-reader. I have an iPod touch that I take everywhere. It's great for quick e-mail and web surfing, but horrible for reading. The Kindle app on the Touch just doesn't cut it. The screen is too small.

My Mom has a Kindle and she loves it. I think it's clunky, but it's the best there is. If Apple does their usual great design work, this should blow Kindle out of the water.

If the price really is $600 and not $999, then I will probably get one. I always take a book when I travel, but now I can take this instead. And I can have as many books and magazines as I want as well as do real web-surfing (hopefully with Flash, unlike the Touch and iPhone).

Of course they will probably put their own proprietary format on the books, which sucks. But so does Kindle. That's a negative I can probably live with. If they support epub and it's $600, it will be a no-brainer purchase.

Sharp observations Joe. However, I wouldn't jump to declare it a failure, as I would underestimate Mac Fan boys...As you have said before Apple is a master in selling a lifestyle, so maybe they'll have it their way again, although I do agree with most of your comments. In addition, hand-recognition maybe another differentiating factor on these tablets...

@evan2k I'm not saying the Apple tablet will be a failure. I'm saying it won't easily live up to the hype and that the market is niche.

With a tablet I would...
-Use it as a keyboard for my laptop (this is possible for the iphone). I'm assuming such a large screen would have dynamic keyboards, where the language and set up could be changed. Also I expect it could be used for custom keys for pc games.
-Use it to read magazines/books (I already do this for life magazine on my laptop. I change the display orientation and read sideways. As you could imagine, it's difficult)
-Use it for image editing.
-Use it as a toolbar screen for pc programs (possible on iphone (photoshop, vlc), easier on tablet)
-Watch movies, surf internet where a laptop is too cumbersome (ie, a train)
-Social+surface gaming (its size and touchscreen would make it an excellent board game system).
-Show off photos to visitors (less awkward than to gather around a laptop)
Thats all I could think of at the moment.

Sorry, but this article is just plain old wrong. I have a desktop, an assortment of nettops, a laptop, a netbook, AND and an iPhone, and I can't wait for the iTablet.

Why?

Because I'd love to have a device that I can just leave around the house and pick up whenever to surf the web for a minute or two or check email, play a game, or watch a quick video.

Yes, I can do that on every other device listed, but they are all STATIONARY devices. Laptops and netbooks have to be opened up, booted up, and at the very least balanced on knees to be useful. Which means I have to be seated and stationary to use them. Ditto my desktop. Stuck. Immobile.

And an iPhone is okay to check email on the road but it's still not a great way to browse the web, play a game or watch a video. It's with me all the time so it's convenient, but it is hardly preferable.

My iTablet will sit in my iTablet dock and be powered on all the time (or at least asleep) and, with that extraordinary touchscreen interface, a couple of finger taps will bring everything I need to a form-factor that my middle-aged eyes can ACTUALLY SEE, and carry about with ONE HAND as I move from room to room or task to task.

And that's what I want. Now now now!

I can say right away what the apple tablet will do for the average person. They will be able to surf the web, view media, read e-books in a very convenient format (That's what the average user wants the most with technology). Let's face it, lugging around a laptop is just not cool anymore. Laptops are cumbersome, but the iphone screen is too small. By finding a happy medium between the two, I think Apple is set for another hit. The only thing I think that might hold Apple back is putting too much subscription fees in the way of using the product. Also, if rumors be true, it will be interesting to see how the virtual keyboard will work.

I agree with the article. As an iphone fan, I think Apple does not have a legit market in the tablets. Why on earth would you want to have a tablet given that netbooks are much more practical?? In any case, I do believe that we should actually wait until Apple announces the product. It is too premature to say that it will completely fail or that it will be a complete success.
On a not so similar note, I hope Google eventually comes out with a phone that uses Google Voice and is internet-based.. now thats where innovation would meet practicality.

Oh **** off with this ridiculous speculation about speculation.
Wait until it's released or at least there's some real news about it and then you can 'slate' it.
This is the sort of news that none of us here want, BN. Stop it.
If you haven't got any new news to write about, simply don't write. It's pretty simple.

Personally I think it's a little premature to decide the fate of a product way ahead of release.
Either way, I disagree as well.

I see a use for the tablet, and I think that companies will perhaps embrace the form factor and idea of what it is, and market their own types sooner or later.

