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The Apple Tablet Thread Of It's Inevitable

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Liu Kang Baking A Pie said:
I feel the same way about iTunes LP. It just seems like a dumb idea meant to squeeze some extra cash when it's the same experience as listening to music while browsing a website.
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I got an iTunes LP when I purchased the latest Muse album. It was pretty cool, had videos, photos, lyrics etc. It wasn't incredible, but it was a nice add on. I don't think it costs any more ?
 
ckohler said:
If you want a fun nostalgia trip, check out the truly epic MacWorld 2007 Thread from when the iPhone was introduced. It starts on page 5.
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My first comment was:

SuperPac said:
I have Sprint, but they can **** off if I can't use this thing with them. I'll switch to whoever does. I will buy this thing immediately.
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And I did. x3 (OG, 3G, and 3GS). :)

To think, Apple's had 3 years since the introduction of the iPhone to really get it together on whatever device they're planning to announce next week and hone it. Not to mention *add* or alter functionality since you'd have more screen real estate to work with.
 
OuterWorldVoice said:
I hope that Wednesday brings peace between Liu Kang and Shog. I can't stand to see them angry at each other.
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Well, the real fun just starts with the presentation of the Table.
 
OuterWorldVoice said:
I hope that Wednesday brings peace between Liu Kang and Shog. I can't stand to see them angry at each other.
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Those two are probably two worst people to argue with - both always sound so pissed off and annoyed with everything! :-D I don't think they'll ever reconcile.
 
SuperPac said:
You really focus on what you think this tablet is not going to be good at, don't you. :) Or because a device already exists that does something this tablet may do that no one could possibly want it. Computing devices and consumer electronics devices have overlap by nature. Companies bring out devices that do what other devices already do (iPod). Sometimes it is not about the function itself but the form. A desktop and a laptop are not all that different in ability, but the situation someone will use it for will dictate which they buy. You even said yourself that reading eBooks on a Kindle is a better experience than reading an eBook on an LCD, yet you can't seem to accept that someone like me would find a larger iPod touch or Apple touchscreen tablet to be a more satisfying experience for doing basic computer tasks than sitting in front of a desktop or even hauling around a laptop.

It's a narrow view to say because it doesn't have a mouse/keyboard/e-ink/stylus/wacom-level-input that this cannot find a market. Because I think we've already seen that people en masse love the touch screen and the interface of the iPhone and iPod touch. Why wouldn't they love a device that's larger that has that same interface and ease of use? (Besides price, of course. ) ;) The reason is not "because computers and laptops and netbooks and e-Readers and PDAs already exist."
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The price is a big part of it though. By eliminating what it probably won't do, you can figure out possibly what it will do. But you also have to weigh how important those features are that it can't do and at what costs you're paying to not have them. I'm weighing all of this in to weigh the viability. I can think of hundreds of different things that I would like to do, but I also figure out at what cost.

Going back to eBooks on devices like a Kindle or a Nook, as much as I praise the concept of them especially in the part of the technology for the screen, I still don't own one. I'm a supporter of the idea but I don't own one. Why? Because I feel that it hasn't matured yet. It needs to improve. The interface needs to be better. Maybe color added before I dive in. I see great potential in what is out there now, but even sales wise will tell you how early this type of device is which is why I feel Apple could help push the concept or even hurt it depending on their take on what an eBook should be.

Maybe this is all irrelevent anyway in my view because I highly doubt Apple will get it right the first time with something that is likely to cover so many aspects. It'll take at least one revision based on feedback and reaction to move it towards something that will be amazing. As much as I fell in love with the iPhone the instant they announced it, I still waited because there were glaring flaws in it, and I'm glad I did. I knew I would have an iPhone some day, and I did the second they launched the 3G, but it wasn't at launch. So I hope that the tablet has at least enough of a pull to be a decent enough success and interest for them to make a second revision that I may actually get it.

But still, geekiness and Apple fans aside, I like to look on just a pure value of how the market aside from the typical fans are going to take to such a device. A high cost device needs to justify the price in order to survive. A high cost device likely limits to a person buying one high cost device, not two high costs devices. Having to choose what functionality you gain and lose for that cost difference is a huge factor with a device like this. We're not talking about the typical Apple fan who buys everything Apple releases, but your average consumer who will make or break such a device in how successful it is. I think these are all valid issues to look at that can be thought about before it's even announced.
 
LCfiner said:
well, if the rumor of the March launch is true, you’ll still have to wait a while. hang tough!

as for the browser, I’m curious if they stick with “pages” like on the iPhone or move to a more desktop like model with tabs visible within the window. time will tell.
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Interesting. I can't even hazard a guess. Maybe they've thought of some new abstraction to shake things up.
 
