“The Apple tablet, if it arrives, is an extension of a design that already has mass appeal–and does not require a leap of faith to believe it will succeed,” Brooke Crothers writes for CNET.
“The Apple iPhone and iPod are arguably small tablets–and consumers have demonstrated unmistakably that they love these devices,” Crothers writes. “So, a larger, more versatile version of the iPod makes perfect sense.”
MacDailyNews Take: Ah, logic. Somebody tell these bozos/hit-whores:
• CNET writer explains why consumers won’t buy tablets – August 07, 2009
• PC World writer: Rumored Apple tablet is a train wreck – July 27, 2009
• TheStreet.com’s Moritz: Apple’s ‘iFlop’ tablet ‘shelved’ until 2010 (with video) – May 21, 2009
• TheStreet.com’s Scott Moritz foments: Apple’s unannounced tablet will flop – March 24, 2009
Crothers continues, “Think of it as a mobile Internet device (MID). Or whatever you choose to call it. The point is that it’s designed around wireless connectivity and real portability. It’s very thin, very light, has a larger screen than an iPod, and, most importantly, comes with an inspired user interface.”
“There will be losers in the market, of course. PC makers who continue to sell bulky warmed-over laptops with a clumsy interface will be greeted with limited consumer acceptance–as in decades past,” Crothers writes. “The Apples of the world will succeed.”
“In short, I don’t need a smaller version (i.e., a Netbook) of something I already have. As a secondary device, it should be different than my primary laptop and provide a different kind of utilityt,” Crothers writes. “My prediction: 2010 will be the year of the re-conceived tablet.”
Full article – recommended – here.
Sounds good. Add me.
One thing for sure, at least one consumer will buy the tablet: Me.
Winblows tablets suck soooo bad it is unreal that any company would ever release one. They are like using a 1995 Compaq with Winblows 95 on it. Unpatched. And with minimum specs. And you spilled coffee on it a few months ago.
I spend an average 2 hours and a half hours a day commuting and I’d love to own such a device.
It’s the same logic as when Steve intro’d the iPhone. He could have called it any number of things, including a pocketable computer, but he didn’t, because people weren’t buying those things. They were buying cellphones. So, surreptitiously, Steve sold them a Mac pocketable computer.
Any new device will be a takeoff on the iPhone and iPod touch which we already know sells like hotcakes. This is the Gruber of Daring Fireball explanation of Apple’s approach. Iterate, iterate, and iterate some more. That’s why I expect a 5″ iTab.
Release it already so I can buy!!!
I would definately buy one. Think kindle on steroids.
“The Apples of the world will succeed.”
True true. Too bad there’s just the one.
Good to see CNET balance the morons with someone who actually lives in the real world…
It would be great to have a device that ran the iPhone OS and Dashboard. This would tap into the large supply of widgets already out there. Also makeing it easy to learn how to write apps for the Mac. Dashboard would be hard to use on a iPhone, but not a tablet. This would be a great product for several marks that are undeserved now.
However I think Apple will introduce a new MacBook, and iMac before a tablet. This will come out right when PC prices will go up because of the price for Win 7. PC’s will then have to compete with features not price.
Folks, nobody knows why an ‘iTablet’ will succeed. The reason is that they aren’t Apple and can’t think innovation. They only think evolution. So they thought the iPhone would be just a ROKR with a better interface. We are just going to have to wait and be amazed.
Lets just hope you’re allowed more than on the iPhone.
The AppStore is buckling under it’s own success (and under apples restrictiveness).
Dude99, “I would definately buy one. Think kindle on steroids.”
Definitely you would.
“The Apple iPhone and iPod are arguably small tablets–and consumers have demonstrated unmistakably that they love these devices,” Crothers writes. “So, a larger, more versatile version of the iPod makes perfect sense.”
2 + 2 = 4! So obvious (once it’s pointed out.)
Since at this point we are all guessing what the actual “tablet” will be, it is a bit difficult to predict how it will srll. having said that, I am struggling to understand wher it fits. I love the fact that I can carry only one device [iPhone] in my pocket. If im going to carry a 2nd device, why not my 13″ macbook? What am I missing?
If it can run Pages/Word and other such apps, it will replace my 12″ PowerBook G4, which has been a trooper.
The iPhone is useful, yet ironically very limited. The iPhone is not a phone that happens to be a computer, it is a computer that happens to be a phone.
It succeeds because the computer side of the iPhone makes it vastly more useful than most other phones.
It is however, not a terribly useful computer.
The list of things you cannot do with an iPhone vs. a computer could fill a tome. You can’t create a folder and store documents for crying out loud. Every app has its own workspace. The iPhone still forces you to use online storage for most apps. It’s inconvenient and cumbersome.
