Apple iPad and related items
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Bob_the_lost
Elsewhere
It won't be e-ink. Jobs is rumoured to hate it and it precludes a snazzy UI because of the slow refresh rate.
This is going to cost a bomb. Way over £200 (the point at which i tune out e-readers), probably £400+
As an e-reader that's ridiculous, you can get two different models for under £150 now and the prices are going to fall sub £100 in the next year as volume ramps up. Mark my words, this won't be an e-reader. It'll be a tablet that has an e-reader app while it does everything else too and it'll be priced accordingly. More Air than Phone.
I'd be surprised if it's just an eReader. That would put it in a very isolated spot, in relation to the full iTunes ecosystem.
I'm thinking that it will have all the media stuff, plus books. Something like Ed imagined awhile back. Maybe chuck in 1080P output on HDMI aswell, so it can be a media centre thing too.
[you edited bob... looks like we agree]
Bob_the_lost
Elsewhere
But that it's a tablet PC, not an e-reader. Just as the iphone is a phone not an ereader, netbooks are a subset of laptop and not ereader and my desktop is a computer not an ereader. All of them can run reader software but none of them are e-readers.
I doubt they'll market it as an e-reader, because if they did people will look at it and think "what a waste of money". If it doesn't have e-ink then it'll have to be marketed as a portable movie/internet device, something that builds on the itunes store content.
This won't be an ipod moment, the kindle is already too well established for that in the US and outside there the Sony range is pretty predominant. This might be an iphone moment, making it popular to the masses but the price would have to be comparable (higher perhaps but comparable) to existing items. This will be an air moment, funky, very cool but will ship very few units comparatively.
I doubt they'll market it as an e-reader, because if they did people will look at it and think "what a waste of money". If it doesn't have e-ink then it'll have to be marketed as a portable movie/internet device, something that builds on the itunes store content.
This won't be an ipod moment, the kindle is already too well established for that in the US and outside there the Sony range is pretty predominant. This might be an iphone moment, making it popular to the masses but the price would have to be comparable (higher perhaps but comparable) to existing items. This will be an air moment, funky, very cool but will ship very few units comparatively.
ChrisFilter
Like a boss.
But you can't make a good enough OLED screen to read for protracted periods of time. This is the issue with that theory. Who knows. It'll be way beyond anything I'm willing to pay anyway. Happy with my 3GS and my eBook reader!
Bob_the_lost
Elsewhere
Yup. It'll make a crap reader. I will still be able to enjoy my PRS505 knowing it is superior.
FridgeMagnet
Administrator
It won't be an ereader. It won't be a MacBook in tablet form either (unfortunately). You don't spend that long making a tablet if all it is is the same as other people's tablets, which have flopped. I'm not actually sure at all what sort of OS it *will* be running - full os x doesn't seem very likely with that size screen and lack of keyboard, it would make the ui peculiar, but then they might have found a way round that. iPhone OS is limited for a higher power machine and also, the apps just don't exist for new screen sizes, and they want apps to launch with. It puzzles me a lot.
ChrisFilter
Like a boss.
Can they not just double the res and match the aspect ratio of the iPhone to ensure backwards app compatibility?
Isn't it just going to be an equivalent to the high end Archos devices?
FridgeMagnet
Administrator
If it's just a big media player with a browser I'll eat my mouse. No way.
Bob_the_lost
Elsewhere
I will provide salt and pepper.
ChrisFilter
Like a boss.
What else could it be? Apple don't invent things. They improve on existing products. What other existing products of that size, and that would fit Apple's business model, are there other than media tablets? It'll have a full HD touch screen, backwards app compatability, GPS, decent gfx chip, but I can't imagine too much more.
One could say the iPhone is "just" a media player with a phone and browser. But there were plenty of phones around like that.
In the same vein, the tablet thingy could be "just" what you say, and yet be amazing.
So I don't think you've given yourself a useful mouse eating definition.
(I'll provide the cutlery)
FridgeMagnet
Administrator
Yeah, but that only technically ensures backwards compatibility. iPhone apps are designed with a particular physical screen size, mode of holding and ratio to hand size in mind.
So your buttons and text are suddenly four times the size and look all "my first tablet", and all the assumptions that you've made about controlling them - how far a thumb can reach in to the centre of the screen, whether you can easily select between a set of tabs or options - are suddenly wrong. Would cripple many games for instance and make most PIMs hard and annoying to use.
