“The high-tech industry has been working itself into paroxysms of excitement lately over an idea that is not exactly new: tablet computers,” Brad Stone and Ashlee Vance report for The New York Times. “Quietly, several high-tech companies are lining up to deliver versions of these keyboard-free, touch-screen portable machines in the next few months. Industry watchers have their eye on Apple in particular to sell such a device by early next year.”
“‘[Years ago] software engineers got ahead of the hardware capabilities,’ said Paul Jackson, a consumer product analyst at Forrester Research. ‘But we may be finally getting to the point where the dreams and aspirations of those designers are actually meeting capable and reasonably priced technology,'” Stone and Vance report. “The iPhone and its imitators have demonstrated that new tactile touch screens work and that people are comfortable with them, in a way they never got accustomed to using earlier tablets and stylus pens.”
“The drumbeat of tablet product introductions has already begun… Apple’s rumored tablet is the most highly anticipated of the lot. Analysts expect Apple to introduce it early next year — a sort of expanded, souped-up version of the iPod Touch [sic], priced at around $700,” Stone and Vance report.
MacDailyNews Take: At one time, analysts also expected Apple to be out of business within a year. Just sayin’.
Stone and Vance continue, “Colin Smith, an Apple spokesman, declined to comment on the company’s recruitment or product plans. But Apple’s tablet will most likely have little in common with the Newton, which was essentially a personal digital assistant. The new crop of tablets is being viewed as more flexible — gadgets that combine elements of the iPhone, e-book readers like the Kindle and laptops. Apple has been working on such a Swiss Army knife tablet since at least 2003, according to several former employees. One prototype, developed in 2003, used PowerPC microchips made by I.B.M., which were so power-hungry that they quickly drained the battery.”
One “former Apple executive who was there at the time said the tablets kept getting shelved at Apple because Mr. Jobs, whose incisive critiques are often memorable, asked, in essence, what they were good for besides surfing the Web in the bathroom,” Stone and Vance report. “The success of the iPhone may have partially helped to answer that question. As of last month, developers had created 85,000 applications for the iPhone and iPod Touch — video games, social networking software, restaurant finders and more. Analysts believe that all those programs will immediately work on the new tablet while developers begin to tailor new software for the larger screen.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]
I want my tablet to be able to wipe my ass when I’m on the throne.
What do you want your tablet to do?(please everyone no more predictions, we know it’s coming have fun in the wait.)
I want my tablet to transport me to ethereal worlds of unknown bliss.
Riiight!!!!
Video conferences and public presentations!
Video conference from the throne …. I’ll pass
I don’t care what it’s good for, as long as it’s snappy.
“What do you want your tablet to do?”
If you’re just going to use the Tablet in the bathroom, porn is a must have.
For us Canadians, good battery life or an extension cord to reach from the toilet to the house is a must as well.
GREAT TITLE…because that is really so true in real world testing…
awsome on the pot…I can already see the third party thigh heat protecting pads.
On the throne, that is what the iPhone is for.
“Video conference from the throne …. I’ll pass.”
I hope so, unless you’re constipated.
Anyone catch Rob Enderle on CNBC purporting to be a stock analyst and telling investors that Apple stock price is too high. How pathetic can he get!
iTab speculation now full-time industry
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iThrone,BIATCH!
Surfing the Web while you sit on the toilet? Seriously?
Is this a guy thing?
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“At one time, analysts also expected Apple to be out of business within a year.”
I still expect Apple to be out of business within a year. So long as I refresh that quote every day, I’m never wrong!
Wait for it… wait for it…
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I could be wrong (frequent) but if the tablet is just a large iPod Touch I don’t see this thing selling for $700. If it cannot replace a laptop it’s use will be very limited.
Fast forward to: October 5, 2010
Hey Guys! Check out my new iTablet! This thing is awesome!
