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Speculation About An Apple Tablet
worm eater writes "The Register reports that Apple has filed for a European design trademark on a tablet computer. El Reg speculates that this could may make Apple Expo Paris more exciting that previously thought. Could this be the tech that finally brings the Mac desktop, iPod, and AirPort Express (and let's not forget the iPhone) together into the media household of The Future? (Of course, we've heard speculation about this before.)"
Well the big question would obviously be price. Any Mac fan probably knows it would be a very nice piece of hardware... but really, tablets are expensive enough. How much would something like this be from Apple?
And that, lady and gentlemen, is why tablet PC's will NEVER take off! I know that that price is inflated (or is it?!?!), but tablet PC's are just too damn expensive. Why buy a tablet that is kludgy to use, limited in power/graphics, and costs more than a ultra powerful desktop computer? Until tablets are $500 or so, they will only be a niche market.
Space for rent, inquire within
Apple is just trying to show that it can do everything a PC can do, including the tablet form factor. Here's a suggestion for apple. Work on making em cheaper!
What are you talking about? You can get a tablet PC for under 50$ off of eBay. Granted it'll have a 386-486 CPU in it.
What I love are all these people talking about tablet PCs like the're a new thing. I still have my 486-33 tablet around some place, running Windows 3.1 for Pens off of its 40MB hard disk.
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
Actually, tablets have come down in price. You can get a decent tablet from LG or Toshiba, for around the same price as a laptop. Not to mention that the latest tablets also douple as laptops (ie. The screen flips around).
The price of a tablet will never be less than the cost of a laptop. The cost of a laptop will not be rediculously low like that any time soon.
Thats very true, and Apple was super pissed that toshiba leaked that... Also they would be the size convient enough for an ipod... why not PDA?
Apple proved with the iPod that high price doesn't mean poor sales. They completely proved that if done right, it would be a big hit. How many mp3 players existed before iPod came along?
I've never used a tablet pc but always liked the idea. If apple came along and did it right, who knows what could happen.
Of course it could just be a new display for the iPod, or they just want to protect their research on something that they won't actually use.
And don't even get me started about the deals you can get on wrecked Ferraris.
Bad analogy. A totaled Ferarri is worth a fortune for the spare parts alone.
I write in my journal
This would seem to be a step back from the original iMac design. Unless it is the LCD that connects to the base unit. But you'd think Apple would have put that in the filing.......
I'd imagine it's for some sort of new "iPodish" like device. Perhaps a PDA or maybe something that would link up to a Bluetooth enabled Cell phone?
It's interesting regardless.......
It's either on the beat or off the beat, it's that easy.
I moderate therefore I rule!
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I'd think that dropping any tablet would cause catastrophic damage to it.
Don't drop it. Seriously, if you think you're going to drop the thing while it's outside of its case, then you have no business using one.
The same could be said with a laptop, I suppose, but laptops seem to have OK survivability.
The only difference between a laptop and tablet is that in tablet mode the entire computer is in one solid(ish) block - you won't break the screen mounts dropping it as you would if you dropped a laptop with its screen open. Of course you aren't supposed to drop them, but typically most laptops and portable devices are generally able to withstand a 3 foot drop onto concrete as a basic survivability test.
Tablets will be just as safe/vulnerable as current laptops. The only additional vulnerability is that the screen is more exposed to scratches.
-Adam
you forgot something...
make the ebooks an OPEN format locked to a id device and not the hardware.
it's stupid that you have to re-buy all your books if you buy new hardware.
if your ebook reader costs more than $150.00 then it will be a failure, if you make your own "format" for the ebooks then it will be a failure.
in other words, as long as corperate america is making ebooks, they will stay a failure.
it's an untapped market because the users do not like what they are currently pushing out to everyone. RCA REB-1200 is an awesome Ebook reader, overpriced MSRP? yes. Locked down so I cant add my own content? Yes... is it a failure? you bet!
Until a manufacturer and publisher get together and bull their heads out of their accountant's asses ebooks will continue to suck.
sorry about the rant, but this is a recent pet peeve of mine... I have the franklin ebookman and have tons of books for it and get lots of new books for it, unfortunately I have to break the law to use it by converting secure PDF's of the books I buy to the franklin format which breaks lots of laws by using "enabling" software.
you know things are wrong when an honest citizen has to resort to crime to use something he legitimately bought.
if Apple does it the need to use an Open ebook standard, use a seperate device (smartcard,simcard,iButton) to identify the owner and be completely open with that also. so if Sony makes a reader I can take the content and id card and plug it in that reader and continue to read the books I LEGALLY own.
