“A little birdy tells me that Apple will announce a 12 or 13-inch tablet in the fall of this year. Most likely in the September or October time frame. It will run the full Mac OS X and have a slot loading SuperDrive, an ‘iPhone-type’ GPS chip and an Intel Core Duo processor, presumably Intel’s Atom,” Jason D. O’Grady blogs for ZDNet.
“Whether it’ll be a based on the iPhone or MacBook form-factor remains to be seen. You’ll recall that Intel Germany CEO Hannes Schwaderer spilled the beans that an ‘iPhone’ that will be using Intel’s new Atom processor after which he was quickly corrected by Apple,” O’Grady writes. “Where there’s smoke, there’s fire indeed.”
“This particular birdy has been reliable in the past so I’m optimistic about the rumor, but as always, nothing’s for sure,” O’Grady writes. “Apple’s had tablet Macs in the labs for years but hasn’t decided to make one a real product, until now.”
More in the full article here.
@ampar
Totally off base – no way there’ll be a polishing cloth.
Used a Lenovo (formerly IBM) ThinkPad tablet over the weekend and was surprised at how nice the handwriting was and how nice to capture charts and graphs that I cannot recreate (due to my poor touchpad drawing skills) with an iBook.
Now, the Lenovo form factor was thick and had lots of excessive buttons, but Ives could clean that up post-haste.
along with Apple TV’s
Just because Sculley blew a billion dollars on its R&D;and got Jobs fired as well? Go figure.
Correct. Which is why anything that could be construed as a Newton 2.0 probably isn’t gonna get past Jobs.
UPS/FedEx etc
The current UPS and FedEX devices take an awful beating; it’s gonna take more than an MBA case to survive that kind of environment.
Wouldn’t be a bad market to pursue, if Apple can armor up for it.
KenC has it right. “The ideal tablet would have the MBA’s guts. Superthin, superlight, no optical drive, just like the MBA for a premium price.”
… except it does not need a premium price. And they can activate firewire which was reportedly built-in to the Mac Air motherboard. Especially great for business and home particularly with the right apps.
Who really wants a Mac Tablet ?
What can a tablet do or be good for that existing Apple products cannot? I cannot think of any. I’ve seen Windows tablets in my IT shop. Not worth the special care for the price. Space savings? Power, usability? Not much better than a laptop. Handwriting recognition software? Needing a special pen is a bitch, and who cares when you can type faster than hand writing?
The only situation where a tablet is a must is if the worker absolutely has no surface to place a laptop or is trained to only check off forms built for stylus in the field. Then the software application must be built to use handwriting input. Tablet software (not just the handwriting recognition technology but the whole UI factor) are pretty crude compared to regular laptops or the iPhone. And we all know the Apple mantra – “It’s the software, stupid.” So until we see the software – perhaps getting perfected later on the iPhone 2, what is the point of a tablet?
The other thing Apple is good at – Focus and fully develop a product. I just don’t see them developing another new product before the iPhone 2 and MBA have matured.
How’s ZDNet’s track record? Not reliable.
Bottom line – I really doubt it.
I agree with AMPAR in all points except: Touch keypad will be scaleable! That is you will with the use of multitouch be able to scale the keyboard to fit your hand size and reach so there will be the ultimate personalization of your keyboard at your fingertips. Moreover you will be able to add multifuctionality by adding keys in a separate area like we can now add buttons to our iphone homescreen(s).
A tablet does not need most of what comes with a laptop. Its function would be as a mobile order entry device. Think roving sales staff (ala Apple Store), waiters/watresses at a restaurant, outside sales staff, etc.
The only thing a tablet really requires is the ability to access programs and send data back to the main office/processing center.
Not seeing the purpose for a tablet today is no surprise. Most people saw no purpose for a self-propelled car about a century ago. I don’t think I’m ready to reject the idea flat out. It is possible that nothing will ever come out of this, but if there ever is anyone to successfully build and sell the tablet to the masses, it is Apple.
