The secret sauce might be to change the paradigm of mobile computing. In example, I offer the following rhetorical questions. Does one require a five (or even three) pound notebook in order to read and send emails? Does one require a keyboard to read a pdf? Does one require an optical drive to enjoy audio and visual content?
I suspect that the guys at Apple have answered "no" to all of these, and even more, questions.
"But the iPhone does all this!" you say. More or less true... still, only the most fanboi would argue that the size of iPhone does not limit its utility. Imagine what the makers of iPhone could do with two to four times more internal volume. I envision a product that sits between iPhone and Macbook. It might render neither irrelevant. It might factor into account that many prospective buyers would, like myself, already own an iPhone and Macbook.
It might not be a one-trick-pony, ala the Kindle or Nook or Sony eBook readers. It might leverage separate processors for the decoding of media vs. "standard"computing (email, word processing and the like). It might be able to display (but not author) keynote and powerpoint presentations. It might charge via an iPod universal connector. It might not be designed for the consumer, rather for industrial type applications such as health care (no need for a paper chart, let me just multitouch through the patient's iChart).
No doubt much if not all of the above is just my wine-induced flight of fancy. However, like few of us envisioned correctly the final form of iPhone and the iPhone OS, I suspect that no one, save for Mr. Jobs himself, knows exactly what this thing is going to do and how it would fit into all our lives. If nothing else, I can appreciate this (still rumored) device for the delicious anticipation that comes with waiting and waiting with bated breath.
The revolutionary thing about this device will not only be the revolutionary software, but that the hardware is designed in such a clever way as to make the device itself practical. The design of this pop-out rest is 100% crucial. If done right the device will make sense and could replace notebooks for some people. If done wrong then it will ruin any potential mass adoption possibilities this amazing software ever may have had otherwise.
For a guy asking this question you couldn't have chose a worse username
For a guy asking this question you couldn't have chose a worse username
Hey, I made a prediction, didn't I?
I agree that Apple's skill with making attractive, intuitive interfaces is a selling point. But that's just the usual apple sauce, not secret sauce. And doesn't everyone expect the iSlate's interface to be pretty much the same as the iPhone?
Is everyone just hoping for a big iPhone? I'm not. If they are going in that direction then I would prefer that they simply make a tablet sized screen with extra batteries/storage that I could slide an iphone into.
Yeah, maybe that would be a way to get iPhone owning PC users a little more into the Mac computing world, but it probably wouldn't make tablets any more compelling to the average user.
I'm thinking that the iSlate has to bring some sort of functionality that other tablets are missing.
Well anyway, I'll add it to the list of possible secret sauces-
1. Revolutionary text input method
2. Overwhelming Apple goodliness.
3. Hardware extension of iPhone
4. Revolutionary 3d interface (Apple patent just in the news today)
I want everybody to know that I had my best contribution going, that I've ever made on this forum, when Safari crashed on me. Needless to say you guys will have to be corrected another day.
As to the special sauce, that will be laid bare when we see Apples vision. If Apple gets the formula wrong the device will end up a flop just like Mac Book AIR. That is an impressive technical achievement but lackluster sales. Worst there are a lot of competeing needs and demands out there, if Apple only has one size tablet there will be a lot of unhappy campers.
A low price will be the secret sauce if Apple hopes to sell more than a handful of the alleged tablet.
Apple has rolled out the first truly successful, touch screen GUI. It would hopefully be modified slightly for the alleged tablet. But in my mind, a low price is paramount.
Tablets won't replace our current form factors, but rather compliment and supplement the current devices. For this reason, they've got to be cheap. Otherwise, the only people buying them will be the niche groups that have little if any need for text entry or manipulation. Most people benefit immensely from full, real keyboards for text work.
The reason why crappy text input is tolerated on mobile phones is because waaaaaaay better computing mobility is worth the trade-off. Tablets don't fit in your pocket so that trade-off doesn't apply.
Case in point, the Air. It's a great product to use but is priced to high for what would frequently be used as a limited-feature, supplemental computer.
If it does run Mac OS X, I think that's what will sell it. Touch interaction with OS X isn't new as TrollTouch offer add-ons to let you see what it's like but the full iphone interaction on the desktop will be new - think of Quicktime X with pinch-zoom to go full-screen and tap to play. It can still run iphone apps using the software emulator but multi-task them and run beside standard desktop apps that aren't optimized for touch.
