Do Apple normally book events and leave only a few weeks before formally announcing it?
Pretty much. I think the invites for the iPod introduction went out just a few weeks early.
I also think that, given the frenzy of speculation, Apple would have slipped word by now that no tablet was in the offing, if there were none.
Apple usually acts as if they could care less what anyone is saying in terms of unreleased products, but I think even they would acknowledge that allowing the kind of build-up of anticipation we've seen (which has gone way past the tech sites and blogs and deep into mainstream media territory) without having anything to show would be a PR disaster.
This round of talk looks a lot like the run-up to the iPhone, pre-formal announcement. I think Apple whispers in the ear of a few key players, when they really mean to make a move.
First off, Apple has virtually removed all MacBook's from it's lineup except the wildly popular white MacBook. So something has to go there and it won't be a weak 1Ghz machine that's for sure. Not with the GUI UI and fancy effects like Coverflow that Apple likes to do to make hardware sales.
Second Samsung is a competitor to Apple, they copy anything and invade markets. Why do business with that when you can do it all yourself with companies that don't have a retail front?
ARM? don't think so, Intel has got a lineup of multi-core cool processors and cheap prices and lots of volume potential. ARM copies Intel and has to follow them in order to keep it's processors able to run the majority of software out there, it's a niche player now.
Apple could use their PA Semi, it's a hell of a risk though, a new market with a new processor and lots of unforeseeable problems that can ruin their chances of success. I say they use Intel first and then later gradually introduce their chips, but I don't think they can bring the price per unit down enough.
Kumar should just shut the fsck up.
Samsung has been a long time supplier for Apple. Most of the parts in the iPhone are Samsung components.
Apple recently redesigned the white macbook, so it is unlikely an entirely new design is coming to replace it. Most likely the tablet is a new category of device that is not designed to run heavy-weight apps.
BTW, it has been shown that Apple fans usually prefer a Samsung product if they can't find a similar product from Apple
Indeed it has. I didn't realize it had screen sharing (I only have one mac, so I don't use back to my mac), but even so, you can't access that from your iPhone (or a tablet running iPhone OS), so the service would still need to be expanded on a little to get to what I'm thinking of.
We've been hearing two numbers floating around: $999 and $600. Carrier subsidies are about $400 for the iPhone. So it would make sense that the tablet will be $999 or $600 with a two year contract.
First off, Apple has virtually removed all MacBook's from it's lineup except the wildly popular white MacBook. So something has to go there and it won't be a weak 1Ghz machine that's for sure. Not with the GUI UI and fancy effects like Coverflow that Apple likes to do to make hardware sales.
Second Samsung is a competitor to Apple, they copy anything and invade markets. Why do business with that when you can do it all yourself with companies that don't have a retail front?
ARM? don't think so, Intel has got a lineup of multi-core cool processors and cheap prices and lots of volume potential. ARM copies Intel and has to follow them in order to keep it's processors able to run the majority of software out there, it's a niche player now.
Apple could use their PA Semi, it's a hell of a risk though, a new market with a new processor and lots of unforeseeable problems that can ruin their chances of success. I say they use Intel first and then later gradually introduce their chips, but I don't think they can bring the price per unit down enough.
Kumar should just shut the fsck up.
Samsung already make the iphone CPU's
ARM is in almost every cell phone out there including the N1
Here's the breakdown of a netbook. $198 hardware cost!
Pretty amazing when compared to projected Apple iSlate costs.
Yep some of the projections are totally irrational and don't reflect actual hardware costs theses days. That is for a netbook a tablets hardware would be even cheaper simply due to fewer parts needed. But Apple would take it even further through high integration SoC techhnology, which likely was the whole point in buying PA Semi. Apple should be able to do a fairly impressive tablet for $200 to $250 in hardware costs. Maybe even less depending upon it's configuration. Of course a top of the line model, with more Flash and RAM will be more expensive. Then there are non manufacturing costs to contend with but Apple ought to be able to hit a retail price well under $500.
Plus it looks like Apple has already targetted that price point some time ago when they said they couldn't make a quality laptop at that price point. There are other factors also, which leads me to believe they want to target the market between the Touch devices and laptops. Since Touch devices will get cheaper over time, an entry point of $500 is totally reasonable for a tablet. There is a lot if upside potential for the tablets, which is not surprising for Apple. However I don't see Apple breaking $1000. It would fairly stupid on their part if they did.
this article, as many others from last weeks, is just for manipulate share-holders... and analysts are the manipulators, they don't analyze anything but the effect of these manipulation.
