Whatever it looks like this device will not focus on one killer function. SJ has already stated publically that he believes that multi-function devices are the way forward which is why the iPhone is so successful and the Kindle is not.
I buy hardware not for it's own sake but for access to the software I can run on it. At last count there are 85,000 applications on the App Store. Add in music, films, etc and that's why someone would buy this device - to access this content. How many OSX applications are there? A lot less I would guess - that's why it will be iPhone OS rather than OSX.
Just look at Apple's advertising for the iPhone and iPod Touch - there is no mention of how good the hardware is - it's all about the app's that are available for it. Why? because Apple knows that the App Store content is what set's the iPhone and iPod Touch apart from the competition.
It will be the same for this tablet - once publishers, etc realise that they can make money from the App Store they will all scamble to build app's and put their content on the App Store - which in turn will encourage more people to buy the tablet to access these app's.
Personally I think Apple will probably try and sell this thing as the ultimate portable multi-media device - watch a movie, play games, read an eBook, read a magazine, etc all in one light and stunning looking device.
I can't wait to see what it looks like and I hope it will be a huge success.
I think you are right. I’ve been wondering—and asking—what the focus and “killer app” is for this device since the rumours and mockups started popping up. The best business use seems to be the medical field, but I can’t recall Apple ever focusing on business first and foremost. That seems to be more of a complimentary focus to a consumer-based product.
With print newspapers and magazines not faring so welling in this digital age and having to compete online with paid content that doesn’t seem to get the same readership as print did or with ad-supported content that doesn’t seem to bank them as much money, Jobs may be coming to them with a solution that they can’t say no to.
E-Ink may have a future when the resolution is higher and when it has colour, but right now it’s far from ideal. I can’t stand any eBooks on the market today; but I really want to like them. Besides the afore mentioned poor readability they just don’t offer enough versatility for my needs, so I think you are dead on here. The difference I see is that publishing companies know they need help, while the record labels thought things were pretty good before the iTS.
If this unicorn does exist, the immediate benefits would be the same as a Kindle + a personal planner. Factor in costs, and this is the next big benefit. Reduced price for all digital product (compared to physical product) and immediate access to anything printed or digital in a lightweight display either a full-page or half-page in size is a big plus. Amazon is still breaking all the ground in this niche, but they still only have a half-baked solution compared to the imaginary Apple device. I wonder how Apple would get around the always-on network issue... would they rent spectrum or pay someone like Sprint for wireless (non-WiFi) web access, then amortize the cost into the device, or just subsidize the device by charging the publishers for access or a percentage of sales... or maybe a little of each answer?
I think a tablet done right has always been a killer computer in the making.
It's just technology has been languishing behind where the tablet needed to be.
Now...with the Macbook air...and the iPhone that something 'inbetween' can be made. All the pieces are there now. Battery life. 10 inch screen sweet spot. Wireless delivery of the internet. 'Lite' productivity apps as proven by the 'App Store'. A business model to support content on a tablet was proven on the iPod via itunes and the iphone via the App store...next? Publishing web pages, e-content...via iBook/itab/isomething.
And sure, all the usual suspects will be there...games, apps, phone?, music etc. And now we can read web on a decent screen and read books while couching the sofa!
I find the opposition to a 10 inch screen amazing. A piece of a4 paper is 8x11 inches. A 10.blob inch reader is about there for 'printable screen area' content. That's just about right.
7 inches? 5? Just not big enough, chaps May as well have the iPhone...what's the point of putting out a screen that's a few inches bigger than an iPod touch that you still need to fiddle and squint at?
Apple have done music, done phone, now? Publishing/books.
Ironic. Apple are coming home to the Mac. The Mac that started the DTPublishing revolution with Quark. How ironic that they're launching the ultimate end product vehicle for the expression of content..that is created on a Mac. Ultimate irony. Publishing is saying 'Hello Again' to the Mac. (or will be?)
It's going to be very interesting to see how this plays out. Nintendo DS? Too small. iPod touch? Too small. For a broader range of 'mobile' computing...around the home...in the car...at work...a tablet could be a killer device. I think this is the device that is going to send the 'Mac' over the top and into 'critical mass.'