There was a weak rumor posted about leaked specs saying a 7" screen with Core 2 Duo CPU and the machine running something called Clouded Leopard. Someone mentioned Clouded Leopard a while ago but maybe it was from the same source. It makes sense in some ways for there to be an incarnation of OS X for this platform because if it's not ARM, they can get away with the full OS but if it's something like Pinetrail (1.66GHz passively cooled and noiseless), it should really be optimized in a similar way to the iphone so that it runs a bit better. I don't want to go back to what it was like running OS X on an old powerbook.
A Clouded Leopard is actually an animal too like the Snow Leopard so fits the naming convention and is referred to as a medium-sized cat - "it seemed to be a cross between a big cat and a small cat". Apple's data centre plans are long term so any reference to 'the cloud' may not have any immediate significance. The question is if they optimize the OS for the device by making a hybrid between the iphone OS and Snow Leopard yet it still runs desktop apps, what could they optimize that couldn't be optimized in Snow Leopard?
I imagine there will be another UI - column view is quite small for touch and the Finder windows get too cluttered. I reckon it will be a UI designed to cater for the middle ground. Every time you use Safari on the iphone and wish you could do multiple tabs more easily or save/load files and open documents or run your favorite desktop apps - maybe draw in Photoshop but nothing heavy.
What I'd like to see is the following:
10" or 12" multi-touch slate with reinforced glass - for strength and cost I'd sway towards 10"
running 1.66GHz Atom Pinetrail with GMA 3150 graphics (no 9400M as this should probably be a fanless design)
2GB RAM - enough for multi-tasking iphone apps and for running desktop apps
running Clouded Leopard - a hybrid of the iphone OS and desktop OS running both x86 and ARM apps side by side
120GB HDD - for price and storage, possibly 1.8", might get away with a 64GB SSD
no optical drive for weight and thinness
On the subject of thinness, I wouldn't expect anything more than USB, Mini-DP and audio jacks - other ports are just too big. Just like the MBA. 802.11n should suffice for most things.
This kind of device I wouldn't use as a main machine but I would get one over a Macbook Air if it was $499 or $599 and I imagine a lot of people could use it as a main machine.
Intel will be happy as they get their Apple device using Atom, iphone fans get to run more powerful apps with all the same interaction and multitask, ebook reader fans get a good quality color screen and excellent content distribution model with more than just books but still as portable, Macbook Air fans get a cheaper portable machine that runs desktop Mac apps, netbook fans see an expensive equivalent but not too expensive that the features won't sell it, desktop users have something more convenient than a laptop to keep synced to complement their desktop.
2GB RAM - enough for multi-tasking iphone apps and for running desktop apps
running Clouded Leopard - a hybrid of the iphone OS and desktop OS running both x86 and ARM apps side by side
I say cow-poop.
I hereby promise to you and Ireland. If this device runs un-modified Mac OS X desktop applications I will walk naked outside my house and post the photographs here for all to see.
This device is not a Mac. Will not be called Mac. And will not run any native Mac applications.
I hereby promise to you and Ireland. If this device runs un-modified Mac OS X desktop applications I will walk naked outside my house and post the photographs here for all to see.
Well, you'd probably get a permanent ban for that. And perhaps induce a slight amount of vomiting.
...I hereby promise to you and Ireland. If this device runs un-modified Mac OS X desktop applications....(edited to reduce blindness)
This device is not a Mac. Will not be called Mac. And will not run any native Mac applications...
C.
I agree with you totally.
The iTablet/iSlate will build itself upon the closed UI and the AppStore. No native Mac programs (except those from Apple) on non-jailbroken iTablets.
It will also have something new, it will respond to hand gestures, finger points and swipes without touching the screen.
A pointer will track across the screen using the forward mounted camera.
No disk drives, no Firewire, it will have a SD slot and a USB port or two.
The reason why Apple is going towards a closed UI and closed App store is to protect it's market share.
It's become so easy to run Windows, Linux and OS X at the same time using VM software. It's blurred the lines and even diehard Mac users like myself are using other operating systems regularly.
So Apple is going to gradually shift into a really closed universe with a easier UI.
As more and more people buy the new iTablet to solve their needs, the less and less a real computer just falls to the slimmer professional market.
Eventually Pro Mac users will be shifting to Windows. Thus the name "Bootcamp".
