gkarris
macrumors G3
It's about the same number of companies that have produced a successful touchscreen multimedia smartphone that people want.... 😱
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Apple Tablet Coming in 2010?
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It's about the same number of companies that have produced a successful touchscreen multimedia smartphone that people want.... 😱
The winning formula for me is:
- Media Center
- 3G wireless
- phone capabilities
- 3G router for home network
- high capacity battery
- compact enough to carry
- external keyboard and monitor capable
- Price point <$800
Hugh
macrumors 6502a
Yeah, bring back the eMate make some changes so it can do internet web, mail,IMing.... The eMate is the perfect size to go a head to head to the Netbooks (It looks like a Netbook now) (I have one))
Just a thought........ :/
Hugh
zombitronic
macrumors 65816
Flexible OLED screens exist; they're just expensive. There's nothing "futurist crap" about that concept design. It's entirely possible, just not yet affordable. You cynics need to have some vision. We'd all be using DOS Vista if the technological world was carved by people without ideas.
I just see a frosted screen after a few weeks due to dirt, dust and other crap scratching it up. Genius? Nowhere close. 😀
Yet, being second gives you the chance to correct the mistakes the pioneer made. So what's best, being in the spotlight or having the better product? Depends on the situation. Personally I rather have the better product than for the manufacturer be in the spotlight with their Fruity Labeled Etch-a-Sketch Scratchbook Pro Ultraglide. 😛
DELLsFan
macrumors 6502a
sushi
Moderator emeritus
However, I don't believe that they are suitable for touch or handwriting input.
Rather they are display only -- at least the ones that I have seen.
So in the case of a touch device, we won't see the use of a flexible OLED screen at this time would be my guess.
i'd heard on the radio here in seattle that she(the dj) had a supposed picture of what may or may not be the mac tablet... and she goes on and on about how awesome it looked. so i figured i'd missed something on MR, but here i am and i don't see any pretty photos...
Eric S.
macrumors 68040
It was probably just one of the images that have been floating around for a while, like the one in this article:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/165354/apple_tablet_coming_in_2010.html
ahh, thanks. yeh i think i've seen that photo or something like it. i thought someone somehow managed to nab a photo of a pre production model. from an engineering pov, i'm sure aapl can pull it off, but in terms of marketing, they'll have to address the issue of 'what could it do that my iphone or laptop could not?' without necessarily making the device a melting pot of technologies and capabilities that should already exist on the mb or the iphone...
Here's what it will be: It will be a glorified remote input device + display for your Mac (and possibly PC). That's why they're going to wait for 4G. It will be constantly connected to your home computer, which will do all the computing and only the images and the input will have to be streamed back and forth. 4G makes live HD viedeo streaming possible, so the processing power of this tablet thingy can be minimal.
Sure, it'll cost you less than 500$ - but you will have to get an exclusive ATT 4G contract for something around 100$ a month with it.
Nevertheless, I'd love it.
Sure, it'll cost you less than 500$ - but you will have to get an exclusive ATT 4G contract for something around 100$ a month with it.
Nevertheless, I'd love it.
That looks to me (and the market droid's words agree with me) that it has a separation/seam in the _backlight_, not in the OLED display itself. The display itself has no seam that would interfere with a stylus, for example. Just a visual darkspot that's only really noticeable during the more extreme parts of the fold, and barely noticeable at most angles shown when fully flat.
I think that video supports what I said far more than it supports what you said.
I Pod with a book reader
Not a tablet PC. PC's just don't work at this scale, and anyway you have your laptop so why carry something else?
I think this will be a Book reader internet browser based on the ipod touch and itunes for literature downloads, Magazines newspapers and Novels tied in to itunes
Not a tablet PC. PC's just don't work at this scale, and anyway you have your laptop so why carry something else?
I think this will be a Book reader internet browser based on the ipod touch and itunes for literature downloads, Magazines newspapers and Novels tied in to itunes
Like the original article for this thread says, it's supposed to have an OS that is between the iPT/iPhone OSX and the desktop OS X; a "third" version of OS X. I think that does include possibility of "a tablet PC", if it's able to run desktop OS X applications.
I'm sure that it will include ebook functionality, especially since there's already an Amazon ebook app on the iPhone/iPT. So, it might be handled via Amazon, or it might be handled via iTunes. But I doubt that will be the only thing (along with screen size) that distinguishes it from an iPhone/iPT.
