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.)"

Comments

how much

[ack154]

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?

Re:how much

[jfengel]

Actually, I think the big question would be "features". Tablets are pricey because they don't have very wide acceptance; people who buy them really, really want them.

Apple's stock-in-trade has always been innovative, functional, attractive designs that make people feel comfortable. People pay a $50 premium for the iPod because its design just works for them. They like using it.

Apple has always charged a bit more for its products, though some of that has been staying away from the most bottom level. You can pick up a bottom-of-the-line Dell for half the price of a bottom-of-the-line Mac, but a comparable Dell is usually only slightly less than the equivalent Mac. (Much of that, of course, depends on what you consider "comparable", since the systems use resources in very different ways.)

The question for me is, does Apple have enough clever ideas to make a tablet computer really work? Can they make a tablet that pushes some laptops out of the market? Perhaps they can make the bridge between the power of a laptop and the convenience of a PDA that it becomes an indispensible item.

Or they may end up with a cumbersome PDA/underpowered laptop combination that nobody wants. It'll all depend on the features. If they can get them right, they'll probably charge twice as much as a laptop and sell as many as they can make. Either way, I bet it'll be higher than the price you're comfortable paying, like the iPod, which has managed to be a breakout hit despite its high price by being exactly the right combination of features for people.

Re:how much

[Dan Ost]

From a marketing point of view, I think it would be hard to sell any new system with a G4 processor, just from the point of view of customer perception

Funny how they sell so many laptops with G4's in them.

I would expect that processing power is even less of a concern for tablet
computers than it is for laptops.

Re:Estimated cost?

[Aadain2001]

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.

Re:Estimated cost?

[Kenja]

"Until tablets are $500 or so, they will only be a niche market."

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.

Re:Estimated cost?

[shufler]

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.

if done right

[Bauguss]

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.

Re:Estimated cost?

[Twirlip of the Mists]

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.

Re:Its for the new iMac!

[ericdano]

You might be right about this being the new iMac. However, where is the processor to go? If the new iMac uses a G5, and from what I know of the G5, you need a fairly large cooling system. So.....

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.......

Re:Are they reading my mind?

[rokzy]

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.

Re:Just make me a GOOD eBook reader...

[jcenters]

12" iBook.

Download desired book as PDF.

Open it in Preview.

View --> Rotate Left

View --> Fullscreen

Click mouse button to flip pages.

Done.

It's iWalk all over again...

[Bones3D_mac]

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...

Re:Explain to me slowly...

[Axfish]

I beg to differ...

A tablet doesn't have a keyboard, and I can't shut it to protect the screen

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.

Re:Estimated cost?

[ScottSpeaks!]

Bad analogy. A totaled Ferarri is worth a fortune for the spare parts alone.

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.