Thus the reason why the line of MacBooks nearly disappeared except for one white model.
Apple intends to introduce the new and young to a totally new type of computer.
The competition is going to get fscked because they won't have the OS or the AppStore to compete, despite having the hardware.
I hereby promise to you and Ireland. If this device runs un-modified Mac OS X desktop applications I will walk naked outside my house and post the photographs here for all to see.
This device is not a Mac. Will not be called Mac. And will not run any native Mac applications.
Will you match my wager if you are wrong?
I think Apple could go either way on it - I'd just prefer it if it ran x86 apps. The reason being that while iphone apps are ok for a phone, so few of them are real productivity apps. They are throw-away apps. During the day, you maybe get a spare 5-10 minutes waiting around somewhere, you whip out the phone and do a quick game or use a gimmicky app. With a slate, you sit down with the device for productivity and entertainment.
iLife and iWork are Apple's big consumer productivity packages. Now they could compile them for ARM and tweak them for touch input but does that mean people have to buy a whole other suite? I don't see how they can offer a slate and cut out so much of what makes the Mac platform great. At the same time, I don't think Snow Leopard as we know it would work adequately on a small touch screen. A hybrid solves both problems.
Quote:
Originally Posted by MacTripper
Eventually Pro Mac users will be shifting to Windows. Thus the name "Bootcamp".
Interesting theory but I don't think Apple want to encourage people to switch to Windows for serious work. I get the impression they do want to drive a firmer wedge between pro and consumer uses and their strongest focus is undeniably the consumer market. I see 3 levels though - mass-market consumer devices being iphone/ipod/islate; entry level computing - Mac Mini and Macbook; High end use - MBP and Mac Pro. The middle step needs to stay so people on a budget can do the things the high end machines do but slower.
I think Apple could go either way on it - I'd just prefer it if it ran x86 apps. The reason being that while iphone apps are ok for a phone, so few of them are real productivity apps.
The tablet is not going to be a productivity device. Period.
Apple already make a thing called a Mac for customers who want productivity.
The tablet is going to the opposite of that. It will be a computer which dumps all pretensions of content-creation. Instead, it is for the consumers who just want to consume content. Read, watch, browse. A little light facebooking.
There's no point creating a new device for professionals who want to create content. Do spreadsheets, run word processors. There is already a market-full of devices for such users.
So, is there a market for such an unproductively device?
You betcha.
Which sells more - blank notebooks or books?
Which sells more - TVs or Video Cameras?
Which sells more - Music or Musical Instruments?
In all cases, media consumption dwarfs creation.
Done correctly, I think a personal media device, has the potential to sell in numbers way beyond notebooks or netbooks. Why? Because there are more people interested in *reading* a book, than they are in *writing* a book.
And although you can watch a movie on a laptop, or read a book on a netbook. The flexibility of notebooks gives makes such tasks needlessly complex and inconvenient.
I hope I am right - and do not have to go naked. It's snowing here.
The tablet is not going to be a productivity device. Period.
Apple already make a thing called a Mac for customers who want productivity.
The tablet is going to the opposite of that. It will be a computer which dumps all pretensions of content-creation. Instead, it is for the consumers who just want to consume content. Read, watch, browse. A little light facebooking.
Your concession to facebooking belies the need for some productivity. I'd assume you'd agree that it better be capable of the other staple social networking features. Email, texting, tweeting, blogging, posting to AI - all these require fairly efficient text input for an enjoyable experience.
External, clip on, or slide out keyboard seems unlikely, so the capability will probably be native and, therefore, likely to be exploited by developers who want to move their productivity apps into the tablet marketspace.
The iPhone is form factor limited, but a tablet not so much. I'm hoping the tablet will present new UI paradigms for computing that will eventually move into all macs.
I think it's going to be the combo of hardware, software, and content that makes the iSlate so appealing.
The first iPods were great, but it wasn't until the iTunes Store was available that iPod really exploded.
Likewise with the first-gen iPhone. It was great, and drool-worthy, but sales didn't explode until the App store hit, and the phone was available at a lower price.
There are already plenty of devices available and coming soon that offer touch screens in a tablet form. I think it's going to be exclusive access to newspapers, magazines, and other types of content via some sort of iTunes/App/Slate store that makes it so compelling. It may not necessarily be that people love the form factor (Though it will be in the equation), but rather they really want their music, TV, movies, books, papers, magazines, all on one device. If the iSlate is the only device that is tied to a content service like this, then it's what people will buy.