I'm tired of this shit. Could I just get a selective list of the news from AI?
and I don't want to hear all the rumors again that have already been published. Please!
Where in the world did you get those down-sides from?
The software would be limited by the hardware, sure. But that will put it on par with comparable netbooks, but gaining the benefit of having a trimmed down and specially tuned OS and apps, rather than desktop OS and apps. If anything, the software on the tablet will be superior to a netbook in every way except for typing.
No file saving? I can save files on the iPhone. Why would that change? The limited file management on the iPhone is more a side effect of the security model. I'm expecting even better access to the media stores and a more-general Newton-style shared-data store. But they certainly won't go backwards.
And the tablet doesn't need an 'advantage' over a laptop. That's like asking what is the advantage of a Shuffle over a Nano; or a Nano over a Touch.
They're different things for different people with different needs.
1. Sorry but in this day and age, if you are part of the minority that will have all 3: a Macbook (or Macbook Pro), an iPhone AND a tablet, than hats off to you sir, congratulations. Most people won´t have all 3 (for either cost or convenience) and will prioritize 2 of these, one being the iPhone. I hope to be one of the many in the minority with all 3, if the tablet is convincing.
2. If you have to hack your way into the iPhone OS in order to save/manage files, let´s at least agree that most users won´t know how. If you have ideas on how to save files (and obviously later retrieve and use them in a Mac) from apps in the iPhone OS, all with no jailbreaking or hacking, please let me know, because it could come useful. The point is that file management will probably be more limited than in Mac OS X, or most other OSes that run on netbooks today, making a laptop more feature rich in this respect: that was my point. Anyway, lets hope it has a Finder or something like that.
3. There is no clarity on what OS this will use. No idea if it is a trimmed down Mac OS X
or a an iPhone OS on steroids. Something tells me that it will run the App Store app.
4. For the same reason, there is no idea on what apps might run on this thing. therefore it is reasonable to expect limited functionality compared to a Macbook. it would be great if it could run all iPhone Apps or create an intermediate category of applications for the tablet developers. Of course if it could run regular Mac apps that would also be great. No signs of a new SDK yet.
5. In any case it seems that it will definitely be better than other tablet options released in CES 2010.
I was really looking forward to a cost breakdown. But Atom chip? Hard disk? yeah right.
We need someone to cost
* cortex a9 processors
* 10" touch screen
* 32GB sdram
* 512MB ram
* in general the parts similar to iPhone... with slight increases across the board
Then... show us the relative iPhone costs vs price, so we can think about relative price of the slate.
In fact, it'd be good to look at the iPod Touch too, since it seems to be markedly cheaper than the iPhone (without subsidies).
I suspect Apple wants to make this as cheap as they can to start with, they're not worried about making back their r&d costs in the short-medium term.
Quote:
Originally Posted by esummers
We've been hearing two numbers floating around: $999 and $600. Carrier subsidies are about $400 for the iPhone. So it would make sense that the tablet will be $999 or $600 with a two year contract.
Only if it's on a $70/mth contract though. If it was just $30/mth (like iPhone data on AT&T) then it wouldn't subsidise $400.
This reminded me of two things that I've considered might be in the tablet in the past.
1) Wireless syncing, it's time
Wireless syncing is definitely needed. But I'd like to see the tablet not require a computer at all. I wonder how feasible that is. Perhaps it could come with a 2year MobileMe subscription for syncing?
Quote:
2) Apple could introduce their own vnc client that works through mobileme, bringing remote computing to the masses. If not there are plently of vnc clients already on the iPhone that will also work on a tablet, so you are right... people will be able to utilize the full computing power of their home computers if they so desire.
I've wondered this in the past. I think it could be dangerous to make it a selling feature, much as offering a bluetooth keyboard could be dangerous.
Apple needs developers to design specifically for the tablet. They'd rather have a developer write a front-end on the tablet connected to a back-end on the computer if they need "to utilise the full computing power of their home computers".
Speaking of which... does Apple's Xcode help do that kind of thing? I wonder if they could utilise Xgrid from tablets to great effect?
All that said - I'd like to see Apple offering a powered-touch screen (for the kitchen? or kids room?) that does whatever the iSlate does PLUS has keyboard and acts as a terminal back to the main home computer. But that's a product for 6 months after the slate, perhaps?
