Love the design of the tablet itself (It's a simple front; that's all we need), love the throwback to the G4, but I don't think that stand would ever happen.
Oh, and 16:10.
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Steve Jobs Almost Entirely Focused on Tablet Project?
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Love the design of the tablet itself (It's a simple front; that's all we need), love the throwback to the G4, but I don't think that stand would ever happen.
Oh, and 16:10.
That may have been true a few years back but IMHO I suspect changes SJ could be making, with modern production techniques, can be implements amazingly quickly these days.
This gets me thinking. Remember back around the time the first iMac was launched, Jobs got up and showed the matrix of only four computing products: high/low end and I think desktop/laptop. So on the desktop you had the iMac and the Mac Pro. Later the Mac mini which is a (BYOM) headless iMac really. That's it.
But we seem to be in the midst of a (comparative) explosion of mobile computing devices from Apple. With a tablet, you'll have the following line up: iPod touch, iPhone, iTablet, MB, MBP 13, MPB 15, MBP 17, MBA. That's a lot of products, and especially around the middle, quite a muddier differentiation than we are used to see from Apple. Especially when they still cling so rigidly to the simple 2/3 model "desktop" line.
OK so desktops are yesterday's news and only (us?) enthusiasts need/want the fabled mid tower (or at least something without a laptop chipset but that doesn't cost the earth).
But the question remains, if Apple releases a tablet, does this signal a shift in policy from trying to pigeon hole us into four boxes, to one of fine market segmentation ala Nokia or maybe Dell. (Could be bad examples, but they come to mind).
A further question is whether that situation would be allowed to remain. Specifically, with a tablet, would Apple discontinue the old white MB (an easy prediction since it will obviously occur naturally anyway at some point), or even the MBA? In the case of the latter that will depend somewhat on whether the tablet has a full blown OSX. I don't think that is likely, and so the MBA can remain.
Just to throw in my 2 cents worth -
1) I really don't think introducing the new device before Christmas is a big deal to Apple. Apple looks at things more from the long-term. They are going to introduce it when they are ready and not a minute before. Plus it will not be introduced at CES. Apple loves to control everything there is around their product introductions. You can bet this will be a huge event.
2) Whatever they do you can bet it is going to leverage the iTunes store especially Apps and Videos. So to me that would point towards some variant of the iPhone OS rather than OS X. Apple is looking to market this device to a whole new audience and making it easy and simple to use is going to be at the top of their list. There is no easier way to purchase applications than thru the App Store. What I'm envisioning is a multi-tasking, multi-window version of iPhone OS. Folks hoping for OS X are going to be sadly disappointed IMO. Also, I think watching videos and playing games will be a huge selling point.
Personally I am very excited about this new device regardless of which OS it runs. I don't have a laptop because the MacBooks to me are just too expensive, but I'd spend $600-700 for a Tablet in a heartbeat.
1) I really don't think introducing the new device before Christmas is a big deal to Apple. Apple looks at things more from the long-term. They are going to introduce it when they are ready and not a minute before. Plus it will not be introduced at CES. Apple loves to control everything there is around their product introductions. You can bet this will be a huge event.
2) Whatever they do you can bet it is going to leverage the iTunes store especially Apps and Videos. So to me that would point towards some variant of the iPhone OS rather than OS X. Apple is looking to market this device to a whole new audience and making it easy and simple to use is going to be at the top of their list. There is no easier way to purchase applications than thru the App Store. What I'm envisioning is a multi-tasking, multi-window version of iPhone OS. Folks hoping for OS X are going to be sadly disappointed IMO. Also, I think watching videos and playing games will be a huge selling point.
Personally I am very excited about this new device regardless of which OS it runs. I don't have a laptop because the MacBooks to me are just too expensive, but I'd spend $600-700 for a Tablet in a heartbeat.
I don't understand why people are finding it so hard to imagine where a Tablet device could fit into Apple's line-up. Netbooks are exploding in popularity. Combine that with a quality multi-touch interface and they're set. I think the key is looking at what Netbooks can do and then looking at how a multi-touch interface could improve that. As it stands, nobody uses a Netbook for great deals of typing or power-hungry applications. They're used sparingly for those things, like typing up university lecture notes, checking email and watching video. There's no reason Apple can't make a pretty massive leap above that functionality.
