Apple engineers ramp up overseas trips for tablet - report
Apple employees are reportedly taking numerous trips to manufacturing plants in China, including some scheduled during the upcoming holiday season, as the company's long-rumored tablet comes closer to reality.
Citing an anonymous source, The Business Insider said that Apple engineers have been taking numerous trips between the U.S. and Asia recently to visit manufacturing plants where the 10-inch touchscreen device will go into production. That manufacturer is likely to be Foxconn, the Taiwan-based electronics manufacturer who has partnered with Apple on numerous products, and earlier this month was rumored to have secured the production of the still-unannounced tablet.
"A source tells us a system integration engineer friend of his at Apple has been ramping up his travels back and forth between China lately, broadcasting word of his travels over the Internet," the report said. "There's even a few weeks scheduled during the Christmas holiday season."
Christmas trips would confirm what sources have told AppleInsider: that the Cupertino, Calif., company is racing towards a launch in the first quarter of 2010 for its 3G-enabled multi-touch device.
Earlier reports suggested the initial run in early 2010 would include the production of 300,000 to 400,000 devices for sale.
Rumors as of late have said that Apple has been courting publishers of newspapers and magazines to provide their content on the tablet. The belief is the device would serve as an e-reader, as well as a media player and mobile Web browser.
Citing an anonymous source, The Business Insider said that Apple engineers have been taking numerous trips between the U.S. and Asia recently to visit manufacturing plants where the 10-inch touchscreen device will go into production. That manufacturer is likely to be Foxconn, the Taiwan-based electronics manufacturer who has partnered with Apple on numerous products, and earlier this month was rumored to have secured the production of the still-unannounced tablet.
"A source tells us a system integration engineer friend of his at Apple has been ramping up his travels back and forth between China lately, broadcasting word of his travels over the Internet," the report said. "There's even a few weeks scheduled during the Christmas holiday season."
Christmas trips would confirm what sources have told AppleInsider: that the Cupertino, Calif., company is racing towards a launch in the first quarter of 2010 for its 3G-enabled multi-touch device.
Earlier reports suggested the initial run in early 2010 would include the production of 300,000 to 400,000 devices for sale.
Rumors as of late have said that Apple has been courting publishers of newspapers and magazines to provide their content on the tablet. The belief is the device would serve as an e-reader, as well as a media player and mobile Web browser.
Comments
Anybody NOT going to buy one of these?
Der-rool, der-rool...
The End game against the Wintel Hegemony is in sight.
Lemon Bon Bon.
I wonder why Apple aimed to launch after the Christmas period. I would have thought it would have made an excellent time to launch, leading up to Christmas I mean.
I think it will be the driving force in the Q1Y09 sales, a typically slow period. Right?
iTablet with ARM inside. Big iPod touch. Extra-large battery life.
iTablet with Intel Atom inside. Mac OS X 10.6 (touch) inside. The Mac in your pocket.
Looking forward to the second if it has video-out and USB 2 ports for Keynote and PowerPoint presentations.
I wonder why Apple aimed to launch after the Christmas period. I would have thought it would have made an excellent time to launch, leading up to Christmas I mean.
It might have something to do with the fact that it won't be available until sometime next year.
I wonder why Apple aimed to launch after the Christmas period. I would have thought it would have made an excellent time to launch, leading up to Christmas I mean.
Might not be ready for launch, but they might want to have this start the new year. They?ve introduced a lot of products for the first time in January over the years. If they are readying an SDK and publishers for this iTunesLP-like interface then these may require some new refinements.
Hopefully TWO models:
iTablet with ARM inside. Big iPod touch. Extra-large battery life.
iTablet with Intel Atom inside. Mac OS X 10.6 (touch) inside. The Mac in your pocket.
Looking forward to the second if it has video-out and USB 2 ports for Keynote and PowerPoint presentations.
I hope it?s neither of those. Neither is ideal for a 10? touch screen. Unless you are using a stylus there are many aspects of Mac OS X that don?t work for finger-based touch. That is a core reason all the other tablets suck big monkey balls at this point. If it?s just a 10? screen mirroring the Touch then it?s a wasted opportunity. I expect something between the two with a new UI designed for the HW inside.
If the reports of a bigger touch, with web browsing and magazine content is all they got then i won't be buying and personally think it'll be a flop. There MUST be way more to it hopefully.
Agreed. If that's the only differentiating factor from an iPhone/iPod, that it's bigger and you can read books/magazines on it, than it will be the next AppleTV. Part of me believes Apple wouldn't be this stupid, but the other part of me realizes Apple can sometimes be that stupid.
Hopefully TWO models:
iTablet with ARM inside. Big iPod touch. Extra-large battery life.
iTablet with Intel Atom inside. Mac OS X 10.6 (touch) inside. The Mac in your pocket.
Looking forward to the second if it has video-out and USB 2 ports for Keynote and PowerPoint presentations.
Do you ever comment anything else besides that you want a tablet with an Atom chip, video-out and USB 2 ports for your PowerPoint?
It ain't gonna happen and it's a really bad idea.
Ya know at some point investigative reporting and being an Apple fan crosses over to stalking and just plain creepy. Line crossed.