Tobor said:
Interesting. I can't even hazard a guess. Maybe they've thought of some new abstraction to shake things up.
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I’m guessing pages to maximize screen real estate but the “show pages” button will show a grid of all open tabs instead of displaying them as cards like they do on the iPhone.
 
Marty Chinn said:
But still, geekiness and Apple fans aside, I like to look on just a pure value of how the market aside from the typical fans are going to take to such a device. A high cost device needs to justify the price in order to survive. A high cost device likely limits to a person buying one high cost device, not two high costs devices. Having to choose what functionality you gain and lose for that cost difference is a huge factor with a device like this. We're not talking about the typical Apple fan who buys everything Apple releases, but your average consumer who will make or break such a device in how successful it is. I think these are all valid issues to look at that can be thought about before it's even announced.
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Well, the average consumer does not buy Apple products. Apple is a niche platform, and this may be a micro population within that niche that would buy this product.

The thing I do not understand, is that some people seem to be embracing the idea of a closed method of obtaining "print" media. The internet already changed print media, and the idea of using a closed system/format or application to read media is a major step backward.

If this still uses open standards to obtain the media, then adds value in how it is presented, then it's a good thing. If this tries to go into some proprietary format for media, along with the necessity of proprietary hardware, it will be a step backward. The right idea is that you want all information available using open standards, then you add value at the presentation layer.
 
tfur said:
Well, the average consumer does not buy Apple products. Apple is a niche platform, and this may be a micro population within that niche that would buy this product.
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I disagree with that but at the same time you might have a point. I think depending on the product, the average consumer does buy Apple products. The iPod and iPhone are perfect examples of products that the average consumer does buy. I think the average consumer does not buy Macs and other things like the Airport routers. So in that regard, that maybe the market is simply die hard Apple fans who eat up Apple products regardless of what they are or how well it does it and it can survive off just that niche success. So maybe my problem is I'm thinking too big of a market. I kept thinking the tablet would be aimed at the type of people who would buy an iPod and iPhone and the bigger market in general.
 
tfur said:
Well, the average consumer does not buy Apple products. Apple is a niche platform, and this may be a micro population within that niche that would buy this product.

The thing I do not understand, is that some people seem to be embracing the idea of a closed method of obtaining "print" media. The internet already changed print media, and the idea of using a closed system/format or application to read media is a major step backward.

If this still uses open standards to obtain the media, then adds value in how it is presented, then it's a good thing. If this tries to go into some proprietary format for media, along with the necessity of proprietary hardware, it will be a step backward. The right idea is that you want all information available using open standards, then you add value at the presentation layer.
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Lolwut?.jpg

I have to assume this a typo, and you mean to say Mac's.
 
Tobor said:
Lolwut?.jpg

I have to assume this a typo, and you mean to say Mac's.
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No, by average I mean the percentage of users who buy Apple products over others. The overall global footprint of the Apple OS and iphone is very small, although the iphone market share is growing. I am not talking about average skill level or anything like that...
 
tfur said:
No, by average I mean the percentage of users who buy Apple products over others. The overall global footprint of the Apple OS and iphone is very small, although the iphone market share is growing. I am not talking about average skill level or anything like that...
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The iPod has something like a 95% marketshare though among all mp3 players. And maybe it's just that I live in CA, but I see iPhones everywhere and I would think their marketshare is pretty big compared to any other type of current phone these days. Even at the I think 13% marketshare figure, you have to figure there's a lot of phones out there that make up the rest but when split to individual marketshare, they don't stack up. So would all of those phones not be considered for the average consumer too?
 
tfur said:
No, by average I mean the percentage of users who buy Apple products over others. The overall global footprint of the Apple OS and iphone is very small, although the iphone market share is growing. I am not talking about average skill level or anything like that...
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Apple has sold 40 million iPhones in the US alone, and there's an iPod sold for every citizen in the country at this point. You can't even begin to make an argument that they are a niche company.
 
Marty Chinn said:
The iPod has something like a 95% marketshare though among all mp3 players. And maybe it's just that I live in CA, but I see iPhones everywhere and I would think their marketshare is pretty big compared to any other type of current phone these days. Even at the I think 13% marketshare figure, you have to figure there's a lot of phones out there that make up the rest but when split to individual marketshare, they don't stack up. So would all of those phones not be considered for the average consumer too?
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I was not really factoring in the ipod, that's why I said OS and iphone. I would think this device would be more of an mix of the OS/iphone than a simple ipod. Not to mention price point etc.