50 million iPod/iPhones already? Running 'X'. Basically, at their hearts, 'Mini Macs'. An iPhone OS tablet or Mac X. It can be either. But I suspect iPhone OS...will create a new OS paradigm and way to interact with computers. Say good bye to mouse, stylus sticks...it's the 21st century...and we give them the finger. iPhone OS looks like the 'next' level of OS for me. For auntie gladice...for the casual computer user. No more pain with mouses, clicking with nested nested folders... Just finger the app...save...and spotlight to find it. Argue away. But I have my own hunch on which way Apple is going with this.
I was abit 'meh' about tablet idea...because I thought it would be a 5 inch Newton. Now that it looks like it is going to be bigger...the debate has opened up!
And I find myself surprised to be enjoying the ideas and the debate.
I'd like a decent e-reader. I knew Amazon couldn't. But Apple could.
I'd like a decent mobile casual games machine. I knew Nin and Sony would make one too clunky and small. But knew Apple would probably make one bigger.
I'd like a decent tablet for browsing the net and doing light computing. I knew M$ tried and would fail with chunky, slow unsexy bricks... But I knew after the iPhone, if anyone can do it? It was Apple.
I think this thing, if it delivers our hopes...is going to give Apple the final end game stab into computing heart of M$. It will consign M$ to irrelevance and banish the ill-fated memory and loss of the desktop wars to the beast and photocopier from Redmond.
If kindle supported pdf I would probably buy one for scientific journals and books.
Other eBooks have native PDF support and the Kindle offers a way to convert PDFs to the Kindle format, so it?s possible to get the jounrals and books you desire.
Quote:
Originally Posted by allblue
I think you are underestimating the deviousness of the uber-competitive Scrabble player - it's a war goddammit! Someone will come up with a hack - three taps to show you all possible words for your letters; double two-finger tap to show you all your opponents letters... a whole new cottage industry could be born - Scrabble cheat software!
There are plenty of websites that already do it for you.
Teckstud, unfortunately there are laws that prohibit us from or openly thinking about burying you in a green plastic bag.
Brilliant!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gazoobee
I think we should start calling it "iBook" right now so as to get used to it.
I think that is a good name.
Quote:
Originally Posted by christopher126
As far as uses, I can see it in Academia, students/instructors, medicine not just in the US but worldwide.
With Macs and iDevices so popular at colleges, which some requiring Macs, others giving out iPod Touches and many others suggesting Macs, I wonder if Apple hasn?t gone to these publishers. If they can sell a digital book that can?t be resold, that could be a huge boon for their industry. And professors who used to print their own material can now offer their content, even for free. Also, errors could be corrected by the authors and sent out as updates.
With the cost of college being so high anyway, I?m not going to care about not being able to resell a textbook, especially if it saves me from having to carry around 50lbs of books per semester. Of course, there would have to be a rich UI for making notes on pages, highlighting, underlining and everything else you can essentially do with tangible textbooks.
Quote:
Originally Posted by cmf2
People are known to pay for convenience. [?] the iTunes store does incredibly well despite the fact that everything on it can be downloaded for free from other sources. Apple gets that.
The iTS also became the #1 worldwide music distributor despite offering less quality than CD audio, costing more for a full album, not coming with liner notes, requiring extra equipment to be played through other devices like you car stereo, and having DRM.
10.6" is ridiculously large. I thought 9.6 was a bit much when that was the rumor, but 10? Seriously? How on earth do you even type on a 10" screen? Even in portrait mode, the keyboard will be too wide for thumb-typing. I really think you "larger is better" guys haven't thought through all the implications of a huge screen. This thing is gonna be non-ergonomic to hold and interact with. The "sweet spot" you're referring to is probably around 8", not close to 11"!!
I think they should just make the macbook pro a convertible notebook to tablet device
This warrants more thought.
On the forums, people a) don't want to buy a product that's just a big iPT or iPhone; b) don't want to pay a lot for a tablet that emulates SOME but not all of their MB's functions and lacks a keyboard; and c) ask, "Do I really need a third device?" (or fourth, if they've already got a phone, a netbook or MBA and a larger laptop.
