“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