Here's what I envision:

Paper is out. Digital is in. I don't know about you, but I absolutely hate reading anything on my phone. It's great to be able to do it in a pinch, but a phone is just too small. Pretty much the same for video and gaming as well - better than nothing, but given a choice...laying in bed, or a sofa, wouldn't you rather relax with your notebook in your lap or beside you watching/reading/doing what you could on your phone? At the same time, I have no form of romanticism for books or paper. To me, they are made of paper....paper, not some form of symbolic art or device. I don't need to feel or turn or smell pages to embrace the content. I mention this because for some, this is part of the journey of reading. Therefore, I'm one of those people who would gladly give up paper magazines and novels for the digital kind.

That's where the tablet comes in. Providing it is able to do these (any of the) things I mention (I have to admit, I haven't fallen for the hype so I haven't checked features or specs, etc.) I don't have a problem with such a device. I welcome it, in fact. Smaller and thinner than a laptop but with a bigger 'screen'. No keyboard, but the ability to type if necessary (virtual keyboard), like our touch phones. It would, to some extent compete with netbooks, as this is what the majority of people want/own a netbook for. To read online mags and papers, surf the internet, watch youtube or hulu, listen to music, etc.

If the tablet can do all of this, but also he thin(ner), light(er) than a netbook - then why not have such a device. Of course, coming from Apple it'll probably be $1000 or more so I'd never buy it from them. But if the form factor and features are introduced to the market, and are successful to any extent and then other vendors sell similar devices for way cheaper, then I don't think we'd be talking about a niche product.

For me, a 13 inch Android type device with a powerful enough processor and enough RAM and storage to support my music, a few movies and of course, my ebooks. The device would have wifi built in and perhaps a sim slot (in case I need to go away from any wifi). It would be as fluid in software environment as a good laptop or touch screen phone and very light. Not paper light, but lighter than even a typical netbook. You'd never need to open it. The 2.5 inch (or smaller) hard drive would be, like the battery, standard, replaceable and 'snap in' and of course it would have your array of 'handy' slots and ports allowing it to connect to screens, pcs, etc.

We all read, I think. I could be wrong. Some read it all. Novels, Books, Mags, Papers etc. Some read more specific things...but to some extent we all read. And this type of device could be the mp3 player to the cd player, taking paper media from the physical to the digital realm en masse.

The difficulty of using a tablet for reading for any measurable length of time lies in eye-strain and battery power. Nothing can beat an e-ink display if you want to read books in electronic format. Having used both computers equipped with high-quality LCDs and CRTs, laptops, and a Kindle for reading, if I'm going to sit down and do about three to four hours with one of my favorite books I'm going to pick the e-ink display. I spent about 100 hours travelling on a train across country last winter and with all the delays and technical foul ups and the MacBook Air out of batteries, if it weren't for my Kindle and Terry Pratchett I definitely would have lost it. Whether it be a Kindle 2/DX, BN Nook, Sony PRS or the new iRex reader if you're planning on doing a significant amount of reading they can't be beat and I really suggest trying one out.

Tablets definitely have their strengths, they've really taken off in the medical field and I think a decently priced one would do great for general light-use computing around the house or while on the move at the office. Would I buy one? I don't know depends of the features. I'm selling the Kindle 1 for a Nook and I was thinking about going back to an iPhone over my BB Bold, but with this device on the horizon I'll stick with the Bold for a while longer and see what comes out of it.

To be honest the problem is not one of principle but on of implementation and timing. As a niche unit tablets have a lot of promise. As a general usage that remains to be seen. You examples fail to acknowledge some concepts. Neither the software nor the hardware was really ready when Tablet PC was announced. For Origami, basing any device on Windows Mobile is basically wasting hardware, Considering the state of hardware in 2007, it was finally becoming what was needed for this endeavor but still on the expensive side. Windows 7 multitouch shows promise with both software and hardware but Microsoft's***ory with Vista & Tablet PCs in addition to the state of the economy I do not seeing a lot of adopters happening soon enough.

This type of story illustrates a definite lack of vision. There are many products that get these types of "what would anyone want with..." and then they create a new market. Sure, the tablet concept is not new, but neither was the digital reader. People would ask why you would need a digital book when the real thing works so much better! Doesn't need batteries, cheap, functions all the time. Now Kindle arrives and it is the #1 seller for Christmas. Out selling paper books!

You say that a smartphone eliminates the need for such a device since it can browse the internet. Well, before the smartphone allowed this people just like you claimed that no one would ever browse the web on such a small screen. That appears to be wrong.

The tablet from Apple is still just a rumor. How about you wait to see what it really is before you assert a statement saying there isn't a market. I am just really surprised about the lack of inventiveness you express in this story.