An improved MBA with a swivel touch screen might be the answer: Folded one way, the screen's protected; opened, it's a MBA with a touchscreen--a "tablet with a keyboard"; and with the screen swiveled, it's a tablet. The MBA is light enough to read in bed or on a plane, imho, and a 10" model would be moreso.
What if apple took the MBA and cut the size to fit a 10.6" screen. A "convertible MBA" or "MBA touch" might sell at around the price of the current MBA**. Some Mac users would buy it as their second computer, for traveling, as they did with the current MBA. And others might decide it does enough to meet their laptop needs, as some did with the current MBA (and as some Netbook owners decided). Add those two markets to those wanting a tablet, and maybe you've got a viable new apple category.
The price would anger those who are hoping for a 400-600 tablet. But it might please apple, which would rather introduce another $1200 product than a <$800 one. Besides, they can always bring out a 6" or 7" "big iPT", maybe even with a radio chip option for those who are willing to carry around a bigger phone that does more, or does what it does better. Not for the in-the-pocket set, i know. But there are millions of customers out there. We--and more importantly Apple--are trying to figure out what serves and excites various subsets of them.
(**--for comparison: according to Boy Genius today, Sony's new Vaio X-series will include "1.5 pounds of carbon-fiber with an 11.6-inch LED display, SSD, multitouch trackpad, and a 3.5-hour standard battery life." Yeah, it's an atom cpu. And the price is expected to be around $1499).
I'm excited about the potential but I've held off on the kindle for several reasons including that it's black and white and they don't make it easy to upload your own personal content to it.
If the rumored Apple tablet is full color, doesn't restrict the types of files I can view (pdfs, cbr, etc), includes an SD card slot so I can easily upload files and photos, and allows me to control my media from the couch or touch the screen to turn off the TV and switches to reading mode I'm interested but I'm guessing that'll be in the tablet's 2nd or 3rd iteration.
What's the big mystery? It''ll be a large iPhone/Touch/laptop without the phone. ATT by allowing Skype and Google Voice over 3G, just turned the device into a phone. So there you have it. It's most things to most people.
We already had an iBook- remember? It looked like a toilet seat? Or was it a man of a certain persuasion's purse? Not that their's anything wrong with that. I'll have to ask annoymouse- he'll know.
Who knows what it will be called, I was just making my own *positive* suggestion.
To correct your facts:
The (perhaps overly feminine in it's styling), original iBook was only available very briefly. For most of the people who had one, the iBook was a plain white laptop that looks pretty much exactly like the current White Plastic MacBook. These were produced for years and make up the majority of the iBooks in circulation today.
To call you out:
I've read posts from you where you make fun of the "iPad" name based on the feminine-protection product angle yet here you are advancing it, just so you can make anothercrude joke about toilet seats and gays, and slur someone you don't even know, who's gender you don't even know?
Real classy.
You can't just make homophobic jokes about people and then save your ass by saying "not that there is anything wrong with that." I am reporting your post as the offensive crap that it is and I hope others do as well.
On the forums, people a) don't want to buy a product that's just a big iPT or iPhone; b) don't want to pay a lot for a tablet that emulates SOME but not all of their MB's functions and lacks a keyboard; and c) ask, "Do I really need a third device?" (or fourth, if they've already got a phone, a netbook or MBA and a larger laptop.
An improved MBA with a swivel touch screen
*needle yanked violently from the turntable*
Not. Gonna. Happen. You might as well make a lengthy post about the "xMac". Apple likes slim-as-possible enclosures and maximum simplicity. This has not changed. They're making a big mistake with the cumbersome screen size (assuming the rumors are true), but there can be but little doubt this will be a simple tablet with no moving parts.
On the forums, people a) don't want to buy a product that's just a big iPT or iPhone; b) don't want to pay a lot for a tablet that emulates SOME but not all of their MB's functions and lacks a keyboard; and c) ask, "Do I really need a third device?" (or fourth, if they've already got a phone, a netbook or MBA and a larger laptop.
An improved MBA with a swivel touch screen might be the answer: Folded one way, the screen's protected; opened, it's a MBA with a touchscreen--a "tablet with a keyboard"; and with the screen swiveled, it's a tablet. The MBA is light enough to read in bed or on a plane, imho, and a 10" model would be moreso.