Very many people are today getting MacBooks to surf the web on their couch. If the concept of a tablet, which Microsoft has repeatedly botched over the past decade, was delivered as elegantly as has the OS of the iPhone, it just could work. My imagination is failing me at the moment (it’s late night), but Apple sure has plenty of extremely creative people, crazy about every minor detail, and a tablet device built by Apple will undoubtedly be done right this time. We’ll have to wait until October to see…
“. . . no way there’ll be a polishing cloth.”
What was I thinking?
O’Grady needs the hits – he has long become a dull Mac pundit.
Tablet? No Way.
WTF can you do with it that you cant do with your iPhone and your Macbook?
“Most people saw no purpose for a self-propelled car about a century ago.”
Rubbish! Of course they did. Do you think that no-one had any vision before you were born?
Anyway, you’re so smart – tell us why we need a useless tablet when we have all manner of things that do more than a tablet can already.
Next we’ll need the big ass table….NOT.
If it means a seat-back size MacBook or MBP with a built-in iPhone for calls and downloads anywhere — I’m already in the queue.
I don’t understand why the Mac Tablet would have and optical drive when the MacBook Air doesn’t. A tablet would need to be lighter and more power efficient than a laptop, even an ultra-thin one.
Ampar: make the screen 6 inches, and I will take two please. Deliver by Thursday?
Does anybody remember the Apple patent application which shows a tablet or Macbook Air type laptop being inserted in the side of an iMac? It’s own built in docking station.
“Most people saw no purpose for a self-propelled car about a century ago.”
With runaway fuel prices & numerous infrastructure problems, that notion is making a comeback.
As for the idea of an Apple tablet: why do things go full-circle there as well?
Тхе Невтон гот “Стежеd”
Ooops… The Newton got “Steved” because it was over-hyped and released before it was perfected. Had Sculley waited until it was a complete product, it would have succeeded.
The initial negative and comic reaction to the first Newton effectively killed it before it had had a chance to prove what it could do. The Newton never recovered even though later versions had pretty much solved all the problems of version 1.0.
I think Sculley wanted so badly to prove that he was a tech visionary, instead of a sugar water salesman, that he didn’t have the good sense to look at the reality of Newton v1.0, vs. the incomplete product it actually was.
So, Apple and Jobs learned from all this. That’s why most of Apple’s products have been mostly complete right out of the gate. What products have failed since Jobs’ return?
The Cube. Why? It was over-priced by $300 or $400. As a product it was excellent.
The spotted and flowered iMacs. Why? The were dopey and ugly.
Why do you think the iPhone has been so successful? It delivered MORE than was promised. AND everything WORKED.
Under-promised, OVER-deliver.
A Mac tablet? Why? The Newton was too big. We already have the iPod touch and iPhone. Maybe a 6″ – 8″ tabletty thing to interface with TV? Maybe not. Jason O’Grady doesn’t have a very good track record as far as predictions are concerned.
the mac tablet isn’t all that useless.
I think it’s more of an integration tool within the house, to control lights, tv…everything you can think of wirelessly. And unlike a laptop to open and close the lid to wake it from sleep, this device you basically carry next to you.
And unlike an iPhone or iPod touch, the screen is larger to do more multiple apps at the same time.
The super drive is probably there to upload photos to AppleTV or play music wirelessly….
“but Ives could clean that up post-haste.”
Last I checked, there was only ONE of him.
Holding a Mac Tablet in one hand while inputting data with the other will be tiresome after five minutes. I think I’d prefer the laptops which can rest on your lap while you type and prop the screen in front of you.
At a table? Not so good either. If the tablet is laid flat you can’t see it. You’d need an easel to prop it up. If you’re going to write or draw with a stylus you need a very strong easel or drafting table to create the exact angle.
Having said that, if they put one of Samsung’s new 256GB Sold State Drives in it, I’ll take one.
slot loading super drive = NO
AT&T;3G+ = YES
because it was over-hyped and released before it was perfected
(the CEO) wanted so badly to prove that he was a tech visionary, instead of a … salesman, that he didn’t have the good sense to look at the reality … vs. the incomplete product it actually was.
This sums up Microsoft’s entire product history.