I suspect there's a big class of users who fall in this middle-child area. I'm in a tech-heavy business, and have been for decades; I was an early adopter of personal computers. But for me the phones are just too small, and laptops too awkward with their cheezy keyboards, clumsy mouse equivalents, and fragility. So there may be a lot like me who will be joined by others who've never been interested in computers or elaborate phones at all. But the form factor of a tablet (presuming it's not fragile!!) works for reading, watching videos and limited internet use. It might as well have phone capabilities, but for me and my potential cohort we don't call much and text almost never.
I can easily imaging laptops becoming the niche platform in the end, as TVs and other devices embed more connectivity-based functionality, with tablets for most reading and portable video use, and phones continuing the way they are now. Maybe the tablet will end up being sold as a partner to the phone, with software and marketing designed to tie them together.

The question is not about why anyone would want a tablet and a smart phone both. The question is, does anyone want a smart phone with a 10" screen? That is where the market lies - many people are reaching the end of patience with tiny screens for reading and infinitesimal keyboards.

If Apple has any marketing sense (and they have proven to in the past), and if this tablet materializes, it will take advantage of existing Apple technology, the patent for the "touchable" screen keyboard, and the ATT contract to create a computer that works as a phone (or even video phone). There is a market to be created for that.

There have been rumors of Apple tablets for years. This is the first time that technology has caught up with the possibility to have a truly innovative and useful product - so long as it is a whiz bang device that can keep up the "it just works" motto of other Apple products. I look forward to seeing what comes up.

These sorts of doubts have been expressed over and over about new products from Apple, particularly since the return of Steve Jobs. There have been very few misses on his watch, and I am certain that the tablet will sell far more units than anyone imagines today, for several reasons:

-Games, Games, and more Games
-eBooks
-Movies
-Web Pages
-eMail

When you say these functions can all be done on an iPhone, you're ignoring the effect of a screen more than 4x larger. It will be much more usable than an iPhone.

Typing on the screen is likely to be more than functional for most people, particularly those who type at average rates. On-screen typing will be less than satisfying for professional writers, but I'm betting it will allow a bluetooth hookup for that awesome little wireless keyboard they just released.

Watching movies on an iPod Touch or iPhone sucks; really, you know it does. A 10" screen should be perfect for personal viewing.

Then there's all the eBook applications: news readers, text books, novels, etc. I'll give 2 to 1 odds that Kindle sales will be cut in half.

Oh but what about those notebook and netbooks you say? Sure you can use a larger, more expensive tool to do the same job. But why would you? I won't and neither will my grown kids, as soon as they can get their hands on one.

Can you imagine how many teens will be begging for one next Christmas? It's at least an even money bet that Apple sells out their entire production run before Christmas Eve next year.

I expect the device to work with a bluetooth keyboard and mouse, so you can really think of it as functioning just like a Macbook Air when the keyboard is attached, and more like an e-reader with all the iPhone functionality plus additional media when you leave the keyboard behind.

I think that would be a great executive machine: take it to meetings, jot down some notes; go back to your office and do some serious typing.

It would also work well for schools: the lack of moving parts will improve reliability; if the (separate) keyboard breaks, it's cheap to replace.

If Apple extends their use of the cloud (and I think they will), many people will be able to use it with net-enabled productivity apps. Apple have been working hard on linking iCal, Contacts etc. to the cloud, so syncing between and iPhone, a tablet, and a desktop computer will all work.

Finally, it would make sense for Apple / ATT to support tethering between this device and an iPhone. That way you can have always on connectivity with the benefits of the bigger screen and more powerful apps without buying a separate 3G subscription.

In summary, I think this could be a very powerful convergence device that links a lot of the services Apple has been building over the last few years, and one that will be very attractive to people on the move.

Another interesting possibility: what about using it as a Wacom replacement in conjunction with graphics apps when hooked up to your other Mac? It could essentially provide much of the capability of a Cintiq (depending on how they implement the touch screen). Then you could pick it up and take it to a meeting, hook it to a projector and show off your work!

It seems to me Apple is going to try to do for reading what it did for listening with the iPod. And such a device would probably include the listening part (and other parts such as phone, chat) as well.

Imagine a device that stays in your bag and you just have a bluetooth headset. You voice control answering the phone without even opening your bag. You only take it out when you want to buy and read a newspaper or magazine or book. iPhone OS has micropayments inside apps available. Imagine a NYT app where you buy your daily newspaper for a very small amount. Besides being a reader/listener device, it will also play games, let you watch video, etc. The only thing it will not do much for is the actual work stuff, like editing, spreadsheets, etc. unless you do that in the cloud with either Google's, Microsoft's or other provider's apps.

