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Apple Tablet Scheduled to Begin Shipping in March? Two Different Material Casings Being Considered?

napabar said:
Dude, seriously.

A Macbook already costs $999. Why would you think one with a touch screen would cost less?

An iPod Touch maxes out at $399. Even if this thing was nothing else but an iPod touch with a 10 inch screen, why do you think it would be the same price?

Dude, seriously....
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I'm thinking that we will get the first adopter tax and pay about 1k for it. It will have the amazing new whatever it will have that will get us to buy it. That is if you are the first adopter personality type. I am and I always pay the tax but it is worth it for me.

It will drop by 20% after 6m-1yr and probably get a revision. But it will be great and get you things that you didn't know you wanted. That is how apple works.
 
im shooting for a $400 price tag to $500 max. They want this in the hands of as many people as possible. Wheres the "guess the price point contest forum"? :)
 
Why not have both an e-ink and color display?

I know this is probably not going to happen but they do have a transparent OLED display that has been made. They could get one of those on top of an e-ink display so for books you still have the "You can red it in any light without hurting your eye's" feature but still has an amazing screen for all of the other media that it would need to display.

Since the OLED display is so thin it won't effect the thickness of the device hardly at all.
Azmordean said:
It will be too big to fit in a pocket, it will EITHER be black and white, which kills it's usefulness as a media device OR not be e-ink, which kills it's usefulness as an e-reader. It will not have a keyboard, so any kind of text processing (IM, word processing, etc) will be a pointless endeavor.
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My 2¢
 
thegoldenmackid said:
For $1,000 - I'll pass.
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We don't even know the specs (or the actual price point). How can you say you won't pay a certain price when you don't know what the product is going to be? The closer it is to $1000, the more it will do. Lower price=fewer features. This one may be less about straight data features and more about bundled subscriptions. NYTimes, ABC(TV), Warner(Movies) package for two years equals a lower price. I do agree that there is a point of diminishing returns on price/features, but lets wait and see the deal first.


crobi said:
Ok a tablet, I think we know there will be a tablet soon, fine.

But what about a new

Apple TV ???? :confused:
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Get a new mini and an EyeTV 250Plus. All the features of Apple TV with a whole OS X system to boot. Apple would be smart to merge the Mini and Apple TV and add a tuner in for good measure. No one out there would be able to compete. They can have it switchable from simple GUI like Apple TV for the newbies and full blown OSX for all the rest of us. Winner.
 
Ljohnson72 said:
The iPhone was how much when it first came out? Anywhere near $1000, the tablet will sell fine for Apple. It's a computer.
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We really don't know what it is yet. A $1,000 computer tablet might sell - still fighting against a bad economy. A $1,000 media tablet definitely will not.

As for the iPhone is was $599 when it came out but Apple had to reduce the price to $399 two months later to get it to actually sell beyond the committed Apple fan base. However, people need a cell phone -- for many it's their ONLY phone so the high price easier to justify. OTOH People don't necessarily need a tablet so it will be interesting what Apple does to make 10M people think they must have one.
 
Chupa Chupa said:
We really don't know what it is yet. A $1,000 computer tablet might sell - still fighting against a bad economy. A $1,000 media tablet definitely will not.

As for the iPhone is was $599 when it came out but Apple had to reduce the price to $399 two months later to get it to actually sell beyond the committed Apple fan base. However, people need a cell phone -- for many it's their ONLY phone so the high price easier to justify. OTOH People don't necessarily need a tablet so it will be interesting what Apple does to make 10M people think they must have one.
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I agree completely. For $1000 it had better be an actual computer and not a slightly more powerful iPhone OS. I'm willing to give Apple the benefit of the doubt sincethey are the only ones in this industry that can really surprise you.
 
90%

ArrowSmith said:
It's amazing how Steve Jobs has most of you by the short hairs. :apple:
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That would be truer if it were said to Ballmer... where 90% of desktops are Windows... But Jobsy is Mister 10% of desktops...

On the other hand he's a bit of a media mogul in a truer sense in that this might funnel a huge amount of the worlds media content through Apple's platform.
 
$500 range or it better be totally revolutionary and run full OSX. I already have a 10.1 netbook running 10.6.2 with all the applications installed that I currently have on my MBP and iMac. The Netbook only cost me $269 with wireless N, bluetooth, and 160gb HD. So this tablet better be something special.
 
The unsubsidised price can't be lower than an iPod Touch and will probably be lower than a basic MacBook. Only reaching the price of a MacBook if it's so innovative that it can be a notebook replacement.

People imagining very low prices have :

-no idea how low the USD is currently trading
-a netbook-twisted view of things.

A large touch screen with a very good multitouch technology, a large ecosystem, a good build-quality, a large autonomy and an innovative GUI can't simply be priced by weight. i.e. the Lemur, a 12" multitouch control surface (not a computer) with a not so fluid interface, costs around $2000.