They may be hoping it could get by on media and web functions until people start making proper apps but that seems a bit much. I would like it if it was using OS X but with a heavily-customised Front Row front-end for day to day functions.
FridgeMagnet
Administrator
One could say that, but one would be missing the point of the iPhone somewhat.
Media playing and browsing will certainly be present of course, and important functions (just like they are on the iPhone).
Kid_Eternity
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
I'm not sure it has to be, the iPhone is pricier than most smartphone and it still shook up the market selling tons...
ChrisFilter
Like a boss.
iPhone isn't really any pricier than equivalent devices. Not by much, anyway. My Touch HD was about £50 cheaper than an iPhone 3G was at the time.
skyscraper101
0891 50 50 50
It's pretty straightforward.
eBooks - great for black and white reading, long battery life. Pocket Size, if you have big pockets. Great if you fancy reading the complete works of Dickens on the train.
What I suspect would be more successful however is a tablet, with full touch control (a la iPhone) with colour graphics, downloadable media (magazines, newspapers, full websites) with full integration with browsers, media players, familiar interface that people can browse photos on, watch movies on, surf web etc etc. Whilst you can do most of this on a laptop, its always a bit of a pain having to rest the computing part on your lap and angle the screen. The logical next step is to remove the physical keyboard, cd-rom drive, large storage and slim it down into one touch screen tablet. As Ed says, Apple could clean up with iTunes and their Apps all sorted and currently monopolising the market.
This was my (very crudely) envisinged idea of what the Amazon Kindle should be more like if its to take any significant foothold. It needs full colour graphics, and it should be more of a media tablet - not just an eBook reader:
Obviously, Apple can do much better than this - and my hunch is that they'll create something very iPhone like in the design and interface which will look way better than this. But, I'm sure it won't be long before the mainstream media get on board and within a few years people will be buying their copies of The Sun and The Times on a tablet, wirelessly, from anywhere. You can bet Murdoch will be on it like a shot.
eBooks - great for black and white reading, long battery life. Pocket Size, if you have big pockets. Great if you fancy reading the complete works of Dickens on the train.
What I suspect would be more successful however is a tablet, with full touch control (a la iPhone) with colour graphics, downloadable media (magazines, newspapers, full websites) with full integration with browsers, media players, familiar interface that people can browse photos on, watch movies on, surf web etc etc. Whilst you can do most of this on a laptop, its always a bit of a pain having to rest the computing part on your lap and angle the screen. The logical next step is to remove the physical keyboard, cd-rom drive, large storage and slim it down into one touch screen tablet. As Ed says, Apple could clean up with iTunes and their Apps all sorted and currently monopolising the market.
This was my (very crudely) envisinged idea of what the Amazon Kindle should be more like if its to take any significant foothold. It needs full colour graphics, and it should be more of a media tablet - not just an eBook reader:
Obviously, Apple can do much better than this - and my hunch is that they'll create something very iPhone like in the design and interface which will look way better than this. But, I'm sure it won't be long before the mainstream media get on board and within a few years people will be buying their copies of The Sun and The Times on a tablet, wirelessly, from anywhere. You can bet Murdoch will be on it like a shot.
ChrisFilter
Like a boss.
Yeah, but you can't do that with e-ink. And without e-ink, it's not gonna be much of a reader.
They're two different devices.
What you see as a virtue, I see as a limitation.
It's obviously subjective, but I'd say a device that does lots of things would be more popular than something that only does one thing, albeit very well.
All things being equal of course. Which they won't be. Price rather than purpose-specific display technology is where Kindley things will score.
skyscraper101
0891 50 50 50
I don't even think they'll go directly after the e-book market.
They'll just create a device that is able to display books but it won't be the core business of the device. It'll do apps, web pages, video, graphics - just like a macbook. But in a more sexy way with a touch keyboard and pictures you can resize with your fingers. Just like the iphone.
Let's see if I end up quoting myself on this in a few weeks saying 'look I told you!'
They'll just create a device that is able to display books but it won't be the core business of the device. It'll do apps, web pages, video, graphics - just like a macbook. But in a more sexy way with a touch keyboard and pictures you can resize with your fingers. Just like the iphone.
Let's see if I end up quoting myself on this in a few weeks saying 'look I told you!'