So, while I'm pretty much expecting a "big iphone" as far as hardware styling, with some potential surprises when it comes to interface and software. But I think Apple probably has some more interesting things up its sleeve in regards to the future of apps and consumption of mobile content and how it's distributed.
I don't think the sauce is hardware. It is a variety of ingredients like all sauces that will make it special, even saucy you might say. The ingredients provide the flavors that make the dish delicious. These ingredients have to be perfect and work in concert to create a whole greater than the sum. To quote Rube from Dead Like me:
Quote:
A dish is a collection of flavors, consistencies, You start swapping ingredients in that carefully thought out melange, it's like fscking with the Jenga tower of taste.
The combination of the OS, App Store and most importantly new agreements with various content providers like newspapers and magazines will create a digital dish that everyone wants to eat. I feel the iSlate Tower of Taste will stand tall and steady.
I don't the sauce is hardware. It is a variety of ingredients like all sauces that will make it special, even saucy you might say. The ingredients provide the flavors that make the dish delicious. These ingredients ahve to be perfect and work in concert to create a whole greater than the sum. To quote Rube from Dead Like me:
The combination of the OS, App Store and most importantly new agreements with various content providers like newspapers and magazines will create a digital dish that everyone wants to eat. I feel the iSlate Tower of Taste will stand tall and steady.
Every restaurant has meat and potatoes. It's generally the sauce, the preparation and the presentation that separate a local dive from a Michelin star.
Your concession to facebooking belies the need for some productivity. I'd assume you'd agree that it better be capable of the other staple social networking features. Email, texting, tweeting, blogging, posting to AI - all these require fairly efficient text input for an enjoyable experience.
Is Facebook productivity?
Do we need the same amount of dedicated hardware to write a tweet as we need to write a novel?
This is a stylophone not a steinway.
I know for a fact that I type faster on my iPhone than I ever could if I had to physically depress a microscopic key. If I could could use both hands (instead of both thumbs) I reckon the text entry on a tablet could be beyond acceptable.
I simply would not want to write a screenplay on it.
I am going to suggest that we are not going to see an eventual unification of tablet and notebook. Not in control methods or interface. Apple have figured out that devices for media consumption should head in one direction and productivity devices should head in another.
Comments
I suspect that the guys at Apple have answered "no" to all of these, and even more, questions.
"But the iPhone does all this!" you say. More or less true... still, only the most fanboi would argue that the size of iPhone does not limit its utility. Imagine what the makers of iPhone could do with two to four times more internal volume. I envision a product that sits between iPhone and Macbook. It might render neither irrelevant. It might factor into account that many prospective buyers would, like myself, already own an iPhone and Macbook.
It might not be a one-trick-pony, ala the Kindle or Nook or Sony eBook readers. It might leverage separate processors for the decoding of media vs. "standard"computing (email, word processing and the like). It might be able to display (but not author) keynote and powerpoint presentations. It might charge via an iPod universal connector. It might not be designed for the consumer, rather for industrial type applications such as health care (no need for a paper chart, let me just multitouch through the patient's iChart).
No doubt much if not all of the above is just my wine-induced flight of fancy. However, like few of us envisioned correctly the final form of iPhone and the iPhone OS, I suspect that no one, save for Mr. Jobs himself, knows exactly what this thing is going to do and how it would fit into all our lives. If nothing else, I can appreciate this (still rumored) device for the delicious anticipation that comes with waiting and waiting with bated breath.
For the iPhone it was multitouch.
For the tablet it's … what?
Mac OS X touch (multitouch).
My guess - a revolutionary way to input text.
The revolutionary thing about this device will not only be the revolutionary software, but that the hardware is designed in such a clever way as to make the device itself practical. The design of this pop-out rest is 100% crucial. If done right the device will make sense and could replace notebooks for some people. If done wrong then it will ruin any potential mass adoption possibilities this amazing software ever may have had otherwise.
For a guy asking this question you couldn't have chose a worse username
The secret sauce is Apple itself. Apple engineers and designers make products that are seamlessly intergrated and just work. Simple, but genius.
I think you're answering the wrong question, he wants specifics.
Mac OS X touch (multitouch).
For a guy asking this question you couldn't have chose a worse username
Hey, I made a prediction, didn't I?
