“Slowly, Wall Street is putting together a picture of the Apple tablet. The conventional wisdom is that, while Apple CEO Steve Jobs and others in the Cupertino politburo consistently say derogatory things about netbooks, there really is an opportunity for the company in that vast empty space between its high-end iPod Touch at around $400 and the low-end MacBook at $1,000,” Savitz writes. “There’s a belief the new device will be more iPod than Mac, with no keyboard, and with significant ties to the App Store. A number of analysts have asserted that the iTablet, or whatever it will be called, will have a 10-inch screen, about the same as a netbook, but one that, like the iPod Touch and the iPhone, relies on touch and gestures. It could be the perfect device for watching video, playing games, reading books and magazines, and surfing the Web.”
Savitz writes, “Depending on how the tablet is priced, it could make a huge dent in the currently red-hot e-book reader market.”
MacDailyNews Take: Define “red-hot.” We’ve seen no hard sales figures on eBook readers beyond the #1 eBook readers, Apple’s iPhone and iPod touch. “Selling out” is meaningless, if we don’t know how many they offered for sale.
Savitz continues, “Apple’s tablet is likely to be based on a variation of either the Mac OS or the iPhone OS and will have the ability for full-scale Web surfing, movie watching and game playing. Seems like no contest.”
MacDailyNews Take: Again, it already is no contest: Kindle, Schmindle: Apple’s iPhone and iPod touch rule eBook market. There’s a reason why Amazon keeps improving their Kindle app for iPhone and iPod touch.
Savitz continues, “Keith Bachman, an analyst with BMO Capital, asserted in a report last week that the device is likely to sell for $700 to $800, but that a [carrier] subsidy of $200 to $300 per unit could bring the end-market price down to the $400-to-$600 range. That would put the tablet’s price above e-book readers and netbooks but below low-end Macbooks.”
“There are other things for Apple holders to look forward to in 2010, but the tablet is the real mystery,” Savitz writes. “If it catches on, Apple could sell them by the zillions and drive consensus estimates for GAAP (or generally accepted accounting principles) earnings for fiscal 2011 north of $10 a share. While the stock has doubled off the bottom, and now hovers a hair below $200, with a market cap of $175 billion, Apple in that scenario actually looks reasonably priced at about 20 times earnings per share.”
Much more in the full article here.
I’d still like to see a potential Tablet Bluetooth-enabled, and encourage 3rd-party peripherals like a portable keyboard for those who don’t like the touch-screen variety…but that’s just my $0.02…
I hope there will be a reasonably priced non 3g non subsidized version for the education market. Out of date, bulky, expensive textbooks need to be a thing of the past….
If and when TabletMac makes its debut it will quickly replace the low end Mac Book. So I wouldn’t be surprised to see it priced comparable to the white Mac Book.
Jobs will make the case for its price in the manner he did when introduced the iPhone; comparing the tremendous value of his all-in-one device with existing technology.
It could be introduced as early as the Spring, but I believe it will make its debut to cooincide with the opening of their flagship data center.
When Apple combines the hardware with the software (tablet and cloud) Jobs will have solidfied his place in history right along side those we currently celebrate.
This will be his finest hour and TabletMac will be his swan song.
Yes, I’ve been on a kool-aid binge since last night.
@ justme2
I’d even be happy with just a USB port to plug a keyboard/mouse/&c into…
As much as I’m looking forward to another amazing device from Apple I finally think they will get a run for their money from this one: http://www.ereaderuniverse.com/page/microsoft-courier
The first time I read this I thought he called it the MacBook touch – not supported be a second read-through. Well, I’m certain we’ll get a better picture of its place in the line-up when/IF it is announced. The MacBook touch? The iPhone maximus? The iTablet/MacTab? And we are told what its relationship to the app store is.
“Slowly, Wall Street is putting together a picture of the Apple tablet.”
That may be so, but that doesn’t mean Apple is.
(But maybe Wall Street will manufacture, market, and sell the “Apple tablet”, too?)
It’s amazing how much hype has surrounded a product that Apple has never publicly expressed any interest in making.
