I remember Giz was reporting via a supposed expert analyst that the touch screen would not come out until next year. But as I said before (in my comments), Apple will not buy huge amounts of LCD screens, just to sit on them indefinitely. They want there inventory to move quikcly, and letting these screens sit in a warehouse until next year would be absurd.
@jpitsch: Yeah. If they have these screens, they're going to do something with them. Q3 seems reasonable, anything past that would be too long to just sit on them.
@N@tedog: Something tells me not even Apple would charge $800 for a CrunchPad. Call me a fanboy, but I'm pretty sure this will have some crazy new features no one even knew they wanted yet or something. My only question is whether it will run full OS X (likely), iPhone OS (unlikely), or some totally new "Tablet OS" (possible).
If it comes out, it comes out. If it doesn't, it doesn't. Yes, a bunch of people who read tech blogs think it would be pretty nifty if there was an Apple tablet, so much so, that if they had sufficient money to buy one, they would seriously consider buying one.
Apple knows how to run their business and if there is no tablet, then I'm fairly certain that Apple has some market data justifying the decision.
As I've said, I try not to second-guess the business judgment of global corporations with $80b in market capitalization.
@pɹɐoqʎǝʞuǝʞoɹq: I'm not saying they're infallible - not in the least. I apply the same standard to Mr. Softee - and I despise the Office 2007 redesign.
I'm just saying that big companies make big decisions based on a lot of data. And when it comes to tech, there's R&D costs to consider even before it's brought to market.
Yes, Apple TV is a failure, as was the Cube, and the Newton. But the iPod did pretty well, in spite of heavy criticism of being useless when it was released.
And, in the interests of being fair and balanced, Microsoft Bob, Windows ME, and Vista were failures. But Windows 95, 98, 2000, and XP kicked some serious ass, as did the XBox.
@OMG! Ponies!: The 20th Anniversary Macintosh was a big flop, but it paved the way for the current iMacs. The cube also a failure helped in terms of creating the Mac Mini.
No doubt, lessons learned from the MacBook Air, and the Apple TV will pave the way for better products in the future.
@gmjhowe: I agree.. it's more like the misses are public prototypes, premature and half-baked, but for the most part, not orphaned rejects. Even the Newton is arguably a precursor of the iPhone. Apple TV seems conceptually strong, but currently weak in implementation. And with Apple now a consumer behemoth, while it's hard to see them ever coming out with another 20th anniversary type mac as a stocking stuffer for their most caricatured customers, it arguably begat the iMac.
It's impossible to judge the tablet yet because, well, no one knows what it will be. Remember when iPhone rumors derided a kludgy iPod with a physical phone keyboard?
Personally, I do love me some iPhone. However, if I need to do any serious internetting, the screen is too small. A 3 inch internet isn't the internet.
A tablet with a larger screen would have spared me from Panera's asiago bagels (actually pretty good) during a recent trip. I needed the internet on an internet class screen because my iPhone was too small. The iPhone is great for quick answers, but not perusing.
Ah....who are we kidding?
Let's face it, as soon as Apple comes out with a tablet, scrape away the bashers who will hate it no matter what ("what?! No time travel?!?") and the rest of us are going to want it 5 nanoseconds into the keynote. Apple's been working on it for years, it's not going to suck, and even if it does, it will have enough win in it that nitpick as we will, we will, all of us, glance at our piggy banks with smash in our eyes.
@RainyDayInterns: GM also wasn't putting out good product that consumers wanted... for YEARS. They failed to pick up on the trends of "going green", and they had WAY too many selections which were all very similar. THAT was their downfall: too many gas hogs, too many cars that were too similar to each other. Ask any analyst, they'll tell you. My father works as an auditor for these companies.
Apple, on the other hand, doesn't have a huge selection of computers. They have 1 or 2 for each type: a few notebooks, ranging in price and power, a few desktops, a few all-in-one's, and that's it. They have their bases covered, but they're not overloaded. And the fact that their market share has gone up significantly (as far as Apple's market share is concerned) in the last few years, they obviously make products that people want.
They're doing just fine. More than just fine; they're doing fantastic.
At first thought, a tablet like this seemed useless. But then i realized that it would really be designed for media (watching movies/TV on something portable but larger than the iphone, as well las music, pictures, etc), and constant internet connectivity. No one would buy this to do any actual "work".
I won't be crunching excel models on this thing. It's a toy. So it better be cheap.
I'd settle for something similar to an iPod Touch with a 7.5" screen at a decent widescreen resolution for watching movies and high def content, and 4.5-5hrs of battery life for watching said movies.
Make it the size of a dvd case and price it under $600 and you could sell me three.
There's a reason tablet computers fail time and time again. For one, the touchscreen is nigh useless for virtually all of the regular computing people actually do. If you're an artist looking for something portable to do quick work on, you're going to find yourself sorely disappointed when it doesn't even come close to matching the accuracy and pressure levels of a Wacom. Typing on a touch screen is fine for something like the iPhone, but I can only imagine the strain of doing away with all of the tactile feedback from a full two-handed keyboard. It's a nifty gimmick that doesn't get off the ground because it continuously fails to find itself in many situations where portable computing is greatly improved.
Considering how small a niche these things actually provide for, multitouch, for something this size, is even more useless.
@Kaiser-Machead: Uh.. I use my Tosh M700 to draw and paint. It's no different than using my Wacom tablet.
I don't know what YOU'RE doing - but my experience is nothing like yours. Perhaps you've got the wrong driver installed. For some reason, Microsoft ships the 'tablet PC' version of the Wacom driver, which essentially reduces the pressure sensitivity to two levels - on and off. If you go over to Wacom's site and get the PenEnabled driver, it gives you full Wacom pressure support.
