The inside track on Apple's tablet: a history of tablet computing - Page 5

One week, one day and 21 hours to goooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!

In England wouldn't iPad translate to iTampon?

It's FUN, anyway, how uses their computer in direct sunlight - no one.

Sadly, we don't even have any further rumours/ confirmation that *any* event is going to take place.

Okay, but in say a shaded park or in the roadside section of a cafe during a sunset, would LED be better than OLED?

Chilling at a park or cafe would be one of the primary areas where you would enjoy a bit of Tablet time.

iPad is just a ridiculous name. But hey, who knows, iPhone "3GS" sells by the bucketload...!

They have until Tuesday the 19th to give people one week to prepare. Perhaps Wednesday the 20th if the show will be on the 27th.

Let me say again that if they delay yet again I will be all for it because that just means Jobs wants to make some last minute changes to the device to make sure it is a success. I mean, we've waited this long haven't we?

The problem here is they, presumably, can be, but they generally are not. As soon as a maker allows hardware keyboard input, that becomes the dominant mode with existing available software (which has already been mentioned on the thread). There's no that big of a point to count machines amongst "tablets", if they are prevailingly used just in classic laptop mode and if the slate mode makes them instantly a niche solution.

Except I can use all tablet software with a convertible. The dominant input depends on the work flow, not the device.

The reason that they are more popular for medical uses has been that nurses and admins couldn't read doctor's handwritten notes in ink.

Convertibles are tablets that CAN be used as normal notebooks unlike slates. But if all you were going to do was use the keyboard you could have saved money and gotten more machine for a regular notebook. I have an app developed for tablets that is its dominant use but understand that folks still need to be able to use MS Word from time to time.

Talk is cheap. Just try touch-oriented software. Oh, it does depend on the hardware. It does depend on the device. And how!


Which we're discussing since long already. Niche products for niche use.


Tablet is commonly defined by its slate form factor and by the screen input. Convertibles break both, IMO. They are qualified as tablets for marketing purposes. But what has it all got to do with coming (if any) Apple's device?
Apple's Authorized Proprietary Solution Provider introduced true tablet machine years ago. Apple does active research in touch input realm. And upon doing all that Apple will produce yet another convertible crap? Frankly, it's the last thing I'd ever guess.

The A8s cannot. The A9s can when pushed to higher clock speeds. Intel is specifically not improving Atom speeds concentrating on better power consumption. Anytime Intel wants to retake the speed crown (which they haven't lost yet) they have an assload of higher power x86 performance enhancements to tap.


They will...with Arrandale. A demo of web surfing performance against a 1.6Ghz Atom is one thing. Claiming that an A9 will be performance competitive even against a Pentium is silly.

Plus it's not a production device yet just like Moorestown. I'm sure Intel can make a video with a lab Z550/Z515 that beats the production Atom too. And Moorestown/Lincroft will be a SOC as well.


For the tablet an ARM A9 would work well given the large body of iPhone devs. Even so, Apple would want to likely invest in porting over some of the Mac OSX apps to the platform.

However IT COULD BE MOORESTOWN as well. Not as likely with the PA Semi investment but possible. There are some Moorestown devices running moblin at CES.

http://scoop.intel.com/2010/01/intel...nes-at-ces.php

It's funny how many UI design cues they stole from the iPhone but otherwise the prototype device looks rather good. 720p encoding and 1080p decoding, 1024 x 480, 5MP camera (x2), moblin 2.1. Touchpad looked a little laggy but video performance looked nice.

http://www.netbooknews.com/1891/lg-g...hone-ces-2010/

I have 3 slates, 2 convertibles, iPhones, a Diamond Touch and a couple touch enabled displays. I have developed a tablet based app and prototyped a multitouch based app for the same domain.

What would you like me to try Mr Talk is Cheap? I'll give it a try.


We're all assuming (hopefully correctly) that the iSlate will change all that. However, it is MOST likely to change it for content consumption and not content creation.


No, a tablet is commonly defined as having a built in digitizer which can support a stylus based pen interface.


Nothing. However it has a lot to do with your assertion that convertibles aren't tablets which is wrong.


I would predict that Apple's MBP line up will move to become entirely convertibles. That's one way to maintain the margins against ever decreasing price of traditional notebooks and a competitive advantage over Linux or Windows.

The Air would make a wonderful convertible with a solid hinge and a thin multi-touch digitizer. Apple is more likely able to integrate multi-touch and pen computing seamlessly into the core OS than MS. I say that as a MSDN subscriber that's been playing with the multitouch SDK from MS (nice stuff actually).

PQWindow on Fujitsu P series. Get busy.


