Apple iPad and related items

paolo · Dec 29, 2009

Looks like the media frenzy has stepped up a gear.

The Apple tablet that has barely left the rumour mill for the best part of a year is now being strongly tipped to be announced at an as yet unbilled event that Apple has booked for January 26th, at the Yerba Buena Arts Center in SF - the place and time of the year where previous significant consumer products have been announced.

It's now gone from the tech blogs to the UK broadsheets. One story circulating is that Steve Jobs is "extremely happy" with the device. Another says that, after three years in development, this is his last big project. And another talks about a particularly novel user interface.

I'm expecting something that will make netbooks look like the dull shrinky-dink laptops that they are. But also that it will be eye wateringly expensive. And that the gap between smartphones and proper laptops isn't such a clear cut segment. Just how many devices do we need?

It's exciting though. Apple usually bring some new ideas. The ones they execute well become pervasive and spur the competion on. The ones they don't execute so well are picked up, reshaped and delivered by other companies. It's all good.

So. Wonder if it really will finally be revealed in just under a month?

Bob_the_lost · Dec 29, 2009

it's going to be a macbook air in tablet form

That's it. Beautiful UI no doubt, thinner, lighter and with mediocre battery life, cloud storage and possibly cloud processing too. Which means it'll have a built in 3G connection.

But you're right, it's going to be expensive as hell.

Kid_Eternity · Dec 30, 2009

Looking forward to this, Apple shakes up every market it enters these days, be good to give the ebook reader market a swift kick up the backside too!

paolo · Dec 30, 2009

Kid_Eternity said:
Looking forward to this, Apple shakes up every market it enters these days, be good to give the ebook reader market a swift kick up the backside too!

Yep. I think the current book readers are verrry workaday. Let's make a book. On a device. And, err, oh, that's it. The Kindle and its ilk have no vision, no leap forward.

kazza007 · Dec 30, 2009

mouth watering

Kid_Eternity said:
Looking forward to this

+1

and pricepoints suggested ?

paolo · Dec 30, 2009

kazza007 said:
+1

and pricepoints suggested ?

Well, logic suggests more than the iPhone, and less than a basic Apple laptop.

But the iPhone's 'real cost' is about £600 when you split it out from the telco charges.

So, £700+? That's eyewatering and then some. Or maybe they will try to hide the cost and sell it via telcos on subscription, like a phone.

For a collage of speculation, see:

http://gizmodo.com/5434566/the-exhaustive-guide-to-apple-tablet-rumors

Kid_Eternity · Dec 30, 2009

paolo999 said:
Yep. I think the current book readers are verrry workaday. Let's make a book. On a device. And, err, oh, that's it. The Kindle and its ilk have no vision, no leap forward.

Yep apart from the Nook which looks like it's trying to do something interesting. Also the UK isn't served well yet and the iSlate should force the market to mature.

Sunray · Dec 30, 2009

To make it interesting it will have to have a slot for a SIM, but I doubt that it will be sold by telecoms companies. It may well be offered but I can't see Apple trying an iPhone exclusivity thing this time.

Telecom companies sell phones not computers it's mainly a computer and Apple are very good at selling those.

Kanda · Dec 30, 2009

Hopefully Apple will sell it in conjunction with a PAYG SIM from one of their partners. O2 do an unlimited data PAYG I think.

editor · Dec 30, 2009

I've been banging on about this for ages: this market is wide open for Apple - with their colossal clout, vast resources and iTunes near-monopoly - to clean up with a netbook/eBook Reader/video/media player device.

Sunray · Dec 30, 2009

Kanda said:
Hopefully Apple will sell it in conjunction with a PAYG SIM from one of their partners. O2 do an unlimited data PAYG I think.

I get the feeling that thats far too sensible for Apple.

I look forward to seeing what they have come up with, this device has to be thin to make it sensible, iTouch thin max. Even slightly beyond svelte and its dead.

Kid_Eternity · Dec 30, 2009

My price speculation would be £600. Anything above that and you might as well get a Macbook...

editor · Dec 30, 2009

It's got to be cheaper than £600, I reckon. At that price it's barely going to impact on the netbook market, and there's a potentially massive market for a low cost, portable device.
I'd say £450 max, perhaps sweetened with network deals.

Sunray · Dec 30, 2009

editor said:
It's got to be cheaper than £600, I reckon. At that price it's barely going to impact on the netbook market, and there's a potentially massive market for a low cost, portable device.
I'd say £450 max, perhaps sweetened with network deals.

Gonna take a massive ad campaign to show people what they can do for them to sign up to a network contract for 35+ a month for 18 months and still pay out 300+ for the device. If its not pocketable I think its a hard sell unless its super super special. Literally dripping with cool and many cool unexpected features

maldwyn · Dec 30, 2009

I've got an ipodtouch and a MBP, so why would I want something ibetween?

editor · Dec 30, 2009

maldwyn said:
I've got an ipodtouch and a MBP, so why would I want something ibetween?

