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.

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: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.