Here's the breakdown of a netbook. $198 hardware cost!
Pretty amazing when compared to projected Apple iSlate costs.
This mainly shows pretty clearly how bad Fidacaro's estimates are. Especially CPU/Mobo/GPU, RAM, and HDD are way off.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Hal 9000
1. Sorry but in this day and age, if you are part of the minority that will have all 3: a Macbook (or Macbook Pro), an iPhone AND a tablet, than hats off to you sir, congratulations. Most people won´t have all 3 (for either cost or convenience) and will prioritize 2 of these, one being the iPhone. I hope to be one of the many in the minority with all 3, if the tablet is convincing.
I'd say a very large group of people have a phone (not necessarily a smartphone) and a desktop PC or a "desktop replacement" (which they only ever move around between desks and tables within their house). And most of these people have no real need for a mobile productivity device, i.e. a laptop or even a netbook, but could use a reader/browser/media player type device for those times when they are travelling, or just sitting on the couch.
Many people who bought laptops/netbooks in the past would have been better served by a well-thought-out, affordable tablet. Only such a device didn't exist because the technology wasn't ready.
1. Sorry but in this day and age, if you are part of the minority that will have all 3: a Macbook (or Macbook Pro), an iPhone AND a tablet, than hats off to you sir, congratulations. Most people won´t have all 3 (for either cost or convenience) and will prioritize 2 of these, one being the iPhone. I hope to be one of the many in the minority with all 3, if the tablet is convincing.
Personally, I already own a macbook pro, an iphone, a tower an apple TV and a imac and I could probably find a place for the tablet. My wife owns the same stuff and is jealous that I'm buying the tablet 1st since she just replaced her macbook pro. LOL
I don't think it's common but I'm sure people will find a place for a tablet as well. If it's made for note taking etc. Students will find it very useful and would happily "replace" their laptops for in class notes for example. Probably around the office as well. I hate dragging a 15" laptop to client meetings; very cumbersome and complete overkill for presentations.
Half way through he talks about the wireless radio.
Pretty sure they are certified on AT&T and Verizon networks.
Now, I have no idea when VZ will get the iPhone, but we can all wish for it.
Stop complaining about people guessing - it's fun!! - like buying a lottery ticket and imagining what you would do if you win. This is that time before they announce the winning numbers or you scratch it off.
The iTablet will not have a spinning hard drive and it will certainly not run an OS that doesn't turn on almost instantly. If it doesn't have a swiveling camera, it will have one facing both ways - just like someone here has predicted. The screen is going to be awesome - because it has to be if you want to read newspaper articles from it. I will use it for Facebook, email, web, reading, referencing, pulling content on my Apple TV, live HDTV from my HD Home Run device.
Oh- and when I'm not using my iTablet, it will be the coolest digital photo frame EVER. Wait - more than photos - I want to make my own screen saver that has photos, videos, news, weather, security camera, and who knows what else on it! Who's with me?
Anyone know guess what firms like Foxconn get paid for assembly?
Don't assume its large, but curious (also this reminds you of the issue of how much China really makes off of exports that are assembly of lowest common denominator parts with all the value added taking place abroad).
This mainly shows pretty clearly how bad Fidacaro's estimates are. Especially CPU/Mobo/GPU, RAM, and HDD are way off.
I'd say a very large group of people have a phone (not necessarily a smartphone) and a desktop PC or a "desktop replacement" (which they only ever move around between desks and tables within their house). And most of these people have no real need for a mobile productivity device, i.e. a laptop or even a netbook, but could use a reader/browser/media player type device for those times when they are travelling, or just sitting on the couch.
Many people who bought laptops/netbooks in the past would have been better served by a well-thought-out, affordable tablet. Only such a device didn't exist because the technology wasn't ready.
Why would I need a overpriced tablet when I can get a laptop for cheaper? Whatever price point this comes in at, we know its going to sit WELL above the iphone 32GB price.
If I traveled a like hundreds of miles this tablet might be worth it...if I didn't own a device capable of MP3/Video/Ebook reading. Fortunately I do, and it fits in my pocket
Why would I need a overpriced tablet when I can get a laptop for cheaper?
I guess similarly in 1984, the question for many was "why would I need an overpriced 'Mac' (with all this graphical 'toy' stuff, and a mouse), when I can get a PC for cheaper?"