Until then I'll continue to Violently violate Copyright and Licenses so I can read the books I buy on the hardware I own.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
tablets will never be done. a tablet is essentially just a very portable laptop with a touchscreen. this is a very good idea and the only problem is getting a good price/performance balance. time will solve this problem.
consider the evidence:
electronic organisers evolved to PDAs with touchscreen and handwriting recognition.
mobile phones evolved to smartphones with touchscreen and handwriting recognition.
laptops will evolve to tablets with touchscreen and handwriting recognition. to claim otherwise seems foolish.
12" iBook.
Download desired book as PDF.
Open it in Preview.
View --> Rotate Left
View --> Fullscreen
Click mouse button to flip pages.
Done.
vi ~/.emacs
Steve has already told us no PDAs are being made. The market for tablets is anything but profitable. How about a more realistic rumor, like a powerbook with a touch sensitive display or somrthing?
Wake me up when we have an official word from Apple...
8==8 Bones 8==8
It would be lovely, but I don't think that the tech is right yet. LCD screens are heavy, power-hungry, and not very attractive when compared to a paper book. In addition, no matter how cheap you make them, the up-front price will be high compared to a book, unless you plan to subsidize them (which would drive the price of the books up). They've got computers inside of them, even if small ones, so they can only get so cheap.
Not to mention that e-book readers are more fragile than paper books and more expensive to lose, which means people would be reluctant to invest. They're more likely to buy software for the laptop or PDA they're already carrying around, if the visual were pleasant enough to read. PDA screens are generally considered too small, and even good laptops get only the equivalent of 4" wide (at the 300 dpi you'd consider pleasant to read on paper.)
That's just the tech end. The other side is the business case, by which I mean DRM. It's a touchy issue in music, but digitized music already existed on CDs before people could readily make copies of them. Books don't exist in digital form, so copies are hard to make. Nobody wants to read a photocopy, and it's usually pricier than just buying the book. The publisher has the digital form, but they keep it to themselves, and they'll continue to do so until they believe they have a pricing model that allows them to make their money back. Most of them believe, like the music industry, that that model depends on DRM to ensure that each person buys a separate copy. There are other models, but none is an obvious knock-out-of-the-park win.
They're probably waiting on the music industry to see how they fare with the DRM. The hackers take it as a point of pride to work around it; at least one prominent e-book DRM has already been hacked. So the publishers would be reluctant to e-publish even if there were significant numbers of e-book readers.
Apple would probably love to take your advice, but it's my guess that the tech won't support it just yet.
I beg to differ...
I have an Acer C111 sub-3lb (or sub-1.5kg) TabletPC that does include a reversible screen (you can close it with the screen facing down) and a keyboard. If Acer can do it, I'm sure Apple can make a MacTablet (or whatever) with the same form factor.As for the "slow explanation" you asked for which, I assume (but correct me if I misunderstood the title of your post) addresses the question of why anyone would want a Tablet-type machine in the first place:
I've been using this machine now for a few months (>6, <12) in both "Laptop" (sub-notebook, since it has a slightly small keyboard and a small-but-1024x768 screen) and "Tablet" (screen reversed over the case, use stylus only) modes, and I can say, in answer to a lot of the posts that claim it turns a PC into nothing but an overgrown Palm-type machine, that it works surprisingly well.
I can sit in a meeting and scribble notes while looking at the speaker - not easy to do when you'r playing hunt-and-peck on a keyboard.
I can sketch things as if on pen and paper, but the software can help me correct diagrams (making rectanguloids into rectangles, ellipsoids into ellipses and circles, etc) as I sketch them, taking my eyes off the speaker no more than with pen and paper.
Plus, by opening the writing bar at the bottom of the screen, I can input handwritten text into any application, be it designed for Tablet or not...
And then the goodness: I can transfer all that stuff into "real" applications with a lot less work than copying it all off paper.
Of course, I'm speaking from someone who uses a (gasp! I'll get modded flamebait, I expect) machine running Microsoft Windows XP Tablet Edition, and Apple or Linux have yet to show a similar offering, but I expect that, if these things catch on, Apple and Linux will come up with equivalent solutions. (Perhaps, in Apple's case, the tables are reversed for once, and this time it's Apple waiting to see if a technology catches on before they implement it...? ;)
Bash me if you like, but personally, I think that the Tablet Edition of Windows is actually one of the better things MS has come up with lately (whether they nicked the fundamental research off someone else or not - it's a product, and it's available). However, I'd like to see that sort of functionality clad in the elegance that companies like Apple (among others) have a reputation for. That, I think, could really make pen-based laptops into a killer tool.
