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Jobs "Extremely Happy" with Upcoming Apple Tablet and a Surprise?

Would be nice, but...

Numfar said:
I strongly believe that Apple is about to re-invent how we view the keyboard, and how we type/input information into our devices. B
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People have been trying for years to get us away from the qwerty keyboard. I believe it was designed more for keeping the mechanical strikers from jamming up by keeping commonly used letters mechanically separated, rather than to make typing easier for your brain and fingers. Sadly, we are so committed to this inferior system that it challenges all the better possible methods merely for the sake of familiarity over efficacy. Sounds a lot like why most people still use the inferior Microsoft OS over that of Apple (I'm such a fanboy).
 
MacPhilosopher said:
... The eye scans around constantly ...
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So, that would be exactly how you could implement the UI. The user would learn to firmly fix their gaze upon a point, which the gaze-scanner would debounce to interpret as "touching the cursor", as it were. Yes, the idea is a little far-fetched for the likely scale of the device in question, but it is a possibility.

It seems likely that Apple will try to define the market space for this product. The KindleNook space is already defined and adequately served, Apple will not be trying to acquire that specific avenue, though it will probably be a portion of their target.

Those of us who are hoping for a serious computer in this space initially will probably be disappointed. This thing will likely start out somewhat toy-ish, but eventually it may creep into serious application space.

What can you do with a tablet? I would say it will be portable in a way the a hinged object is not. You might take your notebook into the "reading room" or onto the back porch, but mostly not because of the awkwardness. A good tablet could be used just about anywhere because it is (should be) a little less fragile than a notebook.

Remember, your own needs do not define a market. A fair bit of the time, a market is defined by a product rather than the reverse.
 
hitekalex said:
Believe it or not, I would seriously consider replacing my iPhone with a 7" screen (but still highly portable) device. 98% of the time, I use my iPhone as "data tablet".. and maybe 2% for making phone calls. 7" screen can do wonders to data/Internet usability, as compared to iPhone 480x320 resolution.. And I could potentially live with making my occasional calls via BT headset.

Unfortunately.. I do not believe the upcoming Tablet will have 3G data/phone capabilities, at least initially. It will be WiFi device only, which will make it unsuitable as an iPhone replacement.
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Yes. But note that iPod Touch sales are of the same range of magnitude as the iPhone sales. And my guess is that the current market for a "jumbo" iPod-Touch-like tablet might be larger the market for a "jumbo" iPhone (due the data plan rates and carrier lock-in issues).
 
Unless it's brain surgery...

It'll be speech;
proper, intuitive, just-works voice input.
They've been heading there for a while,
and touch is <s>nailed</s> Appled.
Speech is next.
:eek:
Surprising, eh?
 
Lets think of a couple of ways you could enter data on a tablet.

1. Type it (like on the iPod Touch keyboard, or 'a new tech keyboard') holographic keyboard...
2. Voice (everyone talking in a word document in a cube farm is my nightmare)
3. Eye movements... look at the letter and it gets recorded on the screen

So you have fingers (stylus), Voice, Eye movements... (telepathic thought is a little too far out there) as the only entry methods I can imagine.

Can you think of any other ways to enter data on a tablet?
 
xlii said:
1. Type it (like on the iPod Touch keyboard, or 'a new tech keyboard') holographic keyboard...
2. Voice (everyone talking in a word document in a cube farm is my nightmare)
3. Eye movements... look at the letter and it gets recorded on the screen
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Handwriting is the other common input method.

Another future one is visual input. Just show the tablet's camera(s) something of interest. It forwards images to an optical recognition server, which gives back data on what you're looking at. (There are apps like this already.)
 
Not quite...

cmaier said:
Mostly urban legend.

http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=356
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The urban legend is that the layout was designed to slow down typist in order to avoid jamming. I don't believe that I made that inference in my comment. Your referenced article does not dispute the theory I presented that QWERTY was designed to avoid mechanical conflicts between typebars based on their placement. Rather, only that it was not designed to slow the speed of the typist. I only inferred that there are other better systems for input. Other research, as the article notes, shows that there is little difference between the Dvorak and QWERTY. I'll bet on the research, but do have a couple of friends that clock higher word rates on the Dvorak. I agree with the article author's point that for those of us already versed in QWERTY any small improvement found in other layouts is not likely worth the effort of retraining. Apple will have to do more than rearrange the keys to make a better input system.
 
LagunaSol said:
No way. Apple will never overcome 30 years of Microsoft brainwashing of IT personnel.

Cover the Apple logo with a piece of duct tape and give it some bogus nerd-esque name (Future Technologies Inc. Tablet 3000) and maybe it will have a chance.
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I think you're missing to see the point here. Apple could care less about the 30 years of Microsoft-using IT personnel. Apple is looking ahead at all of these young future IT specialists, business persons, CEOs, etc that have grown up on Apple products and have had a positive experience with them.

It will be these young people that will choose/push Apple products in the future for their businesses and the businesses that they work for.
 
iMouse said:
I think you're missing to see the point here. Apple could care less about the 30 years of Microsoft-using IT personnel. Apple is looking ahead at all of these young future IT specialists, business persons, CEOs, etc that have grown up on Apple products and have had a positive experience with them.

It will be these young people that will choose/push Apple products in the future for their businesses and the businesses that they work for.
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Bingo. Go to any college or university in the US and look at the laptops and electronics used by the students. MS should be terrified because they have completely lost the next generation of users.
 