The differences today are
1) netbooks are seriously underpowered (I think it's fair to call them netbooks not laptops)
2) we don't know the price
3) we don't know in what way it will redefine the interface or what it does yet
Quote:
Whatever price point this comes in at, we know its going to sit WELL above the iphone 32GB price.
I would expect it'll cost more. I hope $600, I imagine it might reach $800. Hopefully they'll subsidise in some way. Maybe with an internet plan, maybe by selling it for $500 if people sign up to MobileMiSlate for 2 years ($150/year for unlimited online storage?), maybe with a minimum 4 subscription services for 2 years? They have a few options.
If it costs significantly more it won't get the sales, it won't get the developer support (except in basic iPhone ports of apps). They need to get it out as cheaply as they can.
I was laughing so hard at this I actually almost typed "lol" as my password! Sorry I can't see apple putting all of their eggs in the Twilight Basket, that market would cover lonely females and 13yr old girls.
Still nice try ..
Absolutely. Trying to capture that market would be an instant failure.
Now, where's that video of Ballmer and his tablet?
This reminded me of two things that I've considered might be in the tablet in the past.
1) Wireless syncing, it's time
2) Apple could introduce their own vnc client that works through mobileme, bringing remote computing to the masses. If not there are plently of vnc clients already on the iPhone that will also work on a tablet, so you are right... people will be able to utilize the full computing power of their home computers if they so desire.
Another option would be to allow app specific vnc clients to reduce lag. ...
I agree with that. It is based on this expectation that I forked the 25 $ for Jaadu VNC on iphone. It is expensive by iphone apps standards, but with a tablet, it will do wonders.
It's the difference between a computer and an embedded device.
You want the on off button to work instantly.
There are many things you don't do with a laptop or PC because you won't wait for it to boot up - and you can't leave a mobile device powered on all the time.
When the device can come on instantly without chewing up all the battery life, you will find new ways to use it.
With the popularity of all these social network sites, Apple has timed it perfectly.
I've worked with mobile applications for 15 years. At least in the field access area, the biggest issue with using laptops is the boot up time. They need to power up and down their devices several times every day. It's a lot different than home users today.
People's attention span is getting shorter and shorter. A device you can pick up and do something for less than a minute then put back down will be appealing to a lot people. There are a lot of use cases that we haven't even thought of yet, but the app writers will.
Comments
............
Do Apple normally book events and leave only a few weeks before formally announcing it?
Pretty much. I think the invites for the iPod introduction went out just a few weeks early.
I also think that, given the frenzy of speculation, Apple would have slipped word by now that no tablet was in the offing, if there were none.
Apple usually acts as if they could care less what anyone is saying in terms of unreleased products, but I think even they would acknowledge that allowing the kind of build-up of anticipation we've seen (which has gone way past the tech sites and blogs and deep into mainstream media territory) without having anything to show would be a PR disaster.
This round of talk looks a lot like the run-up to the iPhone, pre-formal announcement. I think Apple whispers in the ear of a few key players, when they really mean to make a move.
Apple could introduce their own vnc client that works through mobileme, bringing remote computing to the masses
"Back to my Mac" has been available for ages...
BULLSH*T.
First off, Apple has virtually removed all MacBook's from it's lineup except the wildly popular white MacBook. So something has to go there and it won't be a weak 1Ghz machine that's for sure. Not with the GUI UI and fancy effects like Coverflow that Apple likes to do to make hardware sales.
Second Samsung is a competitor to Apple, they copy anything and invade markets. Why do business with that when you can do it all yourself with companies that don't have a retail front?
ARM? don't think so, Intel has got a lineup of multi-core cool processors and cheap prices and lots of volume potential. ARM copies Intel and has to follow them in order to keep it's processors able to run the majority of software out there, it's a niche player now.
Apple could use their PA Semi, it's a hell of a risk though, a new market with a new processor and lots of unforeseeable problems that can ruin their chances of success. I say they use Intel first and then later gradually introduce their chips, but I don't think they can bring the price per unit down enough.
Kumar should just shut the fsck up.
Samsung has been a long time supplier for Apple. Most of the parts in the iPhone are Samsung components.
Apple recently redesigned the white macbook, so it is unlikely an entirely new design is coming to replace it. Most likely the tablet is a new category of device that is not designed to run heavy-weight apps.
BTW, it has been shown that Apple fans usually prefer a Samsung product if they can't find a similar product from Apple
"Back to my Mac" has been available for ages...