It all depends on how strict you think the definition of tablet is. People used to go onto long talks about convertible tablets and then to issue sudden remarks that convertibles are apparently "very close to laptops". I just don't want to factor convertibles in.

http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/06/f...ick-work-of-m/

They have a multitouch convertible. Done.


So what? Doesn't mean you get to reclassify what is or isn't a tablet. In any case, without understanding the previous failure of slates you wont understand where the upcoming Apple design might excel or falter.

Sure it's not! You claimed device independence, which is obviously not the case. This is why the guy starting to blabber about the experience and failing on practical task never gets job in my team.


Just care to read ivan.rnn01's posts. They've already explained everything, which you are to understand about where Apple will excel. So you can not predict what I will or will not understand. I'm just considering matters, which you haven't yet thought about.

Are you using this tablet in a Raymond Carver story?

On average the OLED display would be 10 times better, at a shaded café it would still be better.

Guess what dude? Apple just annouced that Jan 27th will indeed hold and event. They want to show their "Latest Creation".

Well everyone, It's on!!!!!!!

As long as I can put a program like cdisplay for comics and vlc for video and can put my own files on an actual drive, I'm in. other wise I'm not so sure.

Has anyone heard any rumors of the possibility of these capabilities?

"Hello, I'm a MacTouch."
"And I'm a PC. Wait, did you say touch??"
"Well, yeah. I have a touch-based intuitive interface, like the iPhone."
"Touch, eh? Let me try..."
"PC stop that. PC...PC??!? STOP HUMPING MY LEG"

I figured it would come around Mod-week. This makes me think It's going to be bigger than usual.

Mod week? Bigger than usaual? Please explain?

mid-week. iPhone autocorrect \

Ok, ok. But what about the bigger than usual bit?

Yep, it sure is. It has a capacitance touch sensor and a digitizer. The Wacom one I believe.


No, I claimed that convertible tablets are tablets. Not sure what the heck you're saying here. It's not so much moving the goalposts as playing an entirely different sport.

In any case the wacom multitouch digitizer is pretty standard.

PQWindow is selling a touch screen device and some software. How is that any more device independent than Fujitsu that uses the MS' SDK vs PQWindow SDK? It isn't. It's worse since it IS tied to one set of hardware. At least the MS SDK can work with multiple devices, just only on Windows.

The last (and only) time I looked at PQWindow the SDK wasn't impressive. It grabbed input and returned the gesture it detected. The reference app was C#.

TouchLib or Snowflake is what you're looking for for a (more or less) device independent, (more or less) cross platform SDK.

TouchLib is more FITR oriented but Snowflake has 3M, Wacom and other capacitive touch support out of box. Given that it support Wacom I'm going to bet the Fujitsu just works with Snowflake.


Your team must suck if you only have newbs. If you're targeting PQWindow you're a real newb. The market has changed a lot given there are now many multitouch digitizers from the big names like Wacom, the MS SDK is out,etc. Cool in 2009. Overtaken By Events by 2010. PQWindow based solutions in 2010? Stupid.


Talking about yourself in the 3rd person is often a sign of mental instability or excessive ego.

I'm going to guess you're some techy friend of his that can spell multi-touch or something. In which case his "big guns" has turned out to be a pea-shooter.

Oh, and I'll clue you in. Some of the widely seen Multi-Touch demos on YouTube has some of my code in it.

LET THE INSanITY BEGIN !!!!!!!

I think the extra long notice might be to get even more reporters than usual, because the event will be bigger than usual. Historically, Apple has the event on a Tuesday and announces it the Wednesday prior, as I recall.

So, if Apple does rebirth the Newton, something that many loyal Newton users have long longed for, should we, after being left high-and-dry all this time trust them? It really would not have taken that much to have kept the Newton's compatible with MacOS X, but Apple chose to cut loyal Newton users off at the knees and to cause them to loose their entire investment (both as users and developers) in the platform. They also could have open sourced the Newton project (as well as OpenDoc) and allowed users to have maintained the technology themselves. Instead they locked it up in a box and let it wither. Will Apple do the same thing again if the tablet isn't an immediate success? Trust is a big issue in consumer relations and it was something that Apple used to have an excellent track record for. Starting with their cancellation of existing, though vital, technologies with the return of Jobs, that trust record began to deteriorate. So where do we go from here?

I don't know why anyone would still be harping on about the Newton. I bought one, and still own it -- but I got over its termination a long, long time ago. Where we've gone since then is up, up, up. So if we know anything at all about the new iProduct (and we don't know much) we have to know that it's not going to be Newton Redux.

Daniel,

How long has it been since I told you what a good job you are doing with your website and how much I enjoy your articles, even those published on Appleinsider?

Well perhaps too long, but you haven't been as prolific lately .......

Keep up the good work ......