Why would anyone want a bigger one?
99.9% of the video out there you can’t play on the iPhone and even people that support QuickTime seldom support iPhone compatible video,
In spite of it’s obvious superiority to the competition, it’s still too boxed in.
It’s exactly as @Bizlaw is saying. If the tablet is just a big iPhone or iPod touch, I can’t see much use for it.
Right now the iPhone is an extraordinarily clever gadget. Apple is going to have to open the Kimono a bit for it to truly be useful.
There shouldn’t be any need to “Jailbreak” the device, and if this new device is just a larger version, it will flop.
“a larger, more versatile version of the iPod makes perfect sense.” I disagree.
A tablet may work, but the logic that it is simply a bigger iPod is flawed.
1) How are you going to carry it? You can carry an iPod and an IPhone in your pocket. You’ve got to either use a hand to carry a tablet or place it in a briefcase or backpack like a notebook computer.
2) It can’t substitute or a phone. It’s physical size makes that impractical. So you’ll need a phone (iPhone) and a tablet. For that to work, their functionality must be significantly different. How will the tablet significantly differ from the phone?
3) How are you going to type on it? A notebook has a full keyboard. An iPhone has a one or two finger keyboard. How are you going to type on a large virtual keyboard? Are you going to hold it the tablet in one hand and type with the other? Are you going to prop it up (otherwise you won’t be able to see it).
I just don’t get it. The people at Apple are a lot smarter than I am. I’ll assume that if they bring out a tablet that they’ve figured this all out. But I’ll have to wait to see it because at this time a tablet makes zero sense to me.
If I might add a perspective or opinion.
While I really love the idea of an Apple tablet, I’m a self confessed geek and not your typical consumer.
In order for such a device to be successful it would have to appeal to a broad range of consumers. Netbooks only succeed because they are cheap, and PC users are idiots and wouldn’t know a good UI if it bit them in the face.
You think this alleged iWhatever will be cheap?! Dream on.
Next, the thing will only be made in the first place if the folks at Apple are saying “wouldn’t it be cool if…” Trouble is, I just don’t know if they are.
So let me get this right:
Apple is apparently going to build at tablet computer. Or it could be an extension of an iPhone.
Analysts and pundits have been all over this. If I understand C|Net correctly, the tablet will fail. Miserably. They have completely analyzed why: It will be too big. And too small. It won’t be fast enough. It’s not Windows. It’s not Microsoft. And on and on.
Other analysts are convinced that this will be a huge hit and change mankind as we know it. They even have numbers on how many units will be sold and its market share.
The Chinese are blabbering all about it, and have already probably copied it, just like everything they do.
Some analysts have already moved past it, as it’s old news to them. Apparently, the era of a tablet has come and gone. I think they moved on to plutonium-powered invisible, wearable PCs.
There’s just one problem. Nobody has actually SEEN an Apple tablet. Some people think that they know somebody how knows somebody who knows somebody who’s pretty sure. But they’re not sure. Nobody has tested one, except for Uncle Walt Mossberg, who tested one about 12 years ago. And he has an exclusive. I think. Well, I’m pretty sure.
Is there anyone else who thinks all this hype, hoopla and hysteria is insane? What if this was just a big head-fake by Apple? If that were true, it would be an incredible way of tracing leaks. And if it’s just to blow the minds of the pundits, Steve Jobs must be laughing his ass off.
Tablet or not, it’s proof that we’re witness to at least two industries that add no value to society, and run completely on hot air.
Apple will make it and even though you don’t need one, you will see it and want one. You will buy it and you will find it insanely great. You will in a short while not know how you ever lived without one. They will make them first in silver and white. Then in many colors.
You will get one in your favorite color and you will live happily ever after!
Millions will too!
@theloniousMac
“…99.9% of the video out there you can’t play on the iPhone…”
Really? And 100% of made-up statistics are utterly useless.
A lot of the video that will be played on a device like this so-called “iTablet” will come from a user’s own video collection. If this device is successful and the iPhone and iPod touch continue to be successful, too, then I believe that presences on the internet will adapt and provide video in compatible formats.
Apple has been very successful in breaking proprietary media strangleholds and gets far too little credit.
Well, it is very annoying that I can’t play QuickTime content (.MOV files) and QuickTime VR files on my iPhone.
I don’t expect only a new device
but I predict a new line consisting of a closed iPod version and a higher specced fully open osx capable pro version
For the life of me, I can’t see how a tablet would be useful. I’ll still be pondering this in line at the Apple store, and then I’ll get it home and roll around on the bed with the packaging – Barry White playing soft and low on the background. Then I’ll understand.