I expect that the deciding factor will be whether it's an ARM or an Atom CPU. The Cocoa libraries already have (or had, back in the later NeXT era) the ability to use 1 code base on multiple GUI's ... the OO polymorphism extended into a Windows menu system vs a NeXT menu system, and so on. You could create optimized versions of your GUI for each platform, but you could also forgo that (if you were willing to put up with minor artifacts).
I would be surprised if an Atom based Apple tablet, even if it had a 3rd GUI that's in between the desktop and iPhone GUI's, was incapable of similarly "doing the right thing" in displaying a desktop OS X app on such a tablet in a manner that conforms to the tablet's GUI. It may also be able to emulate the much slower ARM CPU at a fast enough speed that it can run iPhone/iPT apps, as well.
But if it's an ARM based tablet, I don't think you could emulate the x86 CPU fast enough for it to run desktop OS X apps. That would seem to indicate that it will just be a larger iPhone/iPT that is mainly just adding e-reader capabilities to the product line.
Obviously, I'm hoping for the former (more than just an e-reader in the iPhone family, an "Apple Tablet PC") ... but I can sort of see the logic behind Apple only doing the latter (just an Apple ebook). I'd definitely buy the "Apple Tablet PC" type. But, would I be likely to buy the "just an Apple ebook"?
It depends ... my needs don't require that I can run actual OS X desktop apps, but they do require that I can do things I can't currently do on the iPT/iPhone. Will it have at least one USB port, for attaching a real keyboard and maybe a mouse? And/or a bluetooth HID profile for bluetooth keyboards and mice? Will it have some form of video-out (pref. a micro version of the Apple display port)? Or, in lieu of those, can it act as some form of remote desktop server (actual Apple Remote Desktop, or as a VNC server)? An SSH app (that can run both with a virtual keyboard, and without it, and in both cases displaying an 80x24 terminal)? A true desktop quality web browser (not limiting you to just the iPhone version of web pages, supporting flash, etc.)? Will it be able to run real IM applications, and similar apps with persistent background processes? And what type of WWAN capability will it have (integrated into the "motherboard"? USB dongle? Express Card? PCI-Express-Mini card? Bluetooth tethering? none of the above, just Wifi?)? The answers to those questions would determine whether or not I'd buy the device.
(actually, those questions would apply to both versions of the device, I'm just rather sure that if it's able to run desktop OS X apps, it will be able to deliver enough of those questions that I'd be willing to buy it)
hiimamac
macrumors 6502a
Can we all agree that this may be a really great product from Apple but at the same time, they are in a spot.
You see, the Air is quite a bit over priced (for what it is), the Macbook is, well, priced okay, so therefore there is the possible rebranding.
That said, can we all agree that Apple is missing a very large segment?
It's the midrange headless Mac, first, the Mac Pro uses Server Parts, and this alone makes it higher priced which is why many will say, price out a DELL and see that Apple is cheaper, what many fail to get is that most companies make a enthusiast machine with NON SERVER parts, selling for $1200-$1500, using i7 cores.
Apple doesn't have a mid range product and partially, I think that if they did, tech sites would compare chip to chip, with most PC's having a better GPU and Apple would not look so good.
At the same time, there is no desktop solution. The iMac is not upgradable, it uses all MOBILE parts, and comes with a mandatory glossy screen.
Gamers and more importantly, audio/video PROSUMERS are a very large market segment and most do not have $3000 to shell out just in order to record audio or render some video. The iMac simply will not suffice.
Frankly, while a tablet might be nice, I would rather see a $1100-$1400 headless 4-8 core Mac with options to use any GPU you want, and 8 GB of RAM, non seated, specialized, Apple Ram, no thanks.
They're also too big. The spot they're missing on the mobile side of the market (where the rest of your post goes on to talk about the non-mobile side of the market) is the middle range/"ultra" mobile devices: bigger than a pocketable, smaller than a laptop. This is the realm of UMPCs and netbooks. Apple simply doesn't have any devices that fit into that category, and perform the tasks of that category.
Sure, the iPT and iPhone are great pocketables, amazing even. But they're not suited for doing the things I do on my Samsung Q1 Ultra, nor Dell Mini-9/Vostro-A90. The iPT/iPhone screens are too small, they lack an ability to utilize full size keyboards, etc. Pocketables are a different segment from the ultra-mobiles. My Samsung and Dell aren't a substitute for a good pocketable, nor is a pocketable a good substitute for my Samsung or Dell.