I recognised the name Mike Elgan, but forgot from where, so I unfortunately clicked on:

http://www.computerworld.com/s/artic...ource=rss_news

before I remembered that you had warned us about this guy before:

http://www.roughlydrafted.com/2008/0...on-the-iphone/



Key point of Elgonic's story is this:

"In business circles, one of the most miraculous success stories of the previous century is the story of Starbucks. The company earned its legendary status not by invention of a new product, but by the rare transformation of human culture........................ Starbucks transformed a generic commodity into a brand-name experience that people seek out. But the miraculous bit is that they changed American (and later, global) culture.
"Coffee is still coffee. They didn't change the product as much as they changed the customer.

"Consumer electronics companies face a similar challenge.............. getting consumers to accept the change."



I am sure you can explain this better than me, but how wrong can one person be?



YES, coffee is still coffee. YES, Starbucks didn't change coffee as such, but NO, they didn't change the customer and WRONG to think of coffee as a "generic commodity" or even as a single commodity.

In fact, what Starbucks did was take what had previously been viewed as a generic product, a hot brown liquid, and improved what made it SPECIAL, the coffee flavour. Then they sold the better product, or rather range of products since once you can tell the difference there are varieties of coffee, at premium prices to discerning customers.

Starbucks, together with other coffee shops, didn't "change the customer", they changed the product they offered to the customer, and the customer learned to appreciate that change and recognise its value. Customers were prepared to pay more for the improved value.



Elgone goes on to postulate that, just as Starbucks managed to hoodwink customers into paying more for a cup of coffee that was basically the same thing as the previous hot brown liquid, Apple managed to hoodwink customers into paying more for an iPhone that was basically the same as the previous mobile phones with a bit of extra brand-name. Similarly, thanks to a re-education process worthy of Stalin and Kim Jong Il, Apple will gradually lead us to accept other things that ordinary people never thought they wanted but now could never live without, like Starbucks coffee instead of hot brown liquid, iTunes instead of plastic CD's, on-screen keyboards, and finally Apps that you can download.

All this in support of the idea that even though the next Apple gadget will be better, it won't gain acceptance until Apple has somehow brainwashed it's customers into accepting something they would otherwise reject.


Where does all this lead? Perhaps it's an escape clause: if the next Apple gadget proves to be successful, it will be proof that Mike Elgan was absolutely correct in predicting how Apple would condition its customers to accept the new reality. If it fails, well of course even if the product was good, Apple didn't brainwash enough customers ...........

Whatever the outcome, no-one is likely to go back and point out that it was Mike Elgan and the clients he represented who were really trying to "change the customer" by making them believe that inferior products were acceptable.

Although I suspect that you will do a valiant job trying to remind them ..........

Just like the MacBook Air?

The Air DOES NOT SELL. I work for one of the largest Apple Specialists in the country. They don't sell at any of our locations. And why would it? It's $300 more expensive than the 13" MacBook Pro and is only 1.5lbs lighter. Who would want to pay more money for fewer features?

My point is that you shouldn't, no matter how long you've followed Apple, declare exactly what will or will not happen. If Apple's history teaches us anything it's that we can't predict what they are going to do. Ever.

And you don't think they will view the Air as a learning experience? Over 50% of Apples sales are portables (Macbook, MBAir, MBPro) and the Air has consistently been dead last as far as sales. And sure it's a niche market and sure it was never going to be their #1 product but based on the sales figures I find when I go looking the Air hasn't sold the way Apple wanted it to. Based on the friends, family and customers I talk to everyday no one wants one because the the lack of connectivity.

What I'm trying to get at is I think that a couple of USB ports and, since VESA made it a standard, a Mini-Display Port aren't out of the question.

Macbook Air is high-end, niche, premium. Apple can improve on it anytime they want, but they'll sit on the high profit margins and enjoy virtually (still) the sexiest ultrathin+light laptop out there.

How many Adamos does Dell sell? Probably not much.

The Tablet, is a whole different thing because the price range would be in between iPhone and MacBook.

I predict, the Tablet is targeted to sell less units than iPhone but close to the number of MacBook/Pros?

Starting of at maybe 1-2 million units a month globally, and Apple will refine/ adapt as needed over 2011 to 2012.

It would be a bit of an experiment, but a serious experiment, perhaps.

Based on what we know Tablets would only start shipping in April to June so things will only get rolling 2nd half of this year, especially as developers and content providers need time to start rolling out all the apps and content.

Remember the announcement should be a lot about "iPhone" OS 4.0 which is Apple defining in this decade, how they see the mobile(including tablet) space evolving.

