Other World Computing (OWC) announced today a US$500 price reduction and expanded options on the Axiotron Modbook, the world’s only Mac-based tablet computer that lets users draw and write directly on the screen. OWC, as a fully certified Axiotron Authorized System Manufacturer (AASM), has also reduced the price of its MacBook to Modbook Modservice conversion by 40%.
Custom configured 13.3″ Modbook tablets now start from $1,599 with standard Intel Core 2 Duo 2.13GHz processor, 2GB of memory, 160GB internal hard drive, an 8X Dual-Layer SuperDrive, Airport Extreme 802.11b/g/n wireless, Bluetooth, and Mac OS 10.6.x “Snow Leopard” installed. Exclusively for OWC customers, a built in WAAS enabled GPS is also included for no additional cost. Customers may also custom configure their Modbook with up to 6GB of memory, Solid State Drives (SSD) up to 256GB, and hard disk drives for up 1.28TB (1280GB) of total internal storage capacity and have it shipped within 48 hours.
Owners of an existing Apple MacBook 13″ (with FireWire 400) can choose Modservice and have their MacBook converted by OWC into a fully featured Modbook for $649.99 – now 40% less than the previous conversion price. The turnkey service includes FedEx shipping to and from OWC in a protective shipping box and exclusively for OWC customers, a built-in WAAS enabled GPS at no additional cost. Conversion turn-around is 48 hours or less and customers may also select options for memory, hard drive, SSD, and optical drive upgrades for OWC to install during the Modservice conversion.
Both new Modbook and Modservice conversion offerings are backed by a 90 Day Axiotron Hardware limited warranty, which can be optionally extended to up to a Three-Year OWC Warranty starting from $129. The Extended Warranty covers the original MacBook components; any customer-selected upgrades installed by OWC at the time of modification, and the tablet components.
More info here.
Clearing out inventory.
They know a tablet is coming soon and are trying to cash in before the well runs dry!
@bigraz
exactly!
If a tablet already exist and is not selling very well, why is the world expecting a tablet computer from apple? (even that this one is build around a apple computer)
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”smile” style=”border:0;” />
It is not a rhetorical question
I’ll bet it’s less to do with a competing Apple tablet and more to do with a complete overhaul of the design to work with the recently released Unibody (plastic) MacBook.
cwa107 – I’ll bet it’s less to do with a competing Apple tablet and more to do with a complete overhaul of the design to work with the recently released Unibody (plastic) MacBook.
This could be it, but my thought is that they didn’t sell too well because they were very, very expensive. Not only did one have to pay the full cost for the laptop but then one had to pay for the conversion. A Mac tablet would not be nearly as powerful as a laptop IMO, but would be much less expensive and therefore would compete. Look at what you get for the cost of a netbook compared to a iPod Touch as an example of value.
@troy
The ModBook is not an Apple product, nobody wants a hacked Mac, they want the real deal. When (or if) Apple releases a tablet you will see it sell more units in the first month than the ModBook has ever. Why? Because it will be a piece of hardware designed for a specific use, not a repurposed laptop.
They probably spotted that “mystery tablet” on Huang’s desk…
I’ll wait for the REAL one.
Have you ever seen or tried to use one of these?
Absolutely horrible!
Piece of crap!
I got to play with a demo unit for a while.
Very heavy. Very ugly. Pen interface makes no sense.
If you could prop it up at a good viewing angle and hook up a keyboard and mouse I guess it wouldn’t be too bad.
Or if you had a really great tablet based app and wanted to run it on a really heavy tablet it would be good too.
Let’s see, what’s a good tablet based app for the Mac?
Oh right, there aren’t any.
Yet.
You can bet Apple’s tablet will be a game changer. If it was a simple resizing of scale this thing could have been released long ago. There must be some fundamental, life altering properties baked into this newcomer. Jobs wants this thing to be perfect.
If the new Apple tablet is that full featured I will be ecstatic. If it is just an e-book reader/Kindle knockoff, then I will get an Axiom. But I have faith that Apple will do it right, and will wait to see.
@: Rev. Dr.
Thanks!
It’s not because of Apple’s rumored tablet. It’s because Apple changed the white MacBook’s design.
The Modbook is basically the bottom half of a MacBook with the display assembly, keyboard, trackpad, and entire top surface removed. In it’s place is the stylus input screen.
With the new MacBook design, the current “mod” procedure and parts will no longer work. You can’t make new Modbooks if Apple does not supply new (old) MacBooks. So they need to clear out whatever inventory they have left, before they become obsolete.
@ Rev. Dr.: Yes, the ModBook is a hacked Mac, and won’t ever sell like a Mac. But the hack to allow digital pen input, while still running a full version of Mac OS X does fit a niche market, and I’ve been enjoying one for almost two years.
@ Scott O: No, I don’t consider it a piece of crap. Think about it. There are in fact a number of good tablet apps for the Mac. They are called drawing and paint applications; artists find pen input much better than trying to draw or paint with the keyboard and mouse.
I’m not an artist. I have a ModBook because I frequently enter hand-scrawled chemical and math expressions and diagrams into my notes. It’s convenient to do that directly, instead of having to write on the back of an envelope and scan it in. Digital pen input saves me a lot of time and effort. The added cost of a ModBook has been worth it to me.
Most of the time my ModBook is sitting on a stand and I type text into it using an Apple wireless keyboard and mouse. But there are times when it’s more convenient to enter handwritten notes — I wish it had been available when I was a student. Axiotron’s QuickScript app does a great job of recognizing my cursive scrawls and converting them to computer-readable text.
I hope Apple does introduce a tablet. I’ll probably have uses for it. But I suspect it will be a touch screen. That’s fine, but remember that digital pen input has much better accuracy for activities such as drawing, painting or handwriting.
Holiday pricing – nothing more.
The writing is on the wall for Axiotron’s Modbook. The true Apple tablet is coming.
@ Olternaut
> The writing is on the wall for Axiotron’s Modbook. The true Apple tablet is coming.
Not really. Apple actually helped by covering the one-year warranty on the MacBook portion. The customer goes through Axiotron/OWC for warranty work, but the Apple one-year warranty for the MacBook portion is not voided. At least that’s what an Axiotron rep told me a MacWorld. Why wouldn’t Apple want to help sell Modbooks? Every (new) Modbook sale is a MacBook sale.
Also, Apple would is threatened by the Modbook, because it is so different from the rumored tablet. The Modbook is basically a Wacom tablet with a built-in Mac, using a pen for input. It is targeted at graphics artists. They had graphics artists demoing them at MacWorld, and I can see how it benefits their work. In contrast, Apple’s tablet will probably NOT even use the Mac OS X interface and certainly not use a “stylus”; it will be a general purpose consumer device that is ill-suited for a graphics artist’s specialized work.
Sorry, I meant “Apple would NOT be threatened by the Macbook” above…
One thing to add. The new white Macbook cannot be “modded” in the same way, even with new parts, because the new white MacBook does not have an edge seam at the keyboard/trackpad surface level. So it won’t be quite so economical to create a new line of Modbooks. They’ll probably have to create the entire case instead of just the top portion.