Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

What Will be the Killer Feature of an Apple Tablet?

jav6454 said:
Maybe its not the thought what will it do. Everyone thought of the iPhone as another phone with plausible iPod integration. No one ever imagined who truly powerful the iPhone ended up being.

This tablet may end up being exactly the same. We may guess what it can bring, and some of our guesses can end up right. While in the end we will get something we never thought of.

Just saying.... iPods, iPhones, MacBook Air..... list ca go on with things we thought were doomed to fail, yet are Apple's strongest.
Click to expand...

I see it as an evolution of the iPod Touch. As an iPod the classic and nano are better music players because you can operate them "eyes-free". iPhone is just right as a phone, but Touch is lacking a "hook". I have one an it didn't pass the "need me" test of staying in my crowded pockets. iPhone wins by default of being a phone for those that have it... and Apple has got them USING it more than any other smartphone on the net.

What would it take to get me to USE the Touch and not put it down. Start with what it WON'T have... it won't be a phone or have mobile internet as that would step on iPhone. Along the same thinking, camera and internal microphone will be limited or in some non-phone-friendly fashion... It won't run Atom because netbooks are power hogs compared to iPods or Touches... it won't backpedal on 20 hours of music play or 5 hours of video. It won't run OSX because Apple is moving forward to CUDA accelerated desktop and application interfaces with Snow Leopard. As that takes full 3D chips, Nvidia is the only mobile maker even close.. and Apple is moving to "roll it's own" starting ASAP. That means it will be iPhone OS based (3.0 apps already have to have "resolution independant" layouts.. and tied to the wildly successful App Store that's Apple's new baby.

My Touch nearly edged out my Acer Aspire One for the coveted "sofa surfing" position. The screen size of the Touch was just too small to be comfortable. Even a 9" AAO screen is pushing tired eyes. I agree with another poster that text input of some kind is the killer feature to nail. The other thing I use my AAO that Touch can't do now, is for is on-the-go camera downloads and light editing and printing. The ability to pop in SD cards and start uploading pictures from the park wifi would be the killer feature of Touch over iPhone. That would mean the ability to also make substantial blog posts or light web page editing while eating ice cream (not a coffee drinker). I think the current gen Touch hardware could go to "netbook" sized screens quite easily, the internal chipsets are rated more than high enough for the displays and with the increase in size you get free space for extra battery to compensate for the backlight.

As for pricing, I'd expect it to be about current netbook prices maybe $500 tops if they keep it simple. The $229 touch has Wifi, Bluetooth, etc now, and 9-10" screens are on $300 netbooks. I would see them leaving off the camera to hit the lower price point and keep the "touch" market segment.. after all a $229 touch versus a $299 netbook is already a weak deal so they can't go much higher. Keeping it "iPhone" OS builds the phone brand and doesn't weaken the notebook lines at all.
 
As much as I think the iphone is one of the best designed and most useful portable devices ever made, I don't see the point of this so-called tablet. I'd much rather have a very low cost, very thin laptop with a touchscreen, handwriting recognition, and a keyboard that can either be removed or (preferably) folded out of the way underneath when not needed. A pure tablet with ARM, no keyboard, iphone OS instead of MacOS, and >$500 I just don't see the point of. If the rumors are true, this thing looks like a dud unless Apple has some super trick up their sleeve that no one has thought of.

What I would REALLY rather have is just add mini-Finder app to the iphone and let third party apps access shared file storage and third party hardware vendors add foldable pocket keyboards and pocket projectors that can be accessed by all apps. That seems like something that could be done with just a point release (or less, just a new app) to iphone OS.
 
Hmm.. May be this is the birth of a true cloud computing client, built ground up. Native apps are stil fine but all the storage and higher level control and integration will be at the MobileMe like cloud level.
 
An iPhone + a TV/DVD player

Technically possible in sufficiently pleasing form? I don't know, but what if it had:

1. The "big" iPhone features: larger surface, touch screen, etc.
2. A DVD player
3. The ability to receive the now-digital TV signals
4. The size and (roughly) weight of a (former) MacBook screen without the keyboard.