I agree that Apple's skill with making attractive, intuitive interfaces is a selling point. But that's just the usual apple sauce, not secret sauce. And doesn't everyone expect the iSlate's interface to be pretty much the same as the iPhone?
Is everyone just hoping for a big iPhone? I'm not. If they are going in that direction then I would prefer that they simply make a tablet sized screen with extra batteries/storage that I could slide an iphone into.
Yeah, maybe that would be a way to get iPhone owning PC users a little more into the Mac computing world, but it probably wouldn't make tablets any more compelling to the average user.
I'm thinking that the iSlate has to bring some sort of functionality that other tablets are missing.
Well anyway, I'll add it to the list of possible secret sauces-
1. Revolutionary text input method
2. Overwhelming Apple goodliness.
3. Hardware extension of iPhone
4. Revolutionary 3d interface (Apple patent just in the news today)
What else ya got?
For the iPhone it was multitouch.
For the tablet it's ... what?
My guess - a revolutionary way to input text.
Whatever it is, it has to blow the other tablets away or only Mac users will buy it.
This is my take.
http://forums.appleinsider.com/showpost.php?p=1543591&postcount=200
C.
As to the special sauce, that will be laid bare when we see Apples vision. If Apple gets the formula wrong the device will end up a flop just like Mac Book AIR. That is an impressive technical achievement but lackluster sales. Worst there are a lot of competeing needs and demands out there, if Apple only has one size tablet there will be a lot of unhappy campers.
Dave
Apple has rolled out the first truly successful, touch screen GUI. It would hopefully be modified slightly for the alleged tablet. But in my mind, a low price is paramount.
Tablets won't replace our current form factors, but rather compliment and supplement the current devices. For this reason, they've got to be cheap. Otherwise, the only people buying them will be the niche groups that have little if any need for text entry or manipulation. Most people benefit immensely from full, real keyboards for text work.
The reason why crappy text input is tolerated on mobile phones is because waaaaaaay better computing mobility is worth the trade-off. Tablets don't fit in your pocket so that trade-off doesn't apply.
Case in point, the Air. It's a great product to use but is priced to high for what would frequently be used as a limited-feature, supplemental computer.
There was a weak rumor posted about leaked specs saying a 7" screen with Core 2 Duo CPU and the machine running something called Clouded Leopard. Someone mentioned Clouded Leopard a while ago but maybe it was from the same source. It makes sense in some ways for there to be an incarnation of OS X for this platform because if it's not ARM, they can get away with the full OS but if it's something like Pinetrail (1.66GHz passively cooled and noiseless), it should really be optimized in a similar way to the iphone so that it runs a bit better. I don't want to go back to what it was like running OS X on an old powerbook.
A Clouded Leopard is actually an animal too like the Snow Leopard so fits the naming convention and is referred to as a medium-sized cat - "it seemed to be a cross between a big cat and a small cat". Apple's data centre plans are long term so any reference to 'the cloud' may not have any immediate significance. The question is if they optimize the OS for the device by making a hybrid between the iphone OS and Snow Leopard yet it still runs desktop apps, what could they optimize that couldn't be optimized in Snow Leopard?
I imagine there will be another UI - column view is quite small for touch and the Finder windows get too cluttered. I reckon it will be a UI designed to cater for the middle ground. Every time you use Safari on the iphone and wish you could do multiple tabs more easily or save/load files and open documents or run your favorite desktop apps - maybe draw in Photoshop but nothing heavy.
What I'd like to see is the following:
10" or 12" multi-touch slate with reinforced glass - for strength and cost I'd sway towards 10"
running 1.66GHz Atom Pinetrail with GMA 3150 graphics (no 9400M as this should probably be a fanless design)
2GB RAM - enough for multi-tasking iphone apps and for running desktop apps
running Clouded Leopard - a hybrid of the iphone OS and desktop OS running both x86 and ARM apps side by side
120GB HDD - for price and storage, possibly 1.8", might get away with a 64GB SSD
no optical drive for weight and thinness
On the subject of thinness, I wouldn't expect anything more than USB, Mini-DP and audio jacks - other ports are just too big. Just like the MBA. 802.11n should suffice for most things.
This kind of device I wouldn't use as a main machine but I would get one over a Macbook Air if it was $499 or $599 and I imagine a lot of people could use it as a main machine.