Indeed it has. I didn't realize it had screen sharing (I only have one mac, so I don't use back to my mac), but even so, you can't access that from your iPhone (or a tablet running iPhone OS), so the service would still need to be expanded on a little to get to what I'm thinking of.
BULLSH*T.
First off, Apple has virtually removed all MacBook's from it's lineup except the wildly popular white MacBook. So something has to go there and it won't be a weak 1Ghz machine that's for sure. Not with the GUI UI and fancy effects like Coverflow that Apple likes to do to make hardware sales.
Second Samsung is a competitor to Apple, they copy anything and invade markets. Why do business with that when you can do it all yourself with companies that don't have a retail front?
ARM? don't think so, Intel has got a lineup of multi-core cool processors and cheap prices and lots of volume potential. ARM copies Intel and has to follow them in order to keep it's processors able to run the majority of software out there, it's a niche player now.
Apple could use their PA Semi, it's a hell of a risk though, a new market with a new processor and lots of unforeseeable problems that can ruin their chances of success. I say they use Intel first and then later gradually introduce their chips, but I don't think they can bring the price per unit down enough.
Kumar should just shut the fsck up.
Samsung already make the iphone CPU's
ARM is in almost every cell phone out there including the N1
Here's the breakdown of a netbook. $198 hardware cost!
Pretty amazing when compared to projected Apple iSlate costs.
Yep some of the projections are totally irrational and don't reflect actual hardware costs theses days. That is for a netbook a tablets hardware would be even cheaper simply due to fewer parts needed. But Apple would take it even further through high integration SoC techhnology, which likely was the whole point in buying PA Semi. Apple should be able to do a fairly impressive tablet for $200 to $250 in hardware costs. Maybe even less depending upon it's configuration. Of course a top of the line model, with more Flash and RAM will be more expensive. Then there are non manufacturing costs to contend with but Apple ought to be able to hit a retail price well under $500.
Plus it looks like Apple has already targetted that price point some time ago when they said they couldn't make a quality laptop at that price point. There are other factors also, which leads me to believe they want to target the market between the Touch devices and laptops. Since Touch devices will get cheaper over time, an entry point of $500 is totally reasonable for a tablet. There is a lot if upside potential for the tablets, which is not surprising for Apple. However I don't see Apple breaking $1000. It would fairly stupid on their part if they did.
Dave.
I'm tired of this shit. Could I just get a selective list of the news from AI?
and I don't want to hear all the rumors again that have already been published. Please!
Where in the world did you get those down-sides from?
The software would be limited by the hardware, sure. But that will put it on par with comparable netbooks, but gaining the benefit of having a trimmed down and specially tuned OS and apps, rather than desktop OS and apps. If anything, the software on the tablet will be superior to a netbook in every way except for typing.
No file saving? I can save files on the iPhone. Why would that change? The limited file management on the iPhone is more a side effect of the security model. I'm expecting even better access to the media stores and a more-general Newton-style shared-data store. But they certainly won't go backwards.
And the tablet doesn't need an 'advantage' over a laptop. That's like asking what is the advantage of a Shuffle over a Nano; or a Nano over a Touch.
They're different things for different people with different needs.
1. Sorry but in this day and age, if you are part of the minority that will have all 3: a Macbook (or Macbook Pro), an iPhone AND a tablet, than hats off to you sir, congratulations.
2. If you have to hack your way into the iPhone OS in order to save/manage files, let´s at least agree that most users won´t know how. If you have ideas on how to save files (and obviously later retrieve and use them in a Mac) from apps in the iPhone OS, all with no jailbreaking or hacking, please let me know, because it could come useful. The point is that file management will probably be more limited than in Mac OS X, or most other OSes that run on netbooks today, making a laptop more feature rich in this respect: that was my point. Anyway, lets hope it has a Finder or something like that.
3. There is no clarity on what OS this will use. No idea if it is a trimmed down Mac OS X
or a an iPhone OS on steroids. Something tells me that it will run the App Store app.
4. For the same reason, there is no idea on what apps might run on this thing. therefore it is reasonable to expect limited functionality compared to a Macbook. it would be great if it could run all iPhone Apps or create an intermediate category of applications for the tablet developers. Of course if it could run regular Mac apps that would also be great. No signs of a new SDK yet.