I can see a point behind a tablet. I wish I had a tablet to read all the PDF files I need for school. It’s a pain in the ass sitting at my desk reading them and having the MBP is too cumbersome to do it on the go. I’d love to be able to flip through it like a book, on a screen that won’t make me go blind.
I’m interested in what this offering could be.
Give me a 50 inch iTablet I could hang on the wall. Then I would be interested! All with a touch interface and remotely controlled with an iPhone. Apple taking over the TV set market…that would be smart. But a slightly bigger iPhone…nah, not for me.
Prediction: Apple will make something of interest that will keep everyone guessing until it’s released.
Prediction: Discussing this will anger some.
Prediction: Discussing this will cause others to nod in agreement.
Geez, what year is this?
SYG
You are very right, perhaps.
A tablet needs to be able to replace your second/mobile computer for those who only need light productivity apps on the road. Such as connecting to an LCD projector to power Keynote presentations, or using iWork and similarly slim work apps (in addition to iPod/entertainment, of course). If this would enable the non-power road warriors to use a tablet in conjunction with an iMac, then it will be a hit. Those who need to do video/photo/music editing on the road will not be satisfied–but they can get MacBook Pros. If it can really make a laptop unnecessary for must of us, it will be wildly successful. If not, it will be another AppleTV–great for a few who fit that niche.
With the iPhone, it was clear to see what Apple could do to provide a must-have device for me. The same with iPods. The Apple TV could be a better product, but for now is just a hobby. The tablet however is something that I just can’t imagine how Apple is going to release one that could reach critical mass. I haven’t seen anyone else describe a product Apple could release like this either…at least not anywhere along the lines of what we could imagine the iPhone would be like.
I’m not saying Apple won’t surprise, but a tablet from Apple would either be a surprising failure (given their success rate with extremely long planned out and developed products), or a modestly successful product filling a niche market (which will come across as a failure) or a surprising hit because it’s something *nobody* was able to imagine…except those at Apple.
It’s funny, because even as I hope Apple releases a tablet, and will be watching for it, and following what happens with it with enthusiasm…I’m not actually finding myself *desiring* any sort of hypothetical tablet.
Let’s not kid ourselves. We don’t want a small netbook or a big iPod. We want the future. This touch based OS is where computers are heading, and I will wait for the TouchMac or what ever they’ll call it.
What would be really interesting is if they made some kind of a dock or stand, perhaps with a usb connector or perhaps built in bluetooth so you could use a keyboard and mouse when you are at a desk. When you are on the go, pop it out of the dock and use the touchscreen to playback your movies, music, or a virtual keyboard for casual use.
I’d snap one of those up in a heartbeat.
Ronin,
I’m with you on the keyboard thing buddy, mouse, not so much but if it suits some people then it should be an option. I would hope you could run Mac apps on it as well as cocoa touch apps modified for the larger touch screen. I think it needs touch mode and Mac mode personally.
Obviously I would want to use a capacitance based stylus for any kind of design and serious stuff but I’m sure there will be several people on here that will have a virtual coronary at the mere suggestion of using a stylus but you can’t sketch properly with your fingers. three year olds do that. it’s called finger painting.
Apple originally gained it’s popularity through the creative and media industries and to not allow for other input devices would be an insult to those people who made Apple popular. It would also be a little bit draconian.
I’m just hoping that if one of these babies emerges it will have options. If not then it’s a ModBook for me. I even have a MacBook ready for the fancy upgrade.
…To tablet or not to tablet, that’s (in this case) _not_ the question…
Yesterday night there was a show on Discovery Channel (back in NL) titled ‘the iPod revolution’: some background on how the iPod, iTunes changed Apple into what it now is – quite a dramatic change over the last 10-some years, basically since Steve came back.
It must have been a rather old documentary, because it didn’t yet feature the iPhone nor iPod touch – but the final quote was very correct: ‘Some analysts say that Apple cannot grow much further with this iPod and Mac business, but they are wrong: we’re just at the beginning’.
And this, I do believe, is true: we will be seeing a continuous stream of ever-more fantastic products that people will simply want.
Another nice quote: ‘the iPod became such a success because not only it looks nice (it’s a jewel), but it also works, and flawlessly – and people want that’ (now isn’t that true…)
Guess I’ll hold on to my AAPL shares for some more time
Dude99 hit the nail on the head. To the rest of the world, it’s an iBook, stupid!
Needs to have much more storage than a Kindle with an OS somewhere between the iPhone & the Mac while keeping it light & thin.