Apple's OS ranges from server to phone (and all are in the end based on the work done by NeXT in the 1980's). As a NeXT owner (http://www.flickr.com/ph.../sets/72157622973369487/) I find it nice to see all of this happening on top of that work which first looked a market failure and now powers some of the most impressive innovations around.

I wouldn't be so quick to write it off. When it comes to gadgets, you really cannot predict the market response. besides, Apple seem to have the Midas touch just lately

The facts are in. Divide all web comments RE tablet by 10. Result is = to first year's sales!

Apple is like other iconic brands. "If they make it", buyer will come! At least while Steve is running the show.

I'm an Apple stock holder since days of LISA-- retired and living the good life

I think that poster "gctwnl" did a very good job of summarizing observations similar to those which I would have made here (and have made to friends and associates). I believe that we are getting ready to see a major s*** in the way we read and work and conduct our lives and the Kindle has given us the preliminary look at the form by redefining the book. But, while it is remarkable... it is limited because we need to do much more than just read books or periodicals and carrying multiple hardware items is cumbersome and impractical. I heard many people say... that the Kindle wouldn't fly because you couldn't do other conventional tasks on it... that the netbook or laptop would be the more logical vehicle because those had the search capacity provided by the browser and you could run other software. But, amazingly, the Kindle has been a phenomenal success, so its defined simple functionality and form found a place for those who really didn't need to do anything other than read and the netbooks and laptops lacked the booklike feel and design that we really desire in a personal "appliance." So, Apple, maybe has projected their skilful imaginations way out into the future (and may now have the mechanism to to leapfrog everyone to it). What will things be like five years from now? What were things like only five years ago? We can safely assume that the progression will be at least similar in change and probably even more drastic. Can you not see everyone with a universal device which, like Alan Kay described in his original Xerox PARC discussions of the "Dynabook" over 40 years ago, which will be the companion of everyone from childhood on and "provide access to all the world's knowledge?" We carry backpacks... we carry satchels and handbags and briefcases for all our stuff. We are not so compact that we can only function with something that fits into our pockets. A "slate" in our briefcase or bag can provide all the functionality. The telephone(and ipod) aspects can be a simple bluetooth appliance and any "app" desired to perform any task can be summoned to a tablet instantly. Maybe Apple plans to provide the same kind of "always connected" internet like Amazon pioneered in the Kindle... now that would be something that would shake up the world of personal computing. And, if the Apple tablet isn't it.. eventually a full color, full "multi-media" book reader (which also delivers newspapers and magazines) and does every other function we need to conduct our existence will be the essential tool for every student from preschool following them throughout their entire lives. Like Alan Kay predicted, it will not only be their teacher and their guide, but it will hold each person's unfolding life history until they die (probably all in the cloud and maybe moved to progressively upgraded models, but all instantly accessible in their current "slate").

It takes far-sighted vision to project where things will be... and the old magazines (from even only a few years ago) are full of the writings of those who couldn't envision even a vague description of the technology and the "appliances" we use today. Thank goodness for visionaries, like those who came out with the Model 100 (first laptop) in 1983... or we would be stuck using those original bulky 45 pound Compaq "portables."

The Apple slate might fail as the breakthrough to that eventual perfect "appliance" and the Microsoft "Courier," which folds open to enable more functionality, might be what moves us to our perfect tool. But, it's coming. I have watched this revolution for the last 30 years at least and each revolutionary step has amazed and excited me. Time for the next leap... and this could be it.

My keyboard's letter "i" was stuck when I typed the word "sh i ft" above.

You make some good points, but I like to venture a counter posssibility. Apple is not trying to enter the itablet market, but the book market. Apple will make the bulk of their new revenue from selling books on itunes. They will also sell magazine, newspapers and comics. Similar to itunes selling their mp3 files or $1 or less, compared to their competitors who who I think at the time were selling them at $5 or more. Apple's Islate device may be expensive but if the ebook they sell are like $1 per book, they could have a winner

Frankly, as a mac user since the Mac Plus, I totally agree with the article. However, I'm an old guy. I don't like playing games on my computer (except for blackjack), and I still like hard and soft cover books. I use a touch, and a blackberry (for my biz). There is one thing that would get me to use an apple tablet. 100% full blown OSX. If that happens, I'm a buyer. If its a glorified iPhone OS, sorry.

Joe,

As someone who picked Apple as investment in 1997, I have to agree with your analysis. I don't think there really is a need for a tablet in today's world. I have seen Apple through the lows and the highs and I am not too caught up in the hype.

However, I don't think Apple will be releasing a tablet. They are much too smart for that sort of nonsense.

Regards.

We have Radio! Nobody is going to spend all of that money for a box just so they can see the parson reading the news! Television is a joke!