Where the iPT and iPhone are too small, the MacBook and MBA have a footprint that is just plain too big. The MBA is light and thin, but it's about 2x as big, footprint wise, as the devices in the ultra-mobile category. For example, if I wanted to wear a fannypack (if I was the type who does), I could easily put my desktop OS running Samsung into the fannypack. You can't do that with an MBA.
And, when I want a larger screen and keyboard than my samsung or dell provide, I can hook them up to a KVM switch and just start using them ... not so with the iPT/iPhone. That's the degree to which the ultra-mobiles MUCH more mobile and flexible than an MBA or iPT/iPhone. Size wise, the ultra-mobiles give you a level of flexibility and mobility that the Apple devices just don't offer.
So, even if you're not looking at cheap (because the UMPC systems tended to be closer to the price of an MBA anyway), the thing you HAVE to consider for this market segment is the overall size ... not just light and thin, but the length x width footprint. And, Apple just doesn't have a device that fits into this range, at all.
Eric S.
macrumors 68040
I just don't see Apple building that sort of device, or more accurately building something for you, not that there is anything wrong with what you want or indeed you, Apple simply don't build stuff just because they can or because its cool technology. they build stuff that does stuff, ipod is a music player and music store, iphone is a phone and generates call revenue, Mac is personal computer.
I don't see a Mac without a keyboard has got any serious use? why not just use your laptop? it does everything you want plus it has a keyboard?
As I see it Apple will be eying the reader market and thinking with their resources, commercial, technological and IP they can do a much more desirable product, and build in the commercial opportunity of sales through itunes, an ipod for books if you will. This is a device you might see at airports being carried in addition to a Phone and a laptop, because you have to have those anyway right? That said I would see this as an ipod ARM product rather than intel, but the real drivers will be battery life and how thin they can make it.
Im sure from Apple's point of view its just a matter of a compiler switch, but as they are increasingly control freaks, the ipod "nailed down" flavor of OSX is most likely
And iTunes is on the road to becoming bigger in itself than the OS it was born on... Nope, not good imho. If that's the case then make us a small music player for our music only so we don't have to use the whole mega-lo-don "windows media player like"-thing it will become.
I still don't see the big deal with these tablets. I've seen some pictures people threw together with Photoshop, the ideas of it look good. They just don't seem efficient. Typing on a 10" touch screen seems like it would pain in the ass. The iPhone gets really annoying to type on sometimes, but I can deal with that. Now a 10" tablet? It might be a bit more portable than a MacBook and do a lot more than an iPhone but most likely less than a MacBook. Doesn't seem like a good idea to me. On top of that, people are talking about an external keyboard for them?!?! I REALLY REALLY do not get why you would want that when a notebook could do the job so much better.
Whatever Apple's stated reasons for avoiding the cheap netbook space, delays on a pricey tablet are probably at least as much driven by economic forecasting.
An optimistic bet is Spring 2010 brings a lift from the recession. Good timing for rolling out a $700 tablet, when what post-affluent Americans now can afford is devices for less than half that much.
Recovery won't be V-shaped, however. Even if some abstruse data show the recession waning, nine months from now Americans will be looking back on 2009 as a rosy period. Foreclosed, unemployed and no longer given easy credit, the American street will be focused on much more pressing matters than tablets. Trouble financing Big Macs, let alone Macs, is in the cards for the near future.
If the device is nearly ready, best to hurry to market. There's still a lot of consumer credit available and Apple stores open for people to see it.
An optimistic bet is Spring 2010 brings a lift from the recession. Good timing for rolling out a $700 tablet, when what post-affluent Americans now can afford is devices for less than half that much.
Recovery won't be V-shaped, however. Even if some abstruse data show the recession waning, nine months from now Americans will be looking back on 2009 as a rosy period. Foreclosed, unemployed and no longer given easy credit, the American street will be focused on much more pressing matters than tablets. Trouble financing Big Macs, let alone Macs, is in the cards for the near future.
If the device is nearly ready, best to hurry to market. There's still a lot of consumer credit available and Apple stores open for people to see it.
This is simply one of the most reasonable and wiser posts that I've read on MR. Refreshing view as well. Thank you, my friend! 🙂