Intel will be happy as they get their Apple device using Atom, iphone fans get to run more powerful apps with all the same interaction and multitask, ebook reader fans get a good quality color screen and excellent content distribution model with more than just books but still as portable, Macbook Air fans get a cheaper portable machine that runs desktop Mac apps, netbook fans see an expensive equivalent but not too expensive that the features won't sell it, desktop users have something more convenient than a laptop to keep synced to complement their desktop.
2GB RAM - enough for multi-tasking iphone apps and for running desktop apps
running Clouded Leopard - a hybrid of the iphone OS and desktop OS running both x86 and ARM apps side by side
I say cow-poop.
I hereby promise to you and Ireland. If this device runs un-modified Mac OS X desktop applications I will walk naked outside my house and post the photographs here for all to see.
This device is not a Mac. Will not be called Mac. And will not run any native Mac applications.
Will you match my wager if you are wrong?
C.
I hereby promise to you and Ireland. If this device runs un-modified Mac OS X desktop applications I will walk naked outside my house and post the photographs here for all to see.
Well, you'd probably get a permanent ban for that. And perhaps induce a slight amount of vomiting.
Well, you'd probably get a permanent ban for that. And perhaps induce a slight amount of vomiting.
I would pixellate the image. To prevent said vomiting.
C.
...I hereby promise to you and Ireland. If this device runs un-modified Mac OS X desktop applications....(edited to reduce blindness)
This device is not a Mac. Will not be called Mac. And will not run any native Mac applications...
C.
I agree with you totally.
The iTablet/iSlate will build itself upon the closed UI and the AppStore. No native Mac programs (except those from Apple) on non-jailbroken iTablets.
It will also have something new, it will respond to hand gestures, finger points and swipes without touching the screen.
A pointer will track across the screen using the forward mounted camera.
No disk drives, no Firewire, it will have a SD slot and a USB port or two.
The reason why Apple is going towards a closed UI and closed App store is to protect it's market share.
It's become so easy to run Windows, Linux and OS X at the same time using VM software. It's blurred the lines and even diehard Mac users like myself are using other operating systems regularly.
So Apple is going to gradually shift into a really closed universe with a easier UI.
As more and more people buy the new iTablet to solve their needs, the less and less a real computer just falls to the slimmer professional market.
Eventually Pro Mac users will be shifting to Windows. Thus the name "Bootcamp".
Thus the reason why the line of MacBooks nearly disappeared except for one white model.
Apple intends to introduce the new and young to a totally new type of computer.
The competition is going to get fscked because they won't have the OS or the AppStore to compete, despite having the hardware.
I hereby promise to you and Ireland. If this device runs un-modified Mac OS X desktop applications I will walk naked outside my house and post the photographs here for all to see.
This device is not a Mac. Will not be called Mac. And will not run any native Mac applications.
Will you match my wager if you are wrong?
I think Apple could go either way on it - I'd just prefer it if it ran x86 apps. The reason being that while iphone apps are ok for a phone, so few of them are real productivity apps. They are throw-away apps. During the day, you maybe get a spare 5-10 minutes waiting around somewhere, you whip out the phone and do a quick game or use a gimmicky app. With a slate, you sit down with the device for productivity and entertainment.
iLife and iWork are Apple's big consumer productivity packages. Now they could compile them for ARM and tweak them for touch input but does that mean people have to buy a whole other suite? I don't see how they can offer a slate and cut out so much of what makes the Mac platform great. At the same time, I don't think Snow Leopard as we know it would work adequately on a small touch screen. A hybrid solves both problems.
Eventually Pro Mac users will be shifting to Windows. Thus the name "Bootcamp".
Interesting theory but I don't think Apple want to encourage people to switch to Windows for serious work. I get the impression they do want to drive a firmer wedge between pro and consumer uses and their strongest focus is undeniably the consumer market. I see 3 levels though - mass-market consumer devices being iphone/ipod/islate; entry level computing - Mac Mini and Macbook; High end use - MBP and Mac Pro. The middle step needs to stay so people on a budget can do the things the high end machines do but slower.
I think Apple could go either way on it - I'd just prefer it if it ran x86 apps. The reason being that while iphone apps are ok for a phone, so few of them are real productivity apps.
The tablet is not going to be a productivity device. Period.
Apple already make a thing called a Mac for customers who want productivity.