What if apple took the MBA and cut the size to fit a 10.6" screen. A "convertible MBA" or "MBA touch" might sell at around the price of the current MBA**. Some Mac users would buy it as their second computer, for traveling, as they did with the current MBA. And others might decide it does enough to meet their laptop needs, as some did with the current MBA (and as some Netbook owners decided). Add those two markets to those wanting a tablet, and maybe you've got a viable new apple category.
The price would anger those who are hoping for a 400-600 tablet. But it might please apple, which would rather introduce another $1200 product than a <$800 one. Besides, they can always bring out a 6" or 7" "big iPT", maybe even with a radio chip option for those who are willing to carry around a bigger phone that does more, or does what it does better. Not for the in-the-pocket set, i know. But there are millions of customers out there. We--and more importantly Apple--are trying to figure out what serves and excites various subsets of them. ...
Some very interesting thoughts, but I think you are not tuned into some basic realities.
"Convertible" laptops are poor design and have both a remarkably high failure rate hardware-wise as well as a very low customer satisfaction rate. They are generally considered to be a clunky solution at best and are not popular. Apple would never make a convertible laptop. Ever.
The whole point of the MBA is that it's "as small as a laptop can get" given the self-stated design goals and standards Apple has. To make the 10" version you suggest, they would have to make the keyboard smaller. This is something people have been asking for from Apple for a long time but that they have steadfastly refused to do based on their design principles. Apple will never make a smaller MacBook Air. Ever.
What I think you will see is MacBook Air technologies migrating to the new plastic MacBook, but it won't go below that minimal keyboard size that Apple has designated as being as small as you can get without dropping usability.
I've said it before and I'll say it again, I won't be getting one of these unless it runs either the full Mac OS X operating system, or allows custom codecs to play the more modern video files about (namely Matroska files). I am NOT going to re-encode my videos to run on the device, thus why I haven't bought an iPod yet.
lol right. Like people are gonna wanna hold this thing in landscape when doing anything but watching video or playing games. Uhhuh.
Contrary to popular opinion I don't think the thing will be designed to be used while being carried. I think it will have a unique pop-out rest on the back so as to make it easy to use on any flat surface. And the only time you'll have that popped in is when you're couch surfing or looking at it on the bus.
Comments
We should remember that the public conception of what the iPhone is, went through 3 stages:
1: Smartphone with iPod (expectation)
2: Surprisingly good internet browser (told by Apple)
3: Applications and gaming platform (surprise)
Just like that, the public conception of an Apple tablet could go through several phases. This is a possibility:
1: 10" iPod Touch, for music, gaming, web browsing and apps (expectation)
2: eReader (told by Apple)
3: Pretty good Mac (surprise)
Shrewd observation.
Lemon Bon Bon.
I buy hardware not for it's own sake but for access to the software I can run on it. At last count there are 85,000 applications on the App Store. Add in music, films, etc and that's why someone would buy this device - to access this content. How many OSX applications are there? A lot less I would guess - that's why it will be iPhone OS rather than OSX.
Just look at Apple's advertising for the iPhone and iPod Touch - there is no mention of how good the hardware is - it's all about the app's that are available for it. Why? because Apple knows that the App Store content is what set's the iPhone and iPod Touch apart from the competition.
It will be the same for this tablet - once publishers, etc realise that they can make money from the App Store they will all scamble to build app's and put their content on the App Store - which in turn will encourage more people to buy the tablet to access these app's.
Personally I think Apple will probably try and sell this thing as the ultimate portable multi-media device - watch a movie, play games, read an eBook, read a magazine, etc all in one light and stunning looking device.
I can't wait to see what it looks like and I hope it will be a huge success.
I think you are right. I’ve been wondering—and asking—what the focus and “killer app” is for this device since the rumours and mockups started popping up. The best business use seems to be the medical field, but I can’t recall Apple ever focusing on business first and foremost. That seems to be more of a complimentary focus to a consumer-based product.
With print newspapers and magazines not faring so welling in this digital age and having to compete online with paid content that doesn’t seem to get the same readership as print did or with ad-supported content that doesn’t seem to bank them as much money, Jobs may be coming to them with a solution that they can’t say no to.
