“Laura DiDio, an analyst at Information Technology Intelligence, has predicted the Apple tablet will be ‘the next big thing,’ complete with 10- to 12-inch high-res screen, Web connection, and a video cam,” Kunz reports. “Other manufacturers such as Dell are preparing tablets, too, but Apple is the one to watch—because Apple is best at making radical new hardware formats undeniably cool.”
MacDailyNews Take: Dell. Puleeze. What a joke.
Kunz reports, “So yes, the Jesus Tablet will appear. And yes, you’ll buy one with an artificially high price of, say, $800 as penance for being an early adopter. Within two years the price will fall to $199 until everyone including your 6-year-old has a gleaming, do-anything, interactive pane of glass on his or her desk.”
Apple’s iPad will change the world in at least five ways:
• Magazine and newspaper publishing will bounce back
• Television and radio ratings will continue to fall: Unlike print, TV and radio won’t fit easily into the Apple tablet’s format. Sure, U.S. consumers still watch 5 hours and 9 minutes of live television a day, but the problem is ratings don’t hold when commercials actually air. Certainly, Apple will try to push TV shows and movies through the tablet via iTunes, but we’re betting they don’t sit well in your hand. Rather than being a device to watch television, the Apple tablet is more likely to be an interactive distraction when real TV ads come on your basement set.
MacDailyNews Take: We disagree with Kunz’s prediction. There are too many possibilities, from iTunes subscriptions to how devices and software will interact with bigger screens and your stereo system, to pronounce continued doom for TV and radio. TV shows don’t necessarily need traditional commercial breaks to thrive. See HBO.
• Augmented-reality views of the world will increase
• Two-way video on tablets will push communication costs even lower
• Telecommuting may finally take off
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “Fred Mertz” and “Lynn W.” for the heads up.]