The stumbling block may well be the publishing industry. It’s bewildered & scared to death by the nascent e publishing idea, so Apple needs to work it.
And newspapers & mags need to reevaluate their models. Sorry to break the news, but massive amounts of free online content may soon be gone — it is simple, if we purchase less & less paper reading material (that subsidizes the free online stuff), the publishers will no longer be able to give away for free what it costs to make it available in the first place. And advertising revenue is simply not enough.
Why so much persistence in talking about a so called rumored tablet? It would be so incredibly funny with all of this hype to find out Apple never releases a tablet, and it is just a new macbook or something. Sure, the changes in snow leopard hint at the possibility of a touch based mac of some kind, but until the device exists, all this rumor mongering is annoying.
The argument against those who say an Apple iTablet (or whatever you want to call it) will fail is that they can’t know because they haven’t seen or used one, if it exists.
The same argument applies to those who say the iTablet will succeed. Much as I like Apple and believe in its ability to innovate and re-invent a market, I can’t believe one argument over the other until I see what comes out.
In a very peculiar way, it’s almost like religion. Many believe in God (myself included), but nobody (and I mean NOBODY) has seen him/her/it. Similarly, no one outside Apple (& its manufacturers, I guess) has seen the iTablet.
So everyone weighing in on the issue is going on faith. I guess that makes me an iTablet agnostic. We won’t know the truth about anything until we can perceive, Thomas the disciple notwithstanding.
MDN word: door, as in “What’s behind door #3?”
Here’s the thing:
My father-in-law is fascinated by my iPhone, especially being able to access the Internet on the go, but with his eyesight (the dude’s in his late 70s), he really can’t use it. A slightly larger version, say the dimensions of a standard hardback book but a heck of a lot thinner, would still be portable; it would fit in a purse or briefcase, and be easy to handle because of the thinness factor. And a larger screen would make it easier to view things such as maps, charts/graphs, and PDFs.
And storage? Well, what if it had an SD card slot? SD is pretty much becoming the standard for storage in digital cameras, despite Compact Flash; I wish I could go back and change my mind on my little Sony which has CF so I could have the same type storage as my Nikon dSLR which is SD. Work out a deal with the movie industry to allow storage of movies on SD (maybe something similar to Digital Copy), or if the thing becomes popular you might even find studios putting out some of their big hits on SD cards and selling them right in the airports, like now you can rent DVDs — someone might even come up with a way to make them single view only, so for $1 or $2 you could pick up a copy of “UP” to keep the kids quiet on the plane, watch it once, then recycle the card at the other end.
And some enterprising 3rd party developer would probably develop a Bluetooth-enabled folding keyboard, similar to the ones that attached to the old Palm devices; that would take care of the folks who want something more than just a virtual on-screen keyboard for heavier typing duty. Add in a built in copy of iWork, and people could take their Keynote presentations on the go or work on reports in Numbers or Pages; you wouldn’t even need a projector if you’re, say, at a small dinner meeting and wanted to show your presentation to potential clients.
Sure, for heavy duty photo/video/audio editing you’ll bring along your MacBook Pro, or wait till you get back home to your desktop computer. But for simple on the go checking the Internet, viewing your pictures after you’ve taken them on a bigger screen than what’s on your camera, or watching a movie, a larger sized iPod touch could be the way to go.
Two things are certain: Apple’s not going to release it till they’re pretty sure they’ve got it right, and none of the “tech gurus” are going to understand it till way down the road.
it will kill off all da electronic books from Amazon, sony alike
The ‘iTablet’ Boring Baloney Fest continues. Shut up already please!
What everyone would like to know is when the ‘iTablet’ will actually exist outside of people’s imaginations.
This has to be the most elaborate discussion of something imaginary, not even vaporware, I have EVER seen on the net. And if it existed I wouldn’t want one anyway!
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”tongue laugh” style=”border:0;” />
@derekcurrie
“The ‘iTablet’ Boring Baloney Fest continues. Shut up already please!”
Let me get this straight. Instead of just skipping the article you clicked on the MDN link to an article entitled: “Why Apple’s ‘iTablet’ will succeed!”
You then took the time to read the article and comments about something you don’t want to read about? Then you spent time posting your “feedback” because you don’t want to read about it.
At a minimum you are either on the wrong site and/or you are highly confused.
Macrelated sez: “Let me get this straight. Instead of just skipping the article you clicked on the MDN link to an article entitled: “Why Apple’s ‘iTablet’ will succeed!” “
No actually. I did NOT read the article. Instead I followed a very old tradition on the net of pointing out when someone is wasting bandwidth, as you just did as well.
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”tongue laugh” style=”border:0;” />
So