Sunray
Its sunny somewhere.
The iTunes integration ensures it will do everything on iTunes or that would be Apple making a device they can't have a full iTunes revenue stream from, which I can't see would please Steve Jobs or the share holders?
The killer feature will be its portability because at that price I can buy a pretty decent fully featured but fairly non-portable laptop. Being able to cart them about is a cheap laptops only claim to portability. Need to go up a few notches in price to get laptops that are both powerful and light.
They are saying 7" and 9.3". I think 9.3" is too big unless its truly wafer thin, and when I say thin we're going to have to be talking one of the thinnest devices of its kind ever made.
The killer feature will be its portability because at that price I can buy a pretty decent fully featured but fairly non-portable laptop. Being able to cart them about is a cheap laptops only claim to portability. Need to go up a few notches in price to get laptops that are both powerful and light.
They are saying 7" and 9.3". I think 9.3" is too big unless its truly wafer thin, and when I say thin we're going to have to be talking one of the thinnest devices of its kind ever made.
I'm roughly with you on that.
One way of thinking about devices is not NetBook, or Phone, or PC, but about usage.
Always Carry...
There is the device you always carry. To the pub, or even to the corner shop. It's most important feature is voice calls. But it's your bog standard music player too.
Often Carry
Something you can sling in a day bag/pack. Not a big lump. Something as thin as the magazine you might pack, or the paperback. Not kilos of lump, with big external charger and all that. You can still get it out on the bus or whatever. Watch vids, do some browsing. And of course listen to music or do email. Or even read a book or a newspaper.
Occasionally Carry
It's bit of a lump, but you want a real PC. Maybe Microsoft Office, or photo or audio editing, or... well, you want a real PC. And it can also be your home PC. As it is, for more and more people.
It's this split that makes me question netbooks. If you want a proper laptop, they aren't really any good. It's bit like taking a Range Rover, and then saying - for our city runabout car - we'll build another Range Rover, but with smaller wheels, smaller engine and smaller doors. A mini Range Rover. When something totally different would be better.
Of course, there isn't really an "often carry" device that I'm thinking of at present. And maybe it's a device too far. But I think that's what Apple will be aiming at.
One way of thinking about devices is not NetBook, or Phone, or PC, but about usage.
Always Carry...
There is the device you always carry. To the pub, or even to the corner shop. It's most important feature is voice calls. But it's your bog standard music player too.
Often Carry
Something you can sling in a day bag/pack. Not a big lump. Something as thin as the magazine you might pack, or the paperback. Not kilos of lump, with big external charger and all that. You can still get it out on the bus or whatever. Watch vids, do some browsing. And of course listen to music or do email. Or even read a book or a newspaper.
Occasionally Carry
It's bit of a lump, but you want a real PC. Maybe Microsoft Office, or photo or audio editing, or... well, you want a real PC. And it can also be your home PC. As it is, for more and more people.
It's this split that makes me question netbooks. If you want a proper laptop, they aren't really any good. It's bit like taking a Range Rover, and then saying - for our city runabout car - we'll build another Range Rover, but with smaller wheels, smaller engine and smaller doors. A mini Range Rover. When something totally different would be better.
Of course, there isn't really an "often carry" device that I'm thinking of at present. And maybe it's a device too far. But I think that's what Apple will be aiming at.
Throbbing Angel
this is no longer a place of honour
"So far the XO has been distributed to more than 1.4 million children in 35 countries."
Impressive number... is it true though?
FridgeMagnet
Administrator
it's vapourware
Thought so.
It only takes a quick Flickr search to find out if an object really exists.
FridgeMagnet
Administrator
Well, they do say "available in 2012" - typical BBC article headline.
The original OLPCs, I dunno how much they've actually been distributed and used in practice. I suspect not nearly as much as was envisaged. The OS had some really nice ideas behind it mind.
The original OLPCs, I dunno how much they've actually been distributed and used in practice. I suspect not nearly as much as was envisaged. The OS had some really nice ideas behind it mind.
editor
hiraethified
The problem with netbooks is that although they're small enough to carry around with you all day, have excellent battery lives and are up to most laptop tasks, they're awkward to use. Who'd want to read a paper or a book on a netbook when a tablet like the Kindle is far more comfortable? Watching movies or playing music would be far better on a slate/tablet form too.
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