E-Ink may have a future when the resolution is higher and when it has colour, but right now it’s far from ideal. I can’t stand any eBooks on the market today; but I really want to like them. Besides the afore mentioned poor readability they just don’t offer enough versatility for my needs, so I think you are dead on here. The difference I see is that publishing companies know they need help, while the record labels thought things were pretty good before the iTS.
If this unicorn does exist, the immediate benefits would be the same as a Kindle + a personal planner. Factor in costs, and this is the next big benefit. Reduced price for all digital product (compared to physical product) and immediate access to anything printed or digital in a lightweight display either a full-page or half-page in size is a big plus. Amazon is still breaking all the ground in this niche, but they still only have a half-baked solution compared to the imaginary Apple device. I wonder how Apple would get around the always-on network issue... would they rent spectrum or pay someone like Sprint for wireless (non-WiFi) web access, then amortize the cost into the device, or just subsidize the device by charging the publishers for access or a percentage of sales... or maybe a little of each answer?
Shrewd observation.
Lemon Bon Bon.
Maybe.....just maybe.
It's just technology has been languishing behind where the tablet needed to be.
Now...with the Macbook air...and the iPhone that something 'inbetween' can be made. All the pieces are there now. Battery life. 10 inch screen sweet spot. Wireless delivery of the internet. 'Lite' productivity apps as proven by the 'App Store'. A business model to support content on a tablet was proven on the iPod via itunes and the iphone via the App store...next? Publishing web pages, e-content...via iBook/itab/isomething.
And sure, all the usual suspects will be there...games, apps, phone?, music etc. And now we can read web on a decent screen and read books while couching the sofa!
I find the opposition to a 10 inch screen amazing. A piece of a4 paper is 8x11 inches. A 10.blob inch reader is about there for 'printable screen area' content. That's just about right.
7 inches? 5? Just not big enough, chaps
Apple have done music, done phone, now? Publishing/books.
Ironic. Apple are coming home to the Mac. The Mac that started the DTPublishing revolution with Quark. How ironic that they're launching the ultimate end product vehicle for the expression of content..that is created on a Mac. Ultimate irony. Publishing is saying 'Hello Again' to the Mac. (or will be?)
It's going to be very interesting to see how this plays out. Nintendo DS? Too small. iPod touch? Too small. For a broader range of 'mobile' computing...around the home...in the car...at work...a tablet could be a killer device. I think this is the device that is going to send the 'Mac' over the top and into 'critical mass.'
50 million iPod/iPhones already? Running 'X'. Basically, at their hearts, 'Mini Macs'. An iPhone OS tablet or Mac X. It can be either. But I suspect iPhone OS...will create a new OS paradigm and way to interact with computers. Say good bye to mouse, stylus sticks...it's the 21st century...and we give them the finger.
Hands up all those people who want a smaller one?
Hands up all those people who want a bigger one?
I'm with the ladies on the 10 inches.
Lemon Bon Bon.
And I find myself surprised to be enjoying the ideas and the debate.
I'd like a decent e-reader. I knew Amazon couldn't. But Apple could.
I'd like a decent mobile casual games machine. I knew Nin and Sony would make one too clunky and small. But knew Apple would probably make one bigger.
I'd like a decent tablet for browsing the net and doing light computing. I knew M$ tried and would fail with chunky, slow unsexy bricks... But I knew after the iPhone, if anyone can do it? It was Apple.
I think this thing, if it delivers our hopes...is going to give Apple the final end game stab into computing heart of M$. It will consign M$ to irrelevance and banish the ill-fated memory and loss of the desktop wars to the beast and photocopier from Redmond.
Lemon Bon Bon.
If kindle supported pdf I would probably buy one for scientific journals and books.
Other eBooks have native PDF support and the Kindle offers a way to convert PDFs to the Kindle format, so it?s possible to get the jounrals and books you desire.
I think you are underestimating the deviousness of the uber-competitive Scrabble player - it's a war goddammit! Someone will come up with a hack - three taps to show you all possible words for your letters; double two-finger tap to show you all your opponents letters... a whole new cottage industry could be born - Scrabble cheat software!