Though most of its use is being associated with it being a reader device and umm for presentations can you imagine the backpacker market taking these things everywhere on their travels to do occassional emails/social networking and photo uploads.
They dont want an expensive machine and they certainly dont want it to be heavy but they know there is a better solution than all those net cafes with half broken PC boxes with Win XP and IE6 installed in them.
Yea I want this to be a Macbook Nano. That way you put it in a small protective case and carry it with you to class like a notebook. Long battery life would help with this, if it can last 7-8 hours continious use. I don't think I would want iPhone OS on it, I am kinda hoping for full OSX, though there is probably not much to gain from that, as this won't run Photoshop or AfterEffects anyways. This could be a very good device, but if its just an eReader then I think it will flop.
There IS much to gain for having full OSX on it: open development. But I have a feeling Apple will lock this thing down... mostly because it'll have 3G.
I want full OS X too. I think it needs to be running a touch enabled version of full snow leopard to really be a breakthrough device. Slapping the iPhone OS on a bigger screen seems underwhelming to me. Then again, if they add multitasking, notification handling, etc. and it trickles down to an iPhone update, I'll be a happy man.
Agreed. If that's the only differentiating factor from an iPhone/iPod, that it's bigger and you can read books/magazines on it, than it will be the next AppleTV. Part of me believes Apple wouldn't be this stupid, but the other part of me realizes Apple can sometimes be that stupid.
I'm not sure you're looking at it the right way. Apple is talking about changing the way people read.
Let's set aside the fact that it will be a music player, internet browser, movie player, and via bluetooth headset, a phone- at a 10" screen size it will be much more enjoyable to use. If that were all it was, you're right- it might sell moderately well to the faithful.
But let's be honest, the iPhone and other mobile devices, by their nature, are pocket sized and not perfect for reading. It's a compromise. I've read my fair share on my iPhone and I couldn't imagine reading a full length novel unless I was really stuck. The internet on your phone is primarily an information oriented convenience. Need to look up something, you can. Need to find somewhere, you can. At the other end, notebooks are OK in some situations, riding on a train or plane, but not for casual commuter use.
In an article about comic books on the tablet the other day- someone mentioned that Apple would be going after a niche market. Well, that's correct. Comics are a niche market. So are e-books. But if you look at the combined strength of all the possible niches this thing will appeal to- medical, student textbooks, comic books, magazines, books, newspapers... then it starts to amount to something with a pretty wide appeal. On a device that makes the reading enjoyable and convenient.
As for it having full OSX. Beyond basic functions like word processing, I think it would be enough to be able to display content like powerpoint presentations, etc. I think someone who thinks it would be a good idea to edit and build material on a 10" tablet isn't being realistic. Sure, it would be cool to have Final Cut on the device, but I'm not sure I'd want to spend much time cutting on a 10" screen. At the same time, I'm sure we'll see something in the iMovie category- which is fine for casual cutting. But serious work will still be done on laptops and desktops, which is the best ergonomic solution for now.
I think it will be the driving force in the Q1Y09 sales, a typically slow period. Right?
Yep I think you are right, they know they will have a good Christmas anyway. Darn it though I wanted to ask Santa for one ... I guess I'll tell him I'll take a late delivery
Might not be ready for launch, but they might want to have this start the new year. They’ve introduced a lot of products for the first time in January over the years. If they are readying an SDK and publishers for this iTunesLP-like interface then these may require some new refinements.
Yep, agreed.
I'm not sure you're looking at it the right way. Apple is talking about changing the way people read.
Let's set aside the fact that it will be a music player, internet browser, movie player, and via bluetooth headset, a phone- at a 10" screen size it will be much more enjoyable to use. If that were all it was, you're right- it might sell moderately well to the faithful.
But let's be honest, the iPhone and other mobile devices, by their nature, are pocket sized and not perfect for reading. It's a compromise. I've read my fair share on my iPhone and I couldn't imagine reading a full length novel unless I was really stuck. The internet on your phone is primarily an information oriented convenience. Need to look up something, you can. Need to find somewhere, you can. At the other end, notebooks are OK in some situations, riding on a train or plane, but not for casual commuter use.
In an article about comic books on the tablet the other day- someone mentioned that Apple would be going after a niche market. Well, that's correct. Comics are a niche market. So are e-books. But if you look at the combined strength of all the possible niches this thing will appeal to- medical, student textbooks, comic books, magazines, books, newspapers... then it starts to amount to something with a pretty wide appeal. On a device that makes the reading enjoyable and convenient.
As for it having full OSX. Beyond basic functions like word processing, I think it would be enough to be able to display content like powerpoint presentations, etc. I think someone who thinks it would be a good idea to edit and build material on a 10" tablet isn't being realistic. Sure, it would be cool to have Final Cut on the device, but I'm not sure I'd want to spend much time cutting on a 10" screen. At the same time, I'm sure we'll see something in the iMovie category- which is fine for casual cutting. But serious work will still be done on laptops and desktops, which is the best ergonomic solution for now.
Agreed. IMHO Jobs is about to do to publishing what he did to music distribution. No doubt it will take a few years then one day Apple will have 80% of all on line publications and printers will be like CD duplication companies ...
Exciting news.
Anybody NOT going to buy one of these?
Me. What is anyway this (yet to be released) tablet and why is it so great to get that much excited about it?