5. In any case it seems that it will definitely be better than other tablet options released in CES 2010.
I was really looking forward to a cost breakdown. But Atom chip? Hard disk? yeah right.
We need someone to cost
* cortex a9 processors
* 10" touch screen
* 32GB sdram
* 512MB ram
* in general the parts similar to iPhone... with slight increases across the board
Then... show us the relative iPhone costs vs price, so we can think about relative price of the slate.
In fact, it'd be good to look at the iPod Touch too, since it seems to be markedly cheaper than the iPhone (without subsidies).
I suspect Apple wants to make this as cheap as they can to start with, they're not worried about making back their r&d costs in the short-medium term.
We've been hearing two numbers floating around: $999 and $600. Carrier subsidies are about $400 for the iPhone. So it would make sense that the tablet will be $999 or $600 with a two year contract.
Only if it's on a $70/mth contract though. If it was just $30/mth (like iPhone data on AT&T) then it wouldn't subsidise $400.
This reminded me of two things that I've considered might be in the tablet in the past.
1) Wireless syncing, it's time
Wireless syncing is definitely needed. But I'd like to see the tablet not require a computer at all. I wonder how feasible that is. Perhaps it could come with a 2year MobileMe subscription for syncing?
2) Apple could introduce their own vnc client that works through mobileme, bringing remote computing to the masses. If not there are plently of vnc clients already on the iPhone that will also work on a tablet, so you are right... people will be able to utilize the full computing power of their home computers if they so desire.
I've wondered this in the past. I think it could be dangerous to make it a selling feature, much as offering a bluetooth keyboard could be dangerous.
Apple needs developers to design specifically for the tablet. They'd rather have a developer write a front-end on the tablet connected to a back-end on the computer if they need "to utilise the full computing power of their home computers".
Speaking of which... does Apple's Xcode help do that kind of thing? I wonder if they could utilise Xgrid from tablets to great effect?
All that said - I'd like to see Apple offering a powered-touch screen (for the kitchen? or kids room?) that does whatever the iSlate does PLUS has keyboard and acts as a terminal back to the main home computer. But that's a product for 6 months after the slate, perhaps?
Here's the breakdown of a netbook. $198 hardware cost!
Pretty amazing when compared to projected Apple iSlate costs.
This mainly shows pretty clearly how bad Fidacaro's estimates are. Especially CPU/Mobo/GPU, RAM, and HDD are way off.
1. Sorry but in this day and age, if you are part of the minority that will have all 3: a Macbook (or Macbook Pro), an iPhone AND a tablet, than hats off to you sir, congratulations.
I'd say a very large group of people have a phone (not necessarily a smartphone) and a desktop PC or a "desktop replacement" (which they only ever move around between desks and tables within their house). And most of these people have no real need for a mobile productivity device, i.e. a laptop or even a netbook, but could use a reader/browser/media player type device for those times when they are travelling, or just sitting on the couch.
Many people who bought laptops/netbooks in the past would have been better served by a well-thought-out, affordable tablet. Only such a device didn't exist because the technology wasn't ready.
1. Sorry but in this day and age, if you are part of the minority that will have all 3: a Macbook (or Macbook Pro), an iPhone AND a tablet, than hats off to you sir, congratulations.
Personally, I already own a macbook pro, an iphone, a tower an apple TV and a imac and I could probably find a place for the tablet. My wife owns the same stuff and is jealous that I'm buying the tablet 1st since she just replaced her macbook pro. LOL
I don't think it's common but I'm sure people will find a place for a tablet as well. If it's made for note taking etc. Students will find it very useful and would happily "replace" their laptops for in class notes for example. Probably around the office as well. I hate dragging a 15" laptop to client meetings; very cumbersome and complete overkill for presentations.
This product was officially available in early June of this year.
Intermec can build one piece of hardware and then load firmware specific to the wireless provider.
I have seen this device in person and it is very cool.
Not sure why nobody has picked up on this.
Check out this YouTube video:
Intermec CN50 on YouTube
Half way through he talks about the wireless radio.
Pretty sure they are certified on AT&T and Verizon networks.
Now, I have no idea when VZ will get the iPhone, but we can all wish for it.
Stop complaining about people guessing - it's fun!! - like buying a lottery ticket and imagining what you would do if you win. This is that time before they announce the winning numbers or you scratch it off.
