- Speculated mock-up of Apple’s forthcoming tablet product.
I’m watching all the speculation over Apple soon-to-be unveiled Tablet product, due to be revealed on 1/26/2010. Steve Job’s had questioned the wisdom of a tablet (NYTimes via John Gruber):
Another former Apple executive who was there at the time said the tablets kept getting shelved at Apple because Mr. Jobs, whose incisive critiques are often memorable, asked, in essence, what they were good for besides surfing the Web in the bathroom.
He has since gotten involved deeply with the project, which has the potential be a game changer on the scale of the iPod and iPhone, while tying a rope around the neck of the cable companies and throwing the other end to the book, magazine, and newspaper industry.
I have two major concerns – one with Apple’s product and secondly with the concept of tablets. I have difficulty imagining how Apple can sell the millions of units they supposedly project at a near-$1000 price point (can there be that many Apple fanboys?), especially with scores of (likely inferior but substantially less expensive) competitors coming to market?
In my mind, the tablet is a complementary device – something that you use from the couch, bedroom, or public transportation. At that price point, many users may consider it their sole computing device. Will the input mechanism(s) be sufficient? From the NYTimes article:
But the icing on the cake comes from a current senior employee inside Apple. When one of my colleagues here asked if the rumors of the Apple tablet were true, and when we could expect such a device, the response from his source was, “I can’t really say anything, but, let’s just say Steve is extremely happy with the new tablet.
Yet another recently departed Apple employee tipped me: “You will be very surprised how you interact with the new tablet.
It is likely that there will be no hardware keyboard. Speech and handwritten input has always been sketchy, and the learning curve for gesture input for most consumers may be quite steep. How will the tablet change the participatory culture of social media? Will we go from creating, collaborating, and commenting to solely consuming? Will tablets be no more than a hand-held boob tube? What are the consequences for content creators and distributors?