On the other hand, yes, typing on a screen sucks. That's why most current tablet PCs are convertables.
@Kaiser-Machead: I could easily see myself taking notes and drawing diagrams during my advanced mathematics and ICT lectures.. A laptop is unfit for such a task, where everyone still uses pen and paper. Besides I have no way to draw diagrams digitally on a laptop.. the only solution is to whip out my nokia n95 and snap a picture of the whiteboard.. Last time I did that I got a bunch of bull from the lecturer bitching about his data protection
@TheWerewolf: I know about the tablet PC driver software, and even with that, a tpc is inferior to a real Intuous. Pen rotation and tilt is not supported, so is not an option.
@Kaiser-Machead: That said, being able to get a TPC that DOES have all of that would sell me in an instant. If ever a tablet can get the exact same feel of an actual Wacom tablet, then I'll jump on it. Until then, I just can't.
While I'm increasingly inclined to think that Apple might be coming out with such a device, I'm also inclined to think that it's going to be a big failure. Not everything that Apple touches turns to gold - they've had some great success, but they've also had some pretty hair-brained ideas that haven't worked out, and I think this may be one of them.
Ultimately I think this device isn't going to be something that is widely popular with the general public, but more attractive to Macheads. Which begs the question - do people who already have an iPhone and a Macbook really need a device that sits between the two? I don't think so.
@Xeno wishes there was a preview button: Almost everything. I guess what I'm saying is that it's not going to be appealing to that many macheads because it doesn't really fill a need beyond what they already get from their macbooks and iPhones, and it doesn't really create a new market for people who aren't macheads.
Well… if apple won't market it, someone else will. If they want to be first they had better hurry up. Microsoft has been chomping at the bit to do something big with Zune!!!
All 4 top stories are about apple. I love this blog but in the past few months it's been extremely apple centric. I like getting apple news but I like to hear from the multitude of other companies too.
08/15/09
08/15/09
Iphone, iPOD, et al drive me crazy. The worst, though: iTouch.
(Yes, I'm a designer/grammar geek)
08/15/09
08/17/09
07/13/09
07/13/09
07/13/09
07/13/09
07/13/09
07/13/09
07/13/09
07/13/09
Apple knows how to run their business and if there is no tablet, then I'm fairly certain that Apple has some market data justifying the decision.
As I've said, I try not to second-guess the business judgment of global corporations with $80b in market capitalization.
07/13/09
07/13/09
I'm just saying that big companies make big decisions based on a lot of data. And when it comes to tech, there's R&D costs to consider even before it's brought to market.
Yes, Apple TV is a failure, as was the Cube, and the Newton. But the iPod did pretty well, in spite of heavy criticism of being useless when it was released.
And, in the interests of being fair and balanced, Microsoft Bob, Windows ME, and Vista were failures. But Windows 95, 98, 2000, and XP kicked some serious ass, as did the XBox.
07/13/09
Not saying the tablet will be a killer product, but just because a company is big never guarantees that they always know what they are doing.
Sometimes...customer desires does actually matter.
07/13/09
No doubt, lessons learned from the MacBook Air, and the Apple TV will pave the way for better products in the future.
07/13/09
It's impossible to judge the tablet yet because, well, no one knows what it will be. Remember when iPhone rumors derided a kludgy iPod with a physical phone keyboard?
Personally, I do love me some iPhone. However, if I need to do any serious internetting, the screen is too small. A 3 inch internet isn't the internet.
A tablet with a larger screen would have spared me from Panera's asiago bagels (actually pretty good) during a recent trip. I needed the internet on an internet class screen because my iPhone was too small. The iPhone is great for quick answers, but not perusing.
Ah....who are we kidding?
Let's face it, as soon as Apple comes out with a tablet, scrape away the bashers who will hate it no matter what ("what?! No time travel?!?") and the rest of us are going to want it 5 nanoseconds into the keynote. Apple's been working on it for years, it's not going to suck, and even if it does, it will have enough win in it that nitpick as we will, we will, all of us, glance at our piggy banks with smash in our eyes.
07/13/09
Apple, on the other hand, doesn't have a huge selection of computers. They have 1 or 2 for each type: a few notebooks, ranging in price and power, a few desktops, a few all-in-one's, and that's it. They have their bases covered, but they're not overloaded. And the fact that their market share has gone up significantly (as far as Apple's market share is concerned) in the last few years, they obviously make products that people want.
They're doing just fine. More than just fine; they're doing fantastic.
05/13/09
I won't be crunching excel models on this thing. It's a toy. So it better be cheap.
05/13/09
Make it the size of a dvd case and price it under $600 and you could sell me three.
05/13/09
Considering how small a niche these things actually provide for, multitouch, for something this size, is even more useless.
05/13/09
I don't know what YOU'RE doing - but my experience is nothing like yours. Perhaps you've got the wrong driver installed. For some reason, Microsoft ships the 'tablet PC' version of the Wacom driver, which essentially reduces the pressure sensitivity to two levels - on and off. If you go over to Wacom's site and get the PenEnabled driver, it gives you full Wacom pressure support.
On the other hand, yes, typing on a screen sucks. That's why most current tablet PCs are convertables.
05/13/09
05/13/09
05/13/09
05/13/09
05/13/09
Ultimately I think this device isn't going to be something that is widely popular with the general public, but more attractive to Macheads. Which begs the question - do people who already have an iPhone and a Macbook really need a device that sits between the two? I don't think so.
05/13/09
05/13/09
05/13/09
05/13/09
Come on down!
05/13/09
05/13/09
05/13/09
05/13/09
05/13/09
Giz has generally been very pro-apple gear. However there are not any more apple articles now than there were 6, 9, or even 12 months ago.
05/13/09