This mythical creature has been given life, with rumours of its design, power, shipping delays, and debates about its features and lack of features.
People, so far, this thing <u>does not exist!</u>
@Jerry Limonta;
A stylus.
How quaint.
I wonder if the news in the itablet would appear like in th Harry Potter movie? U knw where the photos moves! Cool uh!
Remember what Steve said during the interview in the recent music event? It’s all about positioning. The reason why they didn’t put a camera in the iPod Touch is that they know how to position themselves for the market. I think sales of the iPhone might be affected if they included a video camera with the iPod Touch, which is a capable pocket computer and runs the same OS.
I think the price point of $500-800 is still quite logical, should Apple plan to launch a product that can fill in this gap. Whether the features and hardware is as predicted by “analysts” is another issue.
http://no-spamming/
@NHL
It’s amazing how much hype has surrounded a product that Apple has never publicly expressed any interest in making
That is a very astute observation. In fact, your thread is a wake up call for the whole world!
Who’d have thought the speculation about yet another Apple product could reach a fever pitch… oh, wait…
Deja vu again!
😀
$699
The iTab will have full iApp functionality. It’s not just a consumable. It’s a creator-productivity tool.
the name of it? iPad, obviously!
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I’d love to have an Apple tablet but I’d be very surprised if that would stop me from continuing to use my Kindle. A ten-inch tablet’s just not as cozy as holding the slender little Kindle and unless it has e-ink will be tougher on some people’s eyes.
@Julian
You swallowed the Steve spin. There’s a spot in the iPod touch for a video camera, they just hit a manufacturing snag. It doesn’t make sense that the nano has video and the touch doesn’t.
Remember they actually make the touch more attractive than the iPhone to boost sales – more storage, etc.
How about a tabletMac made from a solid block of aluminum just like the MacBookPro… now that would be something!
Savitz is talking out of his ass.
He is writing about a NON-EXISTENT Apple product and is merely passing along re-hashed conjecture and speculation as fact.
“…we get the straight dope on the mysterious, but by all accounts real, tablet project at Apple.” Really? By which accounts? Who is the source? Again, baseless conjecture.
“Slowly, Wall Street is putting together a picture of the Apple tablet. The conventional wisdom is that…” Conventional wisdom? Is that like, oh, I dunno, a ‘consensus of science’?? There is NO SUCH THING as a consensus of science. The scientific method is used to prove or disprove a hypothosis; either ‘it is’ or ‘it isn’t’. There can be NO such thing as a consensus of science and using the phrase ‘conventional wisdom’ only means that a group of people believe that something is true, no matter how specious the belief may be.
I could go on, but this article is simply too perfunctory and banal to be taken seriously. Nothing more than rumor-mill rehashing disguised as serious journalism. Lame.
@Jerry Limonta that Microsoft Courier does look like a good idea. It looks like it would be the next step beyond current ebook readers.
I’m just concerned it would be something else I’d need anti virus software for.
@Jerry Limonta
Stick to Ereader commentaries, whydontcha? I don’t think you understand the broader picture of what most people look for in a purchase like this. The Courier is vapourware and the video you post is clearly a Flash animation that even I could put together to impress simple folk like that I am about to introduce the ultimate in slick devices.
I mean, since did Microsoft know how to do slick?
You look mature but you seem naive.
@fandango
this article is simply too perfunctory and banal to be taken seriously
Really? Because the same can be said of your shallow and ignorant rebuttal.
You’re attempting to disprove conventional wisdom (and the author’s article) by comparing it to consensus of science, which is rather obvious, neither exist in your mind?
Let’s check Wiki, shall we?
Consensus of science: Scientific consensus is the collective judgement, position, and opinion of the community of scientists in a particular field of study.
conventional wisdom: is a term used to describe ideas or explanations that are generally accepted as true by the public or by experts in a field. The term implies that the ideas or explanations, though widely held, are unexamined and, hence, may be reevaluated upon further examination or as events unfold.
Just because you say you aren’t paranoid, doesn’t mean they aren’t out to get you.
I hope this non-existent product comes with a web cam so I can use it for video chats on Skype.