Think of it this way. You read the the paper online (via 3G/wi-fi) over breakfast. You catch a train to work while listening to music or watching video. You give a presentation at work directly from the Tablet, annotating your Powerpoint slides on the fly with a stylus directly onto the Tablet's surface. After your presentation you have a meeting, where everyone brainstorms their ideas together, sharing their ideas instantaneously and wirelessly between Tablets with a kind of virtual whiteboard. Over lunch you read a book and check your e-mail, using a virtual keyboard or handwriting/speech recognition. On the way home from work you're bored so you use your stylus to sketch the view out the train window. And then when you go to bed you watch a movie before going to sleep.
The whole point is that Jobs evidently sees the Tablet in a similar way to the iPhone. Quibbling over specs or OS or an App Store misses the big picture - any Tablet is obviously aimed at becoming a Lifestyle Product in the same way that the iPhone has become one. There were smart phones around before the iPhone, and most perform individual functions better than the iPhone, but the iPhone is as popular as it is because Apple decided that it would do its own thing. I don't think there's any way that a Tablet will be just a smaller, underpowered Macbook, or just a bigger iPhone. It may have some functions of each, but it'll be built from the ground up, and it'll carve out its own market. Whether you can already do all the things I hypothetically listed, or even whether you'd want to do those things, is almost irrelevant.
Think of it this way. You read the the paper online (via 3G/wi-fi) over breakfast. You catch a train to work while listening to music or watching video. You give a presentation at work directly from the Tablet, annotating your Powerpoint slides on the fly with a stylus directly onto the Tablet's surface. After your presentation you have a meeting, where everyone brainstorms their ideas together, sharing their ideas instantaneously and wirelessly between Tablets with a kind of virtual whiteboard. Over lunch you read a book and check your e-mail, using a virtual keyboard or handwriting/speech recognition. On the way home from work you're bored so you use your stylus to sketch the view out the train window. And then when you go to bed you watch a movie before going to sleep.
The whole point is that Jobs evidently sees the Tablet in a similar way to the iPhone. Quibbling over specs or OS or an App Store misses the big picture - any Tablet is obviously aimed at becoming a Lifestyle Product in the same way that the iPhone has become one. There were smart phones around before the iPhone, and most perform individual functions better than the iPhone, but the iPhone is as popular as it is because Apple decided that it would do its own thing. I don't think there's any way that a Tablet will be just a smaller, underpowered Macbook, or just a bigger iPhone. It may have some functions of each, but it'll be built from the ground up, and it'll carve out its own market. Whether you can already do all the things I hypothetically listed, or even whether you'd want to do those things, is almost irrelevant.
I want a tablet with 3G, needs to have a full OS though, no iPhone OS nonsense. Personally I'll be disappointed if we don't get an OS X Tablet. I won't even consider anything less, I already have an iPhone, why would I want a larger one..
Netbook sales data must really be gnawing at Jobs and company...
Highly doubtful.
Netbook sales data must really be gnawing at Jobs and company...
netbooks are just a flick for people....sure they were cool when they came out...now there just turning them right back into laptops....11.6" acer now...might as well be a laptop with a crappy cpu.
netbooks are nothing special.
Netbook sales data must really be gnawing at Jobs and company...
Why?
For all that is written about Jobs, Inc. I think a lot of people have no idea how the guy operates.
Seriously. If he has dismissed Netbooks as unfeasible then no amount of evidence to the contrary would swing him.
I doubt Apple's lack of a netbook is gnawing away at him.
His board of directors on the other hand, well they may be having doubts.
When I look at where Netbooks are heading I realise just how good the MacBook Air is. Just a shame that it is so expensive. Seems to me that weight and thickness are the main barriers to portability rather than face area.
The word 'Delayed' implies that this product exists or has been announced. Fact is, this products doesn't exist until Apple tells us it does. Analysts can guess all they want but come on...
Stop creaming your pants over something that isn't here, or might not ever be here. I am very hopeful that a mac tablet does come to fruition so I can stare at its beauty and wish that i could afford it, but WISH ON PEOPLE!
Why?
For all that is written about Jobs, Inc. I think a lot of people have no idea how the guy operates.
Seriously. If he has dismissed Netbooks as unfeasible then no amount of evidence to the contrary would swing him.
I doubt Apple's lack of a netbook is gnawing away at him.
His board of directors on the other hand, well they may be having doubts.
Not only that, but Apple goes for the high-margin products, which Netbooks are not. They have their place--I have one and it's very convenient for some uses. I think if Apple did get into that market, it would do something differently with them.