In some regards the Tablet is not about huge numbers like 20-30 million a year or anything like that (though it could turn out to be that). It is about rounding out the complete Apple product portfolio and positioning them in 2010 to face the new decade in whichever way things evolve. People may stick more to phone form factors. Or they might like Tablets instead of netbooks if Apple does it right. Laptops could go thinner and lighter though given CPU/GPU/Chipset domination by Intel, I don't see too much exciting stuff happening on the mainstream/higher-end laptop space in 2010 << For laptops its a matter of how aggressive Apple will push ATI 40nm 5-series graphics and BluRay, 1080p on 15", SSDs, etc.

Apple with the Tablet will basically have staked out all territory reasonably available to it for 2010 in both physical and digital (iTunes Store publications) realms.

The important point about the MacBook Air that cannot be understood unless you use it is this:

It is not just thinner and lighter, it is thin enough and light enough that you can pick it up, easily, with one hand.

Why does this make a difference? Because it means you can PASS IT AROUND. Remember all those times where someone looks over your shoulder to see what you are looking at on your PC, or you send them a URL? With the MacBook Air you just pass them the computer to look at.

The supposed Tablet will do this. When it does, the MacBook Air will be seen as merely Apple "practicing" at making something thin and light enough to "pass around".

There're solid reasons to believe Apple will only release slate (tablet) version of the product --- otherwise 10" display tethered to cramped keyboard means net-book without alternatives. Apple clearly said: we're not gonna make net-books.

True tablet won't eat in the laptop market. Notebooks are far more powerful (processors, memory, storage, connectivity options). They run the whole spectrum of full-featured applications and best when you need to do some traditional computing job, which requires keyboard and screen pointer. You put laptop on a surface (well, on your laps) before doing anything serious.

Tablet is indeed gonna excel and beat all notebooks as presentation (either to bearer self --- reader form factor, or to others) tool. But it won't run full-weight versions of applications and won't allow usual computer connectivity capabilities.

What a fantastic read that was, thanks Dan. A point has to be made though somewhere in the article about the prematurity of tablet devices, say 10 years back, in terms of plain hardware processing power and lcd tec, I mean if you don't have 3g to sync over how can you browse the web or check your email, that tec wasn't there simply put, and that's what turns a newton to an iphone, that and or course the os improvements.

Which doesn't mean that the next MBA wont also be a tablet at the 13" from factor. It depends on the hinge design and the additional weight and thickness of the digitizer. Doable although the hinge design is the trickiest to make meet Apple standards of design.


Convertible tablets I think is likely to replace the laptop even on the Windows side but especially on the Mac side. That's the only real way to preserve margins against ever cheaper windows notebooks...fast becoming a commodity item.

The slate will also help in that regard...as long as you don't need to do a lot of typing. But Apple will strictly limit any cheaper slate from ever cannibalizing higher ASP macbook/macbook pro tablets.


Except that they already do today from the modbook (mac) to windows tablets. The key has been no one has really made a MBA like tablet. They either have thin and light slates or larger convertibles. A thin and light convertible I think would do very well with the upcoming OS support from Windows 7 and I expect from OSX.

At 10" the upcoming slate is a playback device. It's true that a 10" keyboard is suboptimal hence the move toward 12" netbooks despite Intel's limitations. That's also why I see the 13" MBA as being an excellent convertible candidate. 12" would be better but they probably need that extra inch to make it as thin as it is.

Vinea, Gazoobee has perfectly defended my point on the classification of convertibles, which she (I strongly believe) has chosen to side with, yesterday. It's made all crystal clear there.

As for tablet capabilities, it's in particular just because they try to run everything, they fail as a product. Apple product would hardly run all Mac OS applications including Terminal.

Who where? A link would be nice. Unless you're referring to the very weird post above about device independence that has zero to do with the classifications of convertibles as tablets. I guess that English is a secondary language but the post bordered on surreal.

There is also no reason to believe that with better OS level support that OSX will not evolve all the Apple laptops into convertible tablets. There are a myriad of desktop applications that are well suited to direct manipulation vs WIMP metaphor. Most of the iLife suite comes to mind.

Besides, there's no reason you couldn't use terminal on the tablet given Apple is likely to provide a virtual keyboard. But given it's rarely used on the desktop OSX there's no real reason to use it on the tablet either except for some unix junkies looking for a bash fix.

I think last night I dreamt of using some kind of Apple Tablet. Can't be sure. This is getting insane. LOL

Nearly a year after it was introduced I have been reading all these hundreds of predictions of what the new Apple tablet will be like. You are the only one who predicted it correctly in every way. You got the name iPad right. You said it would be like a large iPod Touch which was absolutely correct. You said that this is really all people need and if they go with the large iPod Touch design it will be a commercial success. How right you were!! As if this writing Apple has sold 15 million iPads and may sell 50 million iPad 2's when is released. Congratulations on being the only one to predict the iPad perfectly!!!