The 13% would just show that a larger proportion of consumers buy other products. How that is split does not mean a lot, but things are changing and the iphone market share is growing.

The whole point, is that Apple is seen as a niche platform in the computing and phone world, and that this may be a subset of that niche. Apple will still be successful even if they do not sell a ton, as long as they have their market making money.

Anyhow, my more important point was about open standards.
 
tfur said:
The whole point, is that Apple is seen as a niche platform in the computing and phone world, and that this may be a subset of that niche. Apple will still be successful even if they do not sell a ton, as long as they have their market making money.

Anyhow, my more important point was about open standards.
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Apple may only have one phone, but they're not a niche platform holder within the phone world (at least not in the US). On the computing side that is true but they have been making small gains there too. And considering how entrenched Windows PCs are, any small uptick is still pretty significant.

I dunno that there can really be any debate about open standards with this device and its software until after Wednesday. Does Apple want every other slate device introduced in 2010 to be able to do what theirs does and as easily? That I'm just not sure of.
 
tfur said:
I was not really factoring in the ipod, that's why I said OS and iphone. I would think this device would be more of an mix of the OS/iphone than a simple ipod. Not to mention price point etc.

The 13% would just show that a larger proportion of consumers buy other products. How that is split does not mean a lot, but things are changing and the iphone market share is growing.

The whole point, is that Apple is seen as a niche platform in the computing and phone world, and that this may be a subset of that niche. Apple will still be successful even if they do not sell a ton, as long as they have their market making money.

Anyhow, my more important point was about open standards.
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Are you crazy? This isn't like a microsoft vs. apple thing for an OS where there are only 3 choices since linux is just linux. Apple is anything but a niche company. Blackberry only has 20% marketshare so does that make blackberry a niche company?
Flying_Phoenix said:
Oh come on. I'm not that bad am I?
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:lol Are you sure you of all people want to make that argument?
 
Zaraki_Kenpachi said:
Are you crazy? This isn't like a microsoft vs. apple thing for an OS where there are only 3 choices since linux is just linux. Apple is anything but a niche company. Blackberry only has 20% marketshare so does that make blackberry a niche company?
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Okay, Apple does not produce niche products and/or specialized products. The majority of consumers who purchase phones or computers buy Apple products.

I was more interested in discussing the idea of Apple selling a possible proprietary media delivery system, and why that would be considered better than staying with open standards/html method as it is now for some paid content sites.

Of course we do not know what method this new device is going to use, but some people here seem willing to leave an open format (browser/html5) behind for a closed system.
 
Were those Tablet specific sites? Actually they didn't have to be... slick looking (as expected) - can't wait to try it myself...
 
LCfiner said:
Wall Street Journal rumor was 1000 bucks.
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Yeah thats not happening lol. For the same price you can get a baseline Macbook which is hundreds of times more powerful and only marginally heavier/less portable.

probably around 650-800 bucks.

EDIT: WOW the video looks beautiful...its so fast, no stuttering or lagging in the interface. Looks too good to be true. If that was flash it would not look as smooth...HTML 5 confirmed? ahha
 
slider said:
Were those Tablet specific sites? Actually they didn't have to be... slick looking (as expected) - can't wait to try it myself...
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I think at the very least the popup menu with contents (coverflow style) must be.
 
tfur said:
Okay, Apple does not produce niche products and/or specialized products. The majority of consumers who purchase phones or computers buy Apple products.

I was more interested in discussing the idea of Apple selling a possible proprietary media delivery system, and why that would be considered better than staying with open standards/html method as it is now for some paid content sites.

Of course we do not know what method this new device is going to use, but some people here seem willing to leave an open format (browser/html5) behind for a closed system.
Click to expand...

Ok, I'm going to have to ignore the bolded part, because you clearly don't understand what niche means.

As for the rest of your argument, we have no idea what format Apple will use. One line of thought is that Apple will leave it up to the publisher to do what they want through apps. It could be DRM'ed to hell and proprietary or open HTML5. We just don't know. iTunes LP uses HTML right now.

mrkgoo said:
So....what is this?

video:

http://www.slidetoplay.com/story/possible-tablet-footage-leaked
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Holy shit, that's awesome, real or not.
 
mrkgoo said:
I think at the very least the popup menu with contents (coverflow style) must be.
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Yeah, that figures. Let's hope it's a easy wipe screen!

Great find btw; wasn't really expecting anything substantial until the 27th.
 
That looks a little fake to me, very well done though.
 
My number one hope for this thing is that the bezel be as small as physically possible.
 
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