Spectral analysis of bowel movements for notification of health problems would be nice…
okay here’s a good laugh. i had a teacher (this was almost 10 years ago now) that was asked if he thought that books were doomed and everything would go digital who actually said “not until the day I can take my morning paper with me into the bathroom”
http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/173101/apple_tablet_mostwatched_product_of_2010_but_by_whom.html
@island girl: Oh my gosh yes. Except while you are on the “throne”, the macbook shall in no way rest on your lap. It is placed on the floor with the edge of a spare shoe underneath the laptop to get the proper viewing angle, because Apple’s freaking hinges are too restrictive to view anything from the throne.
Anyone else use the shoe method?
I’ll get it when Apple adds “smellovision”. That way, while at my throne going poopee I can share the experience via video and smellovision. It’s the new “iChat-O-Smell-U” app! Only .99 cents.
@solid…no I use the vanity beside the toilet.
I want my iTablet to make me the coolest dude on the block. I don’t care what it does or even if I need it…it will make EVERYONE green with jealousy.
Ok ok so I am shallow.
How about remote wiping?
@blah blah blah…
Get a Zune dude!
@iPhoner, apparently alot of people think a netbook can replace a laptop, so I’m sure a large iPod touch could do it, especially, when there are over 85,000 apps for it. I mean, the iPhone and touch already do tons of things a laptop can’t do, even though there are things a laptop can do that an iPhone or touch can’t do, does not mean it’s not worth $700.
“I don’t care what it’s good for, as long as it’s snappy.”
Amen! Although a dash of imminence would be good, too. Guess we’ll get more of that in January.
The following paragraphs from the article nicely sum up my take on this. However, it is also true that a transformative device cannot be understood by comparison to how things currently are. By nature, they reveal a newer, better way of doing things.
“Despite the preponderance of apps, there is still the persistent question of whether regular people will really find a use for tablet computers. Smaller cellphones are increasingly multipurpose and fit nicely in a jacket pocket. And low-end laptops are inexpensive, run a full-fledged operating system and offer the luxury of a keyboard.
“I can imagine something like the iPhone with a much bigger screen being a gorgeous device with great capacity, but I don’t know where I would fit that into my life,” said a former Apple executive, who declined to be named because of Apple’s secrecy policies, but who anticipates an Apple tablet next year. “Those are the debates that have been happening inside Apple for quite some time.”
@DRMSSDB
I done tol ya already dude…it’ll make anyone look kool!
whatever happened to the iToilet?
http://bit.ly/n4wTh
So there seems to be a consensus. The tablet is of very little value to the average consumer for anything other than toilet surfing.
It’s no wonder they can’t get one out the door – the last thing they had that Steve Jobs was so underwhelmed by, he called a hobby (AppleTV), and at least that had a fair amount of usefulness for some people.
I still can’t think of a reason I’d buy one, no matter how cool it is, if it doesn’t do more than a Macbook Air. And I buy lots of stuff.
Really don’t see what a dedicated and expensive tablet format device would be for.
iphone and ipod touch OS is the future.
i use mine more then my computer now, apple is way ahead of the game…
I can think of a few things the tablet would be best in class in. I just don’t know if they are mass market things.
These are the things the tablet could easily do better than any other device:
– GPS
– Information systems in police cars
– Portable movie players
– Portable satellite TV players
– School textbooks
– Book reader
– Web access
– Music sheets
– ERP Dashboard
– Stock trading computer
– Video phone
A well executed tablet with the appropriate applications would be best of class in at least these items.
@crozzed
Sorry dude I don’t like to wipe my shit with another pile of shit.
I want to stick it on the wall, and use it as a video phone.
This should work in the following way…
I talk to french girl and it auto-translates my words into french.
And vice versa.
Talk to anyone in the world……don’t bother to learn any other laguage.
language. oops! Hit the button to quick without checking.
But there’s an interesting irony there
On the throne/wit my i phone…
Right now…
Jus sayin’
😀
Lol, I know he’s kidding, but that’s one of the things I want it for. Not just the throne, but an instant-on browse-anywhere device. I would also like it to be the ultimate home theater remote control. An e-reader is another idea; I expect an iTunes for print type store to open soon after it is released. And the ultimate handheld game device.
I also expect some very creative people to come up with some really neat ideas once it is out and the SDK for it is available.
FTL Transport and Time Travel are must haves.
iTablet FrEnZy!
(-_-) zzzzz