An Insider On the Apple Tablet
gizmodo.com
Come on, you have to admit it. This article has all of us gizmo fanboys drooling.
ASK HN: How many of you guys would shell out $800 for this thing? Honestly. I'm thinking about buying it for my dad.
gizmodo.com
ASK HN: How many of you guys would shell out $800 for this thing? Honestly. I'm thinking about buying it for my dad.
It's about the perceived value. I literally want a bigger version of my iPhone so I can do work on the fly. $700-900 is a steep price, but I am really considering it.
I remember after first getting my iPhone 2g, and playing with it for a day straight, when I went back to my laptop I wanted to manipulate the UI by touching the screen. When I say "wanted" I mean I uncousciously reached for the screen on a couple of occasions. I got over that quickly, but it made me consider what this form factor would be good for and whether it would sell.
I agree that this machine won't replace the laptop as a work machine. I do think that it may be a better solution, from a UI standpoint, than the current netbooks on the market. Have you seen people at coffee shops typing on those things? I know it will be better than a netbook in bed or while laying on a couch, which is were I find myself using my iPhone and not my laptop.
Also, $700 isn't that much when you consider that the Kindle is $300 and used to be $500. Think how much more you will be able to do on an iTablet, or whatever you want to call it.
Very very true.
The tablet is probably meant for surfing websites, sending emails (take a pick between built-in MobileMail, GMail app, or GMail through Safari), SaaS website apps, and most likely some games.
Think Crunchpad competitor, not netbook or full sized laptop competitor.
When calling any product cheap or expensive, the question should always be: Compared to what?
What I would really be interested in seeing are the log leaks that directly revealed the first versions of the iPhone. I forget which site did it, but essentially some smart admin looked through their web server logs and saw a handful of user agents that matched up to the then unreleased mobile Safari. Or maybe this was for the unibody Macbooks, I forget.
that might be 'shopped' ...
the image at the bottom of the article looks realistic though. Hard to tell these days.
The thing is, speculation will happen, so it makes sense to manage it by controlling the most credible speculation (thereby ruling out the more wildly speculative stuff that could reflect negatively).
If it is released as a leak then Apple has no obligation to live into it if things change, but they get to co-opt the chatter so it's the best of both worlds.
-edit- grammar.
The best example of this I can remember is the leak that Apple would be using Intel processors. Word got leaked the Friday before Jobs' Monday keynote and it almost certainly came from Apple. It's a very basic PR strategy: leak shocking news up front so people get the shock and anger out of their system and are then somewhat open minded when you make the announcement.
Otherwise, it might prove awkward as a remote-getting-stuff-done unit -- in libraries, cafes, airplane seats, etc.: if flat for typing, it's hard to read; if angled for viewing, it's hard to type.
A symmetrical hinged dual touch display, as in the next-gen OLPC2 prototypes, might do the trick. (Could lens/optical tricks make the seam nearly invisible when flat? I wouldn't put it past Apple.)
Here's the OLPC 2.0 dual-touchscreen concept:
http://www.engadget.com/2008/05/27/olpc-xo-2-to-include-mult...
http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/28/olpc-2-0-dual-touchscreen...
But also running with your idea -- what if the unit contains an ultra-thin detachable wireless keyboard, achieving surface-angle diversity even better than a hinge?