Mactagonist said:
Bingo. Go to any college or university in the US and look at the laptops and electronics used by the students. MS should be terrified because they have completely lost the next generation of users.
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To Dell? Because that's the most used laptop used by the vast majority of students at the college my wife is dean at, and at the lawschool I recently graduated. (When I got my various engineering degrees, alas, no one had laptops - but we all had PCs, NeXT workstations, or the like. NeXT rulez. :) ).
 
Mactagonist said:
Bingo. Go to any college or university in the US and look at the laptops and electronics used by the students. MS should be terrified because they have completely lost the next generation of users.
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Well, these students are about to be surprised. When they join the work force they will have to learn how o use Windows. They can still keep the Macs at home though, as far as I am concerned, it's too annoying to have to use two different platforms.
 
lilo777 said:
Well, these students are about to be surprised. When they join the work force they will have to learn how o use Windows. They can still keep the Macs at home though, as far as I am concerned, it's too annoying to have to use two different platforms.
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Who doesn't know how to use Windows? These kids will be able to put pressure on the companies they run in the future.
 
cmaier said:
To Dell? Because that's the most used laptop used by the vast majority of students at the college my wife is dean at, and at the lawschool I recently graduated. (When I got my various engineering degrees, alas, no one had laptops - but we all had PCs, NeXT workstations, or the like. NeXT rulez. :) ).
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The Windows labs are packed full with lines while the Mac labs are empty.

I learned how to use OS X to avoid the lines in the Windows labs.
 
Will this thing run Snow Leopard? It has to do at least as much as my 9" Hackintosh for me to be even remotely interested.:D
 
Eidorian said:
The Windows labs are packed full with lines while the Mac labs are empty.

I learned how to use OS X to avoid the lines in the Windows labs.
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Lucky you.

The University I want to go too, it has labs fulled with everything. Macs, Linux, Windows, BSD, MINIX... oh yea NeXT. :D

Eidorian said:
The Windows labs are packed full with lines while the Mac labs are empty.

I learned how to use OS X to avoid the lines in the Windows labs.
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Was it as painful as the fanboys claim it to be?
 
Mactagonist said:
Bingo. Go to any college or university in the US and look at the laptops and electronics used by the students. MS should be terrified because they have completely lost the next generation of users.
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Nope, never will happen.

$'s.

And how long will it take for those next generation of users to filter up to a point in a corporation where they actually are involved in the decision making process?

Apple is still too expensive and too niche for the corporate world.

A Dell business class desktop is around $500, by the time you put it on the users desk possibly around 1K when you add up all the additional costs.

Who exactly will pay for this transition to a Mac? Who will justify the probable 4-5x expense not just in hardware but training?

It just won't happen no matter how much you want it to.

I've worked in companies at that level, there is always the Mac person in the room and they listen to them until we get to price, training, staffing changes, compatibility, and most importantly show upper management one single BUSINESS CASE where Apple made a difference.

The iPhone works because it doesn't really cost more than a BB, less IMO when you factor in RIM's costs, it integrates well into an existing infrastructure, and there is a small learning curve.

The tablet will do the same. I don't need a tablet to join a domain, but if it can RDP into a server for VDI then its a perfect product. It is a larger iPhone without the phone and I'm sure there will be added functionality.

Its a perfect tool. I can carry around all my manuals and documentation, I can demo our products via RDP, show video of our products, its interactive with the customer and I'm not passing a laptop around.

If I can take pictures and video with it all the better.

This really could be the perfect business tool.

What your asking for is OSx and Mac's to replace the business class desktop and it won't happen because the infrastructure is too big and already in place. Support costs are massive, sure you may think that the Mac is easier to run but that doesn't fix other problems. Connecting to what is already there, finding equivalent apps for every business need, connecting with customers and suppliers, etc...

Sure you can virtualize so now you goto your boss and say we can run Mac's and Windows. Then you have to tell him that the copy of Windows you got with the $500 PC is now going to cost you $279 by itself so you can virtualize it on the Mac, which by the way cost $1,500 and is there even a OEM pricing a volume pricing structure for Office?, good luck :)

SharePoint 2010 is going to be huge, SharePoint 2007 is already huge in the enterprise and with Office 2010's tight integration Mac's will be left further behind if they do not have it. Office 2010 for the Mac has been announced but we will have to see how tight the integration will be.

MS still holds all the cards because they can cherry pick features to be available on the Mac.
 
Mactagonist said:
Bingo. Go to any college or university in the US and look at the laptops and electronics used by the students. MS should be terrified because they have completely lost the next generation of users.
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Microsoft's discounts for education are exceptional. £30 for a copy of Windows, £40 for a full copy of Office. And prices usually translate on a £ to $ basis so I am assuming that its roughly the same in the US. Then if you are on a computer related course and your college is registered with MS Academic Alliance you can get almost the whole catalogue of Microsoft software for nothing. That includes Windows 7, Vista and XP in 32bit or 64 bit editions. Windows Server 2003 and 2008 and all the editions of those. Expression Studio, all editions. Visual Studio, all editions.

I finished my course but I made sure I got as much of that software as possible. Of course it must be for personal use only, but the course fees that I paid would be less than the value of the software.

I would also wonder at how many colleges offer courses to learn Objective C, or even have software thats Mac compatible. My cousin uses an ancient DOS program for his course. The Open University provides Mac versions of some of its software but not all.
 
Rocketman said:
Are you sitting down?

http://canesta.com/

Rocketman
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I still think gestural interfaces are not a good idea except when the computer is fixed in position (sitting on a desk, hanging on the wall, etc.). Try holding your iphone in your hand and making gestures with the other - aside from being inconvenient and looking dorky, it's less efficient than just touching the screen or waving the phone itself.
 
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