There are plenty of websites that already do it for you.
Teckstud, unfortunately there are laws that prohibit us from or openly thinking about burying you in a green plastic bag.
Brilliant!
I think we should start calling it "iBook" right now so as to get used to it.
I think that is a good name.
As far as uses, I can see it in Academia, students/instructors, medicine not just in the US but worldwide.
With Macs and iDevices so popular at colleges, which some requiring Macs, others giving out iPod Touches and many others suggesting Macs, I wonder if Apple hasn?t gone to these publishers. If they can sell a digital book that can?t be resold, that could be a huge boon for their industry. And professors who used to print their own material can now offer their content, even for free. Also, errors could be corrected by the authors and sent out as updates.
With the cost of college being so high anyway, I?m not going to care about not being able to resell a textbook, especially if it saves me from having to carry around 50lbs of books per semester. Of course, there would have to be a rich UI for making notes on pages, highlighting, underlining and everything else you can essentially do with tangible textbooks.
People are known to pay for convenience. [?] the iTunes store does incredibly well despite the fact that everything on it can be downloaded for free from other sources. Apple gets that.
The iTS also became the #1 worldwide music distributor despite offering less quality than CD audio, costing more for a full album, not coming with liner notes, requiring extra equipment to be played through other devices like you car stereo, and having DRM.
I think they should just make the macbook pro a convertible notebook to tablet device
This warrants more thought.
On the forums, people a) don't want to buy a product that's just a big iPT or iPhone; b) don't want to pay a lot for a tablet that emulates SOME but not all of their MB's functions and lacks a keyboard; and c) ask, "Do I really need a third device?" (or fourth, if they've already got a phone, a netbook or MBA and a larger laptop.
An improved MBA with a swivel touch screen might be the answer: Folded one way, the screen's protected; opened, it's a MBA with a touchscreen--a "tablet with a keyboard"; and with the screen swiveled, it's a tablet. The MBA is light enough to read in bed or on a plane, imho, and a 10" model would be moreso.
What if apple took the MBA and cut the size to fit a 10.6" screen. A "convertible MBA" or "MBA touch" might sell at around the price of the current MBA**. Some Mac users would buy it as their second computer, for traveling, as they did with the current MBA. And others might decide it does enough to meet their laptop needs, as some did with the current MBA (and as some Netbook owners decided). Add those two markets to those wanting a tablet, and maybe you've got a viable new apple category.
The price would anger those who are hoping for a 400-600 tablet. But it might please apple, which would rather introduce another $1200 product than a <$800 one. Besides, they can always bring out a 6" or 7" "big iPT", maybe even with a radio chip option for those who are willing to carry around a bigger phone that does more, or does what it does better. Not for the in-the-pocket set, i know. But there are millions of customers out there. We--and more importantly Apple--are trying to figure out what serves and excites various subsets of them.
(**--for comparison: according to Boy Genius today, Sony's new Vaio X-series will include "1.5 pounds of carbon-fiber with an 11.6-inch LED display, SSD, multitouch trackpad, and a 3.5-hour standard battery life." Yeah, it's an atom cpu. And the price is expected to be around $1499).
If the rumored Apple tablet is full color, doesn't restrict the types of files I can view (pdfs, cbr, etc), includes an SD card slot so I can easily upload files and photos, and allows me to control my media from the couch or touch the screen to turn off the TV and switches to reading mode I'm interested but I'm guessing that'll be in the tablet's 2nd or 3rd iteration.
Not "iPad"?
We already had an iBook- remember? It looked like a toilet seat? Or was it a man of a certain persuasion's purse? Not that their's anything wrong with that. I'll have to ask annoymouse- he'll know.
Who knows what it will be called, I was just making my own *positive* suggestion.
To correct your facts:
The (perhaps overly feminine in it's styling), original iBook was only available very briefly. For most of the people who had one, the iBook was a plain white laptop that looks pretty much exactly like the current White Plastic MacBook. These were produced for years and make up the majority of the iBooks in circulation today.
To call you out:
I've read posts from you where you make fun of the "iPad" name based on the feminine-protection product angle yet here you are advancing it, just so you can make another crude joke about toilet seats and gays, and slur someone you don't even know, who's gender you don't even know?