The iTablet will not have a spinning hard drive and it will certainly not run an OS that doesn't turn on almost instantly. If it doesn't have a swiveling camera, it will have one facing both ways - just like someone here has predicted. The screen is going to be awesome - because it has to be if you want to read newspaper articles from it. I will use it for Facebook, email, web, reading, referencing, pulling content on my Apple TV, live HDTV from my HD Home Run device.
Oh- and when I'm not using my iTablet, it will be the coolest digital photo frame EVER. Wait - more than photos - I want to make my own screen saver that has photos, videos, news, weather, security camera, and who knows what else on it! Who's with me?
Here's the breakdown of a netbook. $198 hardware cost!
Pretty amazing when compared to projected Apple iSlate costs.
http://www.shanzai.com/index.php/mar...m-slim-margins
Anyone know guess what firms like Foxconn get paid for assembly?
Don't assume its large, but curious (also this reminds you of the issue of how much China really makes off of exports that are assembly of lowest common denominator parts with all the value added taking place abroad).
This mainly shows pretty clearly how bad Fidacaro's estimates are. Especially CPU/Mobo/GPU, RAM, and HDD are way off.
I'd say a very large group of people have a phone (not necessarily a smartphone) and a desktop PC or a "desktop replacement" (which they only ever move around between desks and tables within their house). And most of these people have no real need for a mobile productivity device, i.e. a laptop or even a netbook, but could use a reader/browser/media player type device for those times when they are travelling, or just sitting on the couch.
Many people who bought laptops/netbooks in the past would have been better served by a well-thought-out, affordable tablet. Only such a device didn't exist because the technology wasn't ready.
Why would I need a overpriced tablet when I can get a laptop for cheaper? Whatever price point this comes in at, we know its going to sit WELL above the iphone 32GB price.
If I traveled a like hundreds of miles this tablet might be worth it...if I didn't own a device capable of MP3/Video/Ebook reading. Fortunately I do, and it fits in my pocket
Why would I need a overpriced tablet when I can get a laptop for cheaper?
I guess similarly in 1984, the question for many was "why would I need an overpriced 'Mac' (with all this graphical 'toy' stuff, and a mouse), when I can get a PC for cheaper?"
The differences today are
1) netbooks are seriously underpowered (I think it's fair to call them netbooks not laptops)
2) we don't know the price
3) we don't know in what way it will redefine the interface or what it does yet
Whatever price point this comes in at, we know its going to sit WELL above the iphone 32GB price.
I would expect it'll cost more. I hope $600, I imagine it might reach $800. Hopefully they'll subsidise in some way. Maybe with an internet plan, maybe by selling it for $500 if people sign up to MobileMiSlate for 2 years ($150/year for unlimited online storage?), maybe with a minimum 4 subscription services for 2 years? They have a few options.
If it costs significantly more it won't get the sales, it won't get the developer support (except in basic iPhone ports of apps). They need to get it out as cheaply as they can.
I was laughing so hard at this I actually almost typed "lol" as my password! Sorry I can't see apple putting all of their eggs in the Twilight Basket, that market would cover lonely females and 13yr old girls.
Still nice try ..
Absolutely. Trying to capture that market would be an instant failure.
Now, where's that video of Ballmer and his tablet?
This reminded me of two things that I've considered might be in the tablet in the past.
1) Wireless syncing, it's time
2) Apple could introduce their own vnc client that works through mobileme, bringing remote computing to the masses. If not there are plently of vnc clients already on the iPhone that will also work on a tablet, so you are right... people will be able to utilize the full computing power of their home computers if they so desire.
Another option would be to allow app specific vnc clients to reduce lag. ...
I agree with that. It is based on this expectation that I forked the 25 $ for Jaadu VNC on iphone. It is expensive by iphone apps standards, but with a tablet, it will do wonders.
It's the difference between a computer and an embedded device.
You want the on off button to work instantly.
There are many things you don't do with a laptop or PC because you won't wait for it to boot up - and you can't leave a mobile device powered on all the time.
When the device can come on instantly without chewing up all the battery life, you will find new ways to use it.
With the popularity of all these social network sites, Apple has timed it perfectly.
I've worked with mobile applications for 15 years. At least in the field access area, the biggest issue with using laptops is the boot up time. They need to power up and down their devices several times every day. It's a lot different than home users today.
People's attention span is getting shorter and shorter. A device you can pick up and do something for less than a minute then put back down will be appealing to a lot people. There are a lot of use cases that we haven't even thought of yet, but the app writers will.