The tablet is going to the opposite of that. It will be a computer which dumps all pretensions of content-creation. Instead, it is for the consumers who just want to consume content. Read, watch, browse. A little light facebooking.
There's no point creating a new device for professionals who want to create content. Do spreadsheets, run word processors. There is already a market-full of devices for such users.
So, is there a market for such an unproductively device?
You betcha.
Which sells more - blank notebooks or books?
Which sells more - TVs or Video Cameras?
Which sells more - Music or Musical Instruments?
In all cases, media consumption dwarfs creation.
Done correctly, I think a personal media device, has the potential to sell in numbers way beyond notebooks or netbooks. Why? Because there are more people interested in *reading* a book, than they are in *writing* a book.
And although you can watch a movie on a laptop, or read a book on a netbook. The flexibility of notebooks gives makes such tasks needlessly complex and inconvenient.
I hope I am right - and do not have to go naked. It's snowing here.
C.
The tablet is not going to be a productivity device. Period.
Apple already make a thing called a Mac for customers who want productivity.
The tablet is going to the opposite of that. It will be a computer which dumps all pretensions of content-creation. Instead, it is for the consumers who just want to consume content. Read, watch, browse. A little light facebooking.
Your concession to facebooking belies the need for some productivity. I'd assume you'd agree that it better be capable of the other staple social networking features. Email, texting, tweeting, blogging, posting to AI - all these require fairly efficient text input for an enjoyable experience.
External, clip on, or slide out keyboard seems unlikely, so the capability will probably be native and, therefore, likely to be exploited by developers who want to move their productivity apps into the tablet marketspace.
The iPhone is form factor limited, but a tablet not so much. I'm hoping the tablet will present new UI paradigms for computing that will eventually move into all macs.
The first iPods were great, but it wasn't until the iTunes Store was available that iPod really exploded.
Likewise with the first-gen iPhone. It was great, and drool-worthy, but sales didn't explode until the App store hit, and the phone was available at a lower price.
There are already plenty of devices available and coming soon that offer touch screens in a tablet form. I think it's going to be exclusive access to newspapers, magazines, and other types of content via some sort of iTunes/App/Slate store that makes it so compelling. It may not necessarily be that people love the form factor (Though it will be in the equation), but rather they really want their music, TV, movies, books, papers, magazines, all on one device. If the iSlate is the only device that is tied to a content service like this, then it's what people will buy.
So, while I'm pretty much expecting a "big iphone" as far as hardware styling, with some potential surprises when it comes to interface and software. But I think Apple probably has some more interesting things up its sleeve in regards to the future of apps and consumption of mobile content and how it's distributed.
Only about 3 more weeks til we know for sure!
A dish is a collection of flavors, consistencies, You start swapping ingredients in that carefully thought out melange, it's like fscking with the Jenga tower of taste.
The combination of the OS, App Store and most importantly new agreements with various content providers like newspapers and magazines will create a digital dish that everyone wants to eat. I feel the iSlate Tower of Taste will stand tall and steady.
I don't the sauce is hardware. It is a variety of ingredients like all sauces that will make it special, even saucy you might say. The ingredients provide the flavors that make the dish delicious. These ingredients ahve to be perfect and work in concert to create a whole greater than the sum. To quote Rube from Dead Like me:
The combination of the OS, App Store and most importantly new agreements with various content providers like newspapers and magazines will create a digital dish that everyone wants to eat. I feel the iSlate Tower of Taste will stand tall and steady.
Every restaurant has meat and potatoes. It's generally the sauce, the preparation and the presentation that separate a local dive from a Michelin star.
Your concession to facebooking belies the need for some productivity. I'd assume you'd agree that it better be capable of the other staple social networking features. Email, texting, tweeting, blogging, posting to AI - all these require fairly efficient text input for an enjoyable experience.
Is Facebook productivity?
Do we need the same amount of dedicated hardware to write a tweet as we need to write a novel?
This is a stylophone not a steinway.
I know for a fact that I type faster on my iPhone than I ever could if I had to physically depress a microscopic key. If I could could use both hands (instead of both thumbs) I reckon the text entry on a tablet could be beyond acceptable.
I simply would not want to write a screenplay on it.
I am going to suggest that we are not going to see an eventual unification of tablet and notebook. Not in control methods or interface. Apple have figured out that devices for media consumption should head in one direction and productivity devices should head in another.
C.