The other solution will be to go for a Chrome tablet which an anticlimax OS/GUI that Google will be happy to sell at nearly zero margin as long as you accept to be part of their data-mining scheme.

Apple knows a thing or two about marketing. If they ship it at $1000, they will have something worth showing. Won't be a simple PMP.
 
GQB said:
Exactly what part of the immutable technology lifecycle don't people get?
If this thing turns out to be half of what's expected of it, then its a significant shift in how we approach computing.
Any time that sort of change occurs, the initial offerings are by nature expensive luxuries. And then they come down in price.
I fully expect the initial price point to be $1k and work down from there over the next couple of years.
That's ALWAYS how it works. Expecting otherwise is childish.
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This came up a few pages back, but it's worth quoting. In 4 years time people will be pissed that the $1000 32GB iSlate can now be got for $599 (although the 256GB version is still $1000).

Bear Hunter said:
$500 range or it better be totally revolutionary and run full OSX. I already have a 10.1 netbook running 10.6.2 with all the applications installed that I currently have on my MBP and iMac. The Netbook only cost me $269 with wireless N, bluetooth, and 160gb HD. So this tablet better be something special.
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So you'd like it to be cheaper then the iTouch, just bigger. Not going to happen, sorry.
 
AnthonyCM said:
Is $1,000 really that much (not that I don't want it cheaper!)?

A Kindle, which is only B&W has no video capabilities (among many other things it lacks) is over $300, and that's a huge seller. For a reader! Supposedly, the iSlate (or whatever it's called) will be a reader, a video player, a gaming tablet, has the potential to sub as a netbook, etc. You're looking at $700-$800 for a decent netbook and a Kindle. I'd rather have it all in one and not have two things to carry around when I travel.

No, it certainly won't be for everyone. Might not even be for me. However, I can see there being a market for this.
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But Kindle also includes life-long mobile subscription. That should cost something.
 
akadmon said:
I would pay no more than $700 for this thing IF it had a color e-ink screen with crazy fast refresh rate. Not gonna happen since, AFIK, such a screen does not exist...
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NightFox said:
Trouble is, it's the e-ink which is the "killer feature" of a true reader, immature as the technology may be. I don't see how any device that features a traditional backlit screen can compete...
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A good point - - and an interesting coincidence, being that I happened to hear a news story about the new Google cellphone (comparing its battery life to the iPhone), then an iSlate rumor story and thinking about how lousy the display is on my RIM Blackberry in daylight ... and batteries again ... and then realized that the Citizen "ECO Drive" wristwatch that my wife gave me last year has a solar panel built into the watchface.

...which brought me to those solar powered calculators.

Thus:

Since daytime readability of a tablet is a common need, as well as good battery life and so forth, what about making the background panel of a tablet a solar panel with which to help power it during "typical" use?

Sure, there's lots of issues to work out, but at first blush, it kind of sounds insane enough to be insanely great. Afterall, if we think about the things we normally read, the majority of the real estate is "white space", not the actual pixels of the letters on the page.


-hh
 
sampro said:
ya me too, at $1,000 no one will buy it, stocks will go down at that price and apple will loose money...
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Wow nice generalizing there.

I'm expecting it to be 900-1000 and I WOULD buy it, as will many many others. Apple will not 'lose' money despite being 'loose'....
 
pricing, etc...

It will start at $599 and go up to $899, depending on how much memory you want.
The two different casing materials discussed.... one is white and one is black - just like the iPhone. This pricing will include a basic stand and charger. Look for several aftermarket stands ("frames") that will allow you to place this on a table or desk.
 
bobob said:
Aluminum and... actual slate?

SlateUSGOV.jpg
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I see what you did there (iSlate in slate!)
 
If it has 3G

Thinking about it, I'll take $1,000 and no 2 year cell contract as opposed to $599 and a 2 year contract.
 
Bear Hunter said:
$500 range or it better be totally revolutionary and run full OSX. I already have a 10.1 netbook running 10.6.2 with all the applications installed that I currently have on my MBP and iMac. The Netbook only cost me $269 with wireless N, bluetooth, and 160gb HD. So this tablet better be something special.
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Every Apple product is totally revolutionary (wait for the announcement). As far as price is concerned, we just had a real estate bubble which produced new word: McMansion. If this Apple product (at $1000) fails, MacTablet may become the McMansion of this hype.
 
With all the iSlate news I figured now would be a perfect time for me to join the site! I've been lurking this site for about a year now. :cool:

I'm a bit sad that it will probably cost $1000. But at the same time I have to wait and see before I say "That's too much!" It could be something really cool that will be worth the price. Only way I would think that $1000 would be "too much" is if it's a big iPod Touch... And more then likely it'll be something we didn't see coming! :D

The March release date sounds perfect to me. It's not too soon and it's not too long!
 
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