Real classy.
You can't just make homophobic jokes about people and then save your ass by saying "not that there is anything wrong with that." I am reporting your post as the offensive crap that it is and I hope others do as well.
On the forums, people a) don't want to buy a product that's just a big iPT or iPhone; b) don't want to pay a lot for a tablet that emulates SOME but not all of their MB's functions and lacks a keyboard; and c) ask, "Do I really need a third device?" (or fourth, if they've already got a phone, a netbook or MBA and a larger laptop.
An improved MBA with a swivel touch screen
*needle yanked violently from the turntable*
Not. Gonna. Happen. You might as well make a lengthy post about the "xMac". Apple likes slim-as-possible enclosures and maximum simplicity. This has not changed. They're making a big mistake with the cumbersome screen size (assuming the rumors are true), but there can be but little doubt this will be a simple tablet with no moving parts.
This warrants more thought.
Mmm..no.
This warrants more thought.
On the forums, people a) don't want to buy a product that's just a big iPT or iPhone; b) don't want to pay a lot for a tablet that emulates SOME but not all of their MB's functions and lacks a keyboard; and c) ask, "Do I really need a third device?" (or fourth, if they've already got a phone, a netbook or MBA and a larger laptop.
An improved MBA with a swivel touch screen might be the answer: Folded one way, the screen's protected; opened, it's a MBA with a touchscreen--a "tablet with a keyboard"; and with the screen swiveled, it's a tablet. The MBA is light enough to read in bed or on a plane, imho, and a 10" model would be moreso.
What if apple took the MBA and cut the size to fit a 10.6" screen. A "convertible MBA" or "MBA touch" might sell at around the price of the current MBA**. Some Mac users would buy it as their second computer, for traveling, as they did with the current MBA. And others might decide it does enough to meet their laptop needs, as some did with the current MBA (and as some Netbook owners decided). Add those two markets to those wanting a tablet, and maybe you've got a viable new apple category.
The price would anger those who are hoping for a 400-600 tablet. But it might please apple, which would rather introduce another $1200 product than a <$800 one. Besides, they can always bring out a 6" or 7" "big iPT", maybe even with a radio chip option for those who are willing to carry around a bigger phone that does more, or does what it does better. Not for the in-the-pocket set, i know. But there are millions of customers out there. We--and more importantly Apple--are trying to figure out what serves and excites various subsets of them. ...
Some very interesting thoughts, but I think you are not tuned into some basic realities.
"Convertible" laptops are poor design and have both a remarkably high failure rate hardware-wise as well as a very low customer satisfaction rate. They are generally considered to be a clunky solution at best and are not popular. Apple would never make a convertible laptop. Ever.
The whole point of the MBA is that it's "as small as a laptop can get" given the self-stated design goals and standards Apple has. To make the 10" version you suggest, they would have to make the keyboard smaller. This is something people have been asking for from Apple for a long time but that they have steadfastly refused to do based on their design principles. Apple will never make a smaller MacBook Air. Ever.
What I think you will see is MacBook Air technologies migrating to the new plastic MacBook, but it won't go below that minimal keyboard size that Apple has designated as being as small as you can get without dropping usability.
Mac touch FTW!
lol right. Like people are gonna wanna hold this thing in landscape when doing anything but watching video or playing games. Uhhuh.
I've said it before and I'll say it again, I won't be getting one of these unless it runs either the full Mac OS X operating system, or allows custom codecs to play the more modern video files about (namely Matroska files). I am NOT going to re-encode my videos to run on the device, thus why I haven't bought an iPod yet.
well, i guess you're out then.
lol right. Like people are gonna wanna hold this thing in landscape when doing anything but watching video or playing games. Uhhuh.
Contrary to popular opinion I don't think the thing will be designed to be used while being carried. I think it will have a unique pop-out rest on the back so as to make it easy to use on any flat surface. And the only time you'll have that popped in is when you're couch surfing or looking at it on the bus.
Dunno- why did AI post it- last paragraph? You tell me!
What has this got to do with Al Gore being an environmentalist? You still didn't answer. You mentioned Al Gore specifically, AI didn't.