Reading books, watching TV/video on a decent size screen, basic computing stuff (email/browsing) etc etc on an easy to carry package.

HobgoblinMan · Dec 30, 2009

I'm looking forward to the launch of the i-Tits.

Pie 1 · Dec 30, 2009

maldwyn said:
I've got an ipodtouch and a MBP, so why would I want something ibetween?

So have I (iphone though) & would fucking love some sort of in between device - That MS Courier thing is the closest I've seen to what I'd like & gone 'wow - that looks really good for what I need' (I'd just never buy an MS/Windows product though as my whole professional workflow is Mac).
If Apple pull off something like that, then I'm interested as hell. If it's just a big iPhone/macAir mish mash, I'm not.

Bob_the_lost · Dec 30, 2009

I really don't think it's going to be an ereader. It'll have a conventional backlit screen not an e-ink one.

It'll be able to display books for reading but there's no way it's going to get good enough battery life to be an e-reader as we think of them.

gentlegreen · Dec 30, 2009

I almost got mildly interested when I heard about it. i-phone too small, web-book too big, WiFi radio too limited .. I'll wait until someone else makes one - I would only want phone connectivity once in a while ...

paolo · Dec 30, 2009

Bob_the_lost said:
I really don't think it's going to be an ereader. It'll have a conventional backlit screen not an e-ink one.

It'll be able to display books for reading but there's no way it's going to get good enough battery life to be an e-reader as we think of them.

"As we think of them" is a key point though. We don't think of them. Beyond tech heads, eReaders effectively don't exist. I've never seen one.

Battery life expectations for devices have been sunk. We used to have phones that would last a week. Now we charge them every night. One argument says that is the common expectation now. If it'll last a long train or aeroplane journey, that's enough to meet our now much reduced expectation.

kyser_soze · Dec 30, 2009

Time to wheel this one out again then

ChrisFilter · Dec 30, 2009

Am I missing something? All the 'good' rumours I've heard is that it's not a tablet, just an eBook reader.

tarannau · Dec 30, 2009

I'm slightly cynical that there's a large enough market for this kind of device unless there's some kind of exciting functionality that I'm missing. Sounds a kind of show-offy inbetween device, although maybe there's something in the execution that'll pull it all together.

Bob_the_lost · Dec 30, 2009

paolo999 said:
"As we think of them" is a key point though. We don't think of them. Beyond tech heads, eReaders effectively don't exist. I've never seen one.

Battery life expectations for devices have been sunk. We used to have phones that would last a week. Now we charge them every night. One argument says that is the common expectation now. If it'll last a long train or aeroplane journey, that's enough to meet our now much reduced expectation.

If you lose the battery life you lose the single greatest thing that made ereaders practical, it would also make reading on it more uncomfortable, although that would vary person to person the vast majority of people prefer e-ink screens to backlit for reading.

The only thing apple really has going for it is itunes. If they can pull a rabit out of the hat on the store side of life then they'll sell millions.

editor · Dec 30, 2009

paolo999 said:
"As we think of them" is a key point though. We don't think of them. Beyond tech heads, eReaders effectively don't exist. I've never seen one.

Maybe not here, but in the US eReaders are fucking HUGE news:

Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) today announced that Kindle has become the most gifted item in Amazon's history. On Christmas Day, for the first time ever, customers purchased more Kindle books than physical books. The Kindle Store now includes over 390,000 books and the largest selection of the most popular books people want to read, including New York TimesBestsellersand New Releases.

"We are grateful to our customers for making Kindle the most gifted item ever in our history," said Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.com. "On behalf of Amazon.com employees around the world, we wish everyone happy holidays and happy reading!"

paolo · Dec 30, 2009

Bob_the_lost said:
If you lose the battery life you lose the single greatest thing that made ereaders practical, it would also make reading on it more uncomfortable, although that would vary person to person the vast majority of people prefer e-ink screens to backlit for reading.

That's true when you limit your perspective to books.

It's ignoring other things people read though. Magazines and modern newspapers aren't black and white.

ChrisFilter · Dec 30, 2009

paolo999 said:
"As we think of them" is a key point though. We don't think of them. Beyond tech heads, eReaders effectively don't exist. I've never seen one.

Big, big sales over Xmas. I got one. I love it. Currently reading through the 100 best books of all time as voted by Times readers. Starting with A Tale of Two Cities.

ChrisFilter · Dec 30, 2009

paolo999 said:
That's true when you limit your perspective to books.

It's ignoring other things people read though. Magazines and modern newspapers aren't black and white.

Well, there are colour e-ink screens, but they come in at the £700 mark at the moment.

paolo · Dec 30, 2009

editor said:
Maybe not here, but in the US eReaders are fucking HUGE news:

True

But I'm still not convinced that it will be low power eInk, or that it needs to be.

Daily charging is enough. Irritating, but enough, if you get all the goodies that eInk can't do... video, browsing, fast & nice looking UI.

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