And once running, it requires quite a substantial amount of disk space for things like swap. Doing swap over 802.11g would be... interesting...
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
Your een
can't
draw
diagrams
directly
on
the
sc
of
an
iBook.
Basically, one of the primary appeals of the tablet form factor is to those who spend a great deal of time entering things other than text into a computer. I'm constantly making workflow diagrams, sketches, interface ideas, etc. on paper because I can do them quickly. So, I either end up trying to enter them into something like Visio (ick) which takes forever compared to the quick sketch, or scanning them into an image. Using a tablet you can just drop the sketch directly into a word processing document or turn it straight into an image without having to go back to my desk and scan.
The Glass is Too Big: My Take on Things
Imagine drawing a square, triangle or circle and seeing your PDA recognize the shape. Or scratching out a word and the OS understands you wanted that part deleted. Or circling text you wanted selected. Or using written carets to mark inserts. Plus you didn't have to learn some obscure "written" commands for the OS to understand your writing. The OS, over time, learned your handwriting. I've heard that future versions would even recognize "1 + 2 =" as a formula you wanted calculated.
Remember that the MessagePad was originally released in 1993. 11 years ago! Over a decade has passed and PalmOS and the Windows Tablet Edition still can't achieve some of the functions the Newton OS provided.
I like big butts and I cannot lie.
This is not intended to start a flame war.
My question is, have you actually USED a tablet? Not picked it up in the store, picked it up from a friends desk, but actually carried one around for a couple of weeks as your only computer?
I have been using a Compaq (yeah, it is HP, but this one is labeled a Compaq) T1000 with the transmeta chip in it.
It does have its quirks, and it is slow on the boot. Other then that, you will have to pry it out of my cold, dead hands. The utility of these things makes them more than worth it. You have to really need the writing functionality though.
With my job, I do a lot of "green pad" work. I have diagrams all over the place. No more with the tablet, they are all stored on the computer and easy to search. It is also great for reading all of those Intel and Motorola PDF manuals. Given, this is not a game machine, but for what I do, it is really handy.
I have run into two types of tablet users out there, and they are at the extremes. Group A are the folks that have them, hate them, and can't wait to get rid of them. This group largely uses the tablet as a laptop, and does not seem to use any of the writing functionality. Group B are the ones that use the heck out of them.
The software is still catching up. There are a couple of applications out there now that make the thing well worth it, if you need those applications.
I would not be so quick to dismiss these things outright.
Ah - so while Jobs hates the Newton, due to his misplaced 'not invented here' or more exactly, 'not invented by me' syndrome, he does recognize the power of the technology Scully's team came up with - and intends to leverage the 10 year old technology for profit, rather than sharing it with the world (as could have been done while the rest of us limped along with the PalmPilot, its clones, and other blecherous handwriting interfaces).
:|
I suddenly feel like I need a bath...
Lodragan Draoidh
The more you explain it, the more I don't understand it. - Mark Twain
So is an old Mac.
OK, maybe not "a fortune" (they were never worth that much when new), but a used Mac - even a broken one - can have surprising value on the second-hand market. "Obsolete" Mac hardware retains pretty good value, despite the fact that all the beige units prior to the original iMac have been effectively written off by Apple's OS division. Of course the fact that everything since the original iMac is still well supported by the OS helps keep the price of old G3 systems - and the parts to keep them running - fairly high.
First off never trust a Mac Rumors website. If anything it's possible they are making a 802.11 remote control that could be used to control iTunes remotely, as well as other devices they might come up with. Seriously how many $500 remote controls are they going to sell?
The key to the tablet will be making it cheap enough, but I think it's a great idea. It would be great for digital photography, it would be great for people in science, it could be used in a lot of ways. And Apple has developed all the technology to do it. Question is will they?
Another question. Could all of this be a smoke screen? I mean Apple has made it very obvious that they are developing a tablet, but are they really doing it, or trying to divert their competitors attention and energy from something else. I've seen a lot of tablet PC ads and stuff, but I have honestly never seen a person using one and I work and live by Microsoft in Redmond! Was this an attempt by Apple to divert Dell or whomever from releasing an iPod competitor, or is there something in the works at Apple that nobody has thought of.