That would do it. I'm sure there are a host of reasons why the above are "not" possible, but it would be a killer device.
 
arn said:
I disagree.

iPhone with mobile safari but no multi-touch -> still pretty awesome
iPhone with multi-touch but no mobile safari -> eh

arn
Click to expand...


but the multi-touch was a starter of another killer feature *Apps Store*
multi-touch helped developers to be more creative
 
i think you first have to consider, who would use a tablet, and for what purpose. rather than think of the cool new out of thin air feature that they might invent, think instead of what would you use a tablet for?

for apple, the strength has always been in the execution. for me, a tablet would be cool for:

  1. watching movies on the plane
  2. traveling and replying to emails/surfing (with a bluetooth or very portable keyboard)
  3. video chat

what applications would be really cool on a tablet?
  1. ifart really would not
  2. home automation would
 
Compile 'em all said:
The killer feature of the iPhone was its multitouch screen. Precise, responsive, and smooth. All other phones at the time had either clunky keyboards, or you had to use a stylus.

The iPhone didn't sell because of "Mobile Safari".
Click to expand...

I think I can agree with that as the killer FEATURE. Funny enough, Steve Jobs himself during the keynote said that the killer APP was the phone haha.

I for sure think that this tablet will have something up its sleeve in the WOW factor for sure or else Apple wouldn't have been slaving over it this many years.

Options could be:

-Heavy interaction with Apple TV.
-Mobile iWork.
-Mobile iLife.
-iChat video conferencing. (I could see this being on the tablet first then the iPhone later).
-Advanced Multi-Touch.
-Syncing with Mac Mini and other Macs as a remote/auxiliary display.
-HD screen, playback, etc.
-eBooks and eNewspapers.
-App Store.
-Car integration.
-Pico projector.
-3D.
-HDTV.
-DVR.
-Home automation.

Just some ideas. I'm excited to finally find out and have it revealed! :D
 
I could see this device as something handy for travelling and for general PC use.

ie. to take on a train or plain, with built in 3G modem. can watch movies etc. Even for video conferencing....again almost everything a macbook can do...just in a nice tablet form with touchscreen...and maybe gesture controls. needs basics such as wifi, usb, audio out and in, built in mic. DVD drive debeatable but really handy, and also thin design (hence no dvd). OS X would cover it all...just the intergration of good controls.

that would maybe make it a killer!

edit: another thought, A stand that would make it like a mini imac - attach or wireless KB an mouse to make it a useful PC.
 
Patent Filings Give great spectrum

Something no one seems to get... Who really needs a physical keyboard UNLESS your primary computer is a laptop? What? Your twitter requires more thought? Your facebook updates? Your email (just becoming extended texting) My iphone does all these just fine. I don't even use my desktop for anything unless its a GAME or if I want a larger screen for a website. Hmm... Larger screen....

Point being, If you have a desktop at work and home, this is EVERYONES second computer.

If you don't game (most ppl don't), and you don't do graphics or write novels (most ppl don't) why would you ever buy a laptop if you have a desktop??? Portability. This tablet will be even more Portable w/ same functions. This is Evolution, it just has to be done with some care and thought. Apple is super good at that.

Yes, ebooks will be huge on it. Yes, movies. I do hope it has some kind of easy reading setting like Kindle. I know a couple companies do have the tech to switch from LCD to e-ink on a dime, and they were shopping around silicon valley a couple years ago.
 
ztoon said:
I hope to see the following in the tablet:
1. ebook support with download directly from itunes(Amazon or Barnes and Nobles deal?).
2. support for HDTV to replace AppleTV. AppleTV will now become an App downloadable from the Appstore. it would make sence that it would only be an App for future release in iphones with HD support.
3. Music and video hub with better itunes user experience think of coverflow
4. runs iphone3.0 OS not OSX.
5. to compete with netbooks(and kindle)
6. posibility to use keyboard but not bundled.
7. multitouch screen of course
8. webcam and ichat.
9. bluetooth and wlan
10. 7 hours of batteri
11. unibody design
Click to expand...

I'm gonna go ahead and disagree with Tallest on this one...

1) Yes, but why directly from iTunes, why not the App Store? Amazon already has the Kindle App and Barnes & Noble's is on the way. Why recreate the wheel.
2) I don't think this thing will REPLACE AppleTV, but I think it will play movies and operate as a remote for AppleTV. High resolution, I would suspect, so close to HDTV.
3) Agree with Tallest on this, why recreate the wheel. iTunes for the iPhone/iPod touch are fine and with the greater screen space, they can do more for usability.
4) It will either run iPhone OS or a form of it. Mac OS X just DOESN'T make sense. Soooo many problems... see this thread to read some of them (https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/754080/)
5) Kindle, yes, obviously. Netbooks, yea, I guess, but it will be easier to use.
6) If this thing has bluetooth, then you could buy an Apple bluetooth keyboard. I realize that the iPhone has bluetooth, but no keyboard connectivity, but this thing is different.
7,8,9,10) Givens
11) Possibly not. If this thing is running iPhone OS and is kind of like a big iPod touch, why would they make it look and feel like a MacBook Pro?
 