That, if nothing else, would make it worthwhile for me. A tablet device running Photoshop would allow on-screen stylus manipulation, like a Wacom Cintique.
But that's a niche market. Otherwise, I agree with you that there'd have to be something more compelling than just the iJobs mediahype and iFanboi swooning to make such a device appealing to a broad spectrum of customers.
rtdunham said:
Point taken. Because the WSJ article said "particularly with regard to the product's advertising and marketing strategy..." I jumped to the conclusion we were in the second stage of marketing you refer to above: "...and THEN after the device is designed..." when they think about how to market/advertise/sell it.
That assumes the product has been designed. Is that the way you interpret the journal article? And if so (to go back to one of my 4 questions) are we to conclude Jobs was not intimately involved in the product design, but only now (since June) in the marketing/advertising phase?
I'd rather have his input on design than on post-design mktg and advtg. And I think if it's that second-stage marketing & advertising phase that he's now involved in, the product is going to appear sooner than later. If it's the product design stage (but remember we're talking about revisions to a product that's apparently been designed several times since 2000, so we might be talking mere revisions, OR a complete do-over!) then i don't think we'll see it til sometime in 2010.
That's IF the product even exists.
talk about cutting up my post into sections and taking it out of context...
the meaning behind my last sentence is marketing for this Christmas will be all about the iphone and why would apple through a whole new product into that marketing mix.
and i do remember you don't have exactly the best track record of guessing if rumors turn out to be true or false (other posts have demonstrated this in other threads quite nicely way back when) so I'm not sure why you are so quick to try to prove others wrong and come across as if you "know" the truth. unless thats how you get your giggles.
But why? There will be computer upgrades before the end of the year, so that is what will be on the front page.
Because they're Apple, they'll do whatever they want, and everyone wants something new and shiny for Christmas. A new product would sell better than a six month old iPhone.
Let's see... newest Mac Mini and disbelief of launch date of BTS. I now know to trust Mr. X.
I'm sure we will see some posts in the vain of:
Fanboy #1: "Damn that Snow Leopard Box is Ugly"
Fanboy #2: "Yeah, they must have rushed it out while Steve was taking a dump, he couldn't have been involved with that"
Vein. Sounds the same, spelled differently. Graag Gedaan.
The article is largely supposition, including when Jobs was involved with the project. And the iPhone final prototypes were trashed and the UI redesigned at Jobs insistence just before they were to introduce it the first time (which didn't happen, obviously). So "jarring" is nothing new, except to journalists.
I said I would never post speculation of the tablet ever again unless I started hearing some fact as to its actual development. Well here we go lol. I want full OSX, no watered down stuff there Steve. Needs the ability to run apps like AI, and PS ! It also needs the most awesome of awesome sensitivity in response to a specially made Apple stylus, so that one could design and edit on the fly. Also heavy video editing capability. A small usb on the side and obviously Processing power is a must. I'm asking for a lot I know . . or am I ? C'mon Steve let's go.
I hope this thing comes out.
I can't take a whole year (or 2) of mock ups, "what's inside?", what OS, who is gonna buy it?
Let me answer all of these. It's gonna look like apple product, guts, probably a hybrid OS, I am, you are and that means everyone else will want one.
Yes, I am a fanbois!
I can't take a whole year (or 2) of mock ups, "what's inside?", what OS, who is gonna buy it?
Let me answer all of these. It's gonna look like apple product, guts, probably a hybrid OS, I am, you are and that means everyone else will want one.
Yes, I am a fanbois!
As far as I'm concerned this thing must have a proper keyboard.
Typing on glass keyboard is fine for organisation stuff like typing details of an appointment or contact details, or even a short email - but once we get into the territory of a netbook size, it's implied that this little machine can be used for serious work, e.g. writing or editing a business document. For that we need a proper keyboard, not some glass imagine. Therefore the reference to a "tablet" scares me somewhat, and all those fake images of blown-up iPhones likewise, because it implies Apple has thrown out the keyboard in favor of a glass software keypad.
Typing on glass keyboard is fine for organisation stuff like typing details of an appointment or contact details, or even a short email - but once we get into the territory of a netbook size, it's implied that this little machine can be used for serious work, e.g. writing or editing a business document. For that we need a proper keyboard, not some glass imagine. Therefore the reference to a "tablet" scares me somewhat, and all those fake images of blown-up iPhones likewise, because it implies Apple has thrown out the keyboard in favor of a glass software keypad.