Apple Tablet - what to expect
The worst secret in the world of computing right now is that on 27th January 2010 Apple will unveil it’s latest invention – a tablet computer. We won’t even dwell on the possibility of this not actually happening because the odds are similar to those of winning the lottery jackpot.
So, what can you expect and where exactly does this new device fit into the range of devices that Apple already offers? The pictures shown in this article are artists impressions or rendering of what the Apple Tablet may look like – none of them are the actual machine because no-one can realistically claim to have seen it yet unless they’re part of Steve Jobs inner-circle.
What the Apple Tablet won’t be
PCWorld.com seem to be of the opinion that the Apple Tablet will be a generic portable computing device to compete with other laptops. We disagree.
They say it’ll be too expensive, too difficult to use on a day to day basis and that you’d be better off buying a couple of full-on Windows devices or a multitude of iPhones. We disagree.
The Apple Tablet is not going to be another laptop. It isn’t going to be something Apple see as becoming a replacement for a businessmans laptop computer. It isn’t something Apple see you sitting down at to input a months worth of accounting data, write an epic novel or code a new version of an artificial intelligence or DNA sampling program. It might well be capable of doing all of these things, but that isn’t why they’re releasing it and nor to they envisage the average buyer wanting to do the above very often on a Tablet.
What the Apple Tablet will be
It can’t have escaped your attention that recent years have seen a rapid rise in the availability of netbooks – small, portable, lightweight and relatively low powered and long lasting devices with the primary aim of giving swift internet access – anywhere, at anytime.
Well you could probably think of the Apple Tablet as a new Apple Netbook with the functionality of an iPhone (albeit with a much bigger screen), the ability to fulfil many of the lesser duties of a laptop but with the advantage of being so intuitive and quick to access that it fills a gap. We like to think it’ll be the Apple Essential. The things you need with a few of the things you might and none of the rubbish that you never will.
That gap is the lack of an Apple Netbook and therefore the lack of any Netbook with multi-touch capability of the sheer sleekness that Apple has given the iPhone and the inventiveness of a design that makes it truly portable and opens up a colossal opportunity for application development on the scale of the iPhone.
It’ll almost certainly be launched with a screen size of between 10-11”, making it instantly portable yet visually easier to use than any mobile phone you’ll ever find.
It will run a version of the operating system seen on the Apple iPhone (thereby trashing PC World’s apparent thoughts on what it is aimed to do).
It will, indirectly, compete with Netbooks even though it’s portfolio of potential uses may well be less. See, with 70 million+ iPhones sold Apple has realised that it doesn’t need to provide all the bells and whistles of a Netbook – it just needs to provide the most used features of a Netbook on a platform that the world has nodded it’s head at and said they like.
It will probably have a price point of around $1,000 in the States. That’ll probably mean a £650 price in the UK – and Apple seldom underprice so don’t be expect the price of convenience to be a small one.
Media promotion on the Tablet will be big business. It will present the perfect platform for media viewing in a portable manner never seen.
The Tablet is hoped to be the first real handheld computing device that gives the perfect balance of speed of boot, ease of access, visual simplicity, interface intuitiveness and range of applications that fulfil the majority of needs.
Like the iPhone, but on a grander scale, gaming will be a significant attraction to Tablet buyers. Crash Bandicoot 3D on a 10-11” screen – yes please!
It’ll provide applications at the bargain price that the iPhone already does through the App Store – a point many observers seem to be missing right now.
What will happen when they release it?
One thing is for certain – you can expect the Netbook market to jump toward the specification Apple announces and do their best to hog it’s limelight. The Apple Tablet could well be the start of another iPhone moment for Apple.
The machine direction, or at least as we predict it, is Apple’s way of saying that they see the Netbook market achieving it’s long thought capacity over the next 3-5 years. The sector will explode.
Deloitte has already forecast that the market is the next big thing and Apple shares have shot up in anticipation. Deloitte describe what could be the “Goldilocks of devices, not too big, not too small” and we think they’re forecasting that perfectly.
** ARTICLE UPDATED 21st JANUARY 2010 **
An article by The Next Web today reckons that the latest rendition of the Tablet uploaded on Flickr is the closest in look to what the machine will actually look like. They quote their source as an 'Apple Insider' and everything else they say about the machine is pretty much what we've written above, with them confirming the thought about a 10 inch screen.
So, here is is - the artists impression said to be closest to the look of the new Apple Tablet computer.
We don't think it looks a million miles away from the images earlier on this page! Nice though, it does look nice - but we'll reiterate that we see price-point as being key on this one and we hope they don't mess it up.
What do we think?
This is going to be big. No, this is going to be huge, but not physically.
If you think about it, carefully, there no single dominant format that has ever managed to achieve the perfect combination of portability, ease of access, usability and application library.
The iPhone is too small. The average Netbook doesn’t have an interface as capable as any of the multi-touch devices available. The Macbook (even Air) range and your average Windows PC laptop isn’t convenient enough.
The Apple Tablet could create a whole new generation of use.
It could potentially remove barriers of those that say a device is too small in addition to those that say a device is too large. Apple did it with the MP3 player when the released the iPod and they deployed the same thought process in the creation of the iPhone – a device that can rightly claim to be one of the biggest successes of the late first decade of this century.
The difficult is going to be the price. Apple overprice. It’s a fact, they do.
They need to get this price point absolutely on the head. Apple fanatics would buy a rock with the right logo on it but the Tablet needs to ensure it’s combination of form and function doesn’t get lost with financial dreams.
Under $1,000 – it’ll sell like wildfire spreads. Over $1,000 and they could blow it in a way they will almost certainly live to regret (unless Nokia and Kodak win their court cases!).