I'm looking to go into the manpurse retail business for the metrosexual crowds. If you don't carry your iTablet in a fashionable manpurse, why bother to carry it at all. :D

This tablet rumor just seems so absurd. I enjoy Apple products immensely, but a tablet just seems that it would be awkward to use without using two hands. If you stopped reading it or whatever, I think a person would have a tendency to carry it like a newspaper in the hand and the grip would be all over the glass and always poised to slip away even if it had a rubberized back. I'm only looking at it from a commuter's viewpoint. The computing concept seems fine, it just the toting around part that sort of puzzles me. A custom-fitted see-through/touch-through case with a handle would ease some of my worries.

I've been trying to sit back and trying to visualize this tablet from all angles, but mostly based on those concept renderings. Maybe the tablet will look nothing like those. How thick or how heavy is it going to be? Who knows. Too many unknown factors to draw any worthwhile conclusions. :confused:
 
I'd think games. A gaming platform to laugh at the PSP and DS, plus play 720p HD. 3G service. All that on top of what the iPod Touch already does. Oh, and not cost more than $500.

What I can't get my head around is how are you going to type on this thing? Put it in your lap and hunch over? It's got to have a pop out stand w/ Bluetooth for a wireless keyboard to even catch the eye of netbook buyers.
 
ATNN (iTablet) (Apple Tablet Not nano) does not need a "killer ap" although it will have one just to extol the size specific virtues. It has the "Killer App Store" and also all the capacity of any Wintel PC, Intel OS, or even MacOS.

It lacks some common accessory and external and internal devices, all of which can be attached or emulated by dock. Even wifi/LTE dock. Even IP dock.

The new era is client-server, and an ATN (iPhone) and ATNN (iTablet/TBD) is by definition a "thick client", considering its dimension, resolution, local storage, local processing speed and I/O speed.

Rocketman
 
stainlessliquid said:
Easy: A good way to type

The worst thing about tablet pc's are their text input. Hand writing sucks, the on screen keyboards suck. Apple needs to make something that doesnt get in the way and is easy to type with.
Click to expand...

I agree. I also think choice of OS is the real key to this...

I really can't see a tablet that just runs iPhone/Touch OS really being that useful. It would just be a big iPod Touch then... Although that would be kinda cool (reading/movies etc) it would be a LONG way from revolutionary, and most people would just be happy keeping their Touches.
I think the only way to go with it would be for it to run full OSX; Snow Leopard? Now... that would make it something revolutionary...
Apple is all about software... They MUST have been developing ways to control OSX via a touch screen, even Microsoft have been working on that... A tablet form would be the perfect vehicle. The product would then fit perfectly between iPhone/Touch and the Macbook.
I also believe stainlessliquid is correct in that the keyboard would be a key part of the touch implementation. Build in a little pull-out tilt stand into it so it wouldn't be flat on a desk (as others have suggested) and they might just have something!
Also, the origins of this latest round of rumors about a tablet stem from people's belief that Apple are planning on entering in some way the netbook market... A relatively low cost touch screen laptop would (i think) blow the high end netbooks out of the market...

I've struggled over the last few weeks wondering how on earth they could make a tablet product that i would want to buy and this is the only way i can visualize that product.

Fit in USB ports, firewire, a micro DVI and possibly a SIM card slot (please apple, don't tie it in with a single carrier!) into the side and it would an amazingly cool bit of kit IMHO.

I would buy it for the touch version of OSX alone! LOL

I'll be in the market for a small laptop soon; i may just hang on for a few months more and see what comes of this.... :D
 
Maybe not initially, but I suspect at some point the tablet will offer a 'clone device' concept whereby the Apple 'iPad' will offer the ability for high powered applications to be run on a 'cloned' or copy of your iPad back in the (North Carolina based?) Apple 'cloud'.
This would allow the tablet potentially much more computational horsepower than could be practically fit in a portable device without sacrificing battery performance. Run your whole iLife on cloud based apple servers and use your new 10" OLED based 'iPad' as a (VNC like) window to your own 'iWorld'. Seemless WiFi / WiMax / G3 / G4 connectivity, some local storage (64GB?) for HD Video / audio and easy realtime sharing of content.

Maybe?
 
Killer Feature? Got that!

The killer feature for the Tablet will be the App Store. Its huge success will drive Apple moves into mobility products for the next five years.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back