iTablet: Apple’s Killer App for Higher Ed
by John Paczkowski
Posted on July 25, 2008 at 4:19 PM PT
Q: Will there be an iPhone?
Steve Jobs: One never knows. We don’t usually discuss products we haven’t announced.
Q: What do you think of the tablet PC?
Jobs: We’re not sure the tablet PC will be successful. It’s turned into a notebook that you can write on. Do you want to handwrite all your email? We have all the technology ourselves to do that–we just don’t know whether it will be successful.”–Interview with Apple CEO Steve Jobs, International Herald Tribune, Sept. 2002
–Apple recruitment ad, Aug. 11, 2005
At a 2007 all-hands meeting to discuss the iPhone, Apple (AAPL) CEO Steve Jobs said the company has the “best Macs” ever in the new-product pipeline right now. The machines waiting in the wings are “off the charts,” he said. Now just what Jobs meant by that is, obviously, known only by the man himself and those whose heads would be piked on the gates at 1 Infinite Loop if they ever told.
But according to Apple Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer, we’ll find out before the year is over. Apple is headed for a “future product transition” later this year, Oppenheimer said during the company’s quarterly conference call with investors Monday. And it will involve “state-of-the-art new products that our competitors just aren’t going to be able to match.”
With Apple’s MacBook and iPod lines both due for refreshing, it was easy to presume that these are the products to which Oppenheimer was referring. But what if they aren’t? What if he was referring to Apple’s mythical tablet PC? Consider this rumor posted to MacDailyNews:
Think MacBook screen, possibly a bit smaller, in glass with iPhone-like, but fuller-featured Multi-Touch. Gesture library. Full Mac OS X. This is why they bought P.A. Semi. Possibly with Immersion’s haptic tech. Slot-loading SuperDrive. Accelerometer. GPS. Pretty expensive to produce initially, but sold at “low” price that will reduce margins. Apple wants to move these babies. And move they will. This is some sick shit. App Store-compatible, able to run Mac apps, too. By October at the latest.”
Sounds plausible, doesn’t it? Certainly, given the success of the iPhone’s multi-touch platform and its speedy extension to the iPod Touch, it doesn’t take take a leap of imagination to see multi-touch making its way into a Mac tablet. Hell, it might even use the finger as a stylus. Handwriting recognition has come a long way since the Newton, and if you don’t believe that, check out the Chinese character recognition system on the iPhone.
Running with this a bit further, a finger-as-stylus touchscreen Mac tablet would make a hell of a nice counterpart to Apple’s new MobileMe service, wouldn’t it? It would make a great e-book reader too–if Apple ever gets around to adding a bookstore to iTunes. And if Apple were to link it up to iTunes U, as it undoubtedly would, the Mac tablet might even become higher education’s killer app. Especially if it arrives at market right before school starts, as it seems scheduled to do. A notebook, a textbook AND a MacBook–all in one.
Sound like “a state-of-the-art new product that our competitors just aren’t going to be able to match” to you? Does to me.
Still, Jobs has often dismissed rumors of an Apple tablet. “There are no plans to make a tablet,” Jobs said during a panel discussion at the 2003 All Things Digital conference. “It turns out people want keyboards. … We look at the tablet and we think it’s going to fail.”
Of course Jobs said Apple would never build a phone, either.
[Image Credit: FactoryJoe]
Follow John on Twitter | Follow AllThingsD on Twitter
Comments
Although this would be nice, a completely revamped notebook line is in order.
Yes, this Macbook touch rumor spread like wildfire, even making it mainstream (example:this post).
However, it just doesn’t seem like good timing. With Apple slashing expected earnings, now would be a time to introduce revenue generators, not another gamble like the Macbook Air.
New Macbook Pros, Macbooks, and maybe Macbook Air 2.0 would make much more sense than some useless netbook or macbook touch or whatever that would directly compete with the macbook air.
To me, this makes no sense.
But, we’ll see.
Posted by dr ozmac at July 25th, 2008 at 6:50 pmForget the iTablet. Tablet PCs have never been popular and it just wouldn’t fit the Apple line. Any new MacBooks and MB Pro’s are going to look more like the Air only with more ports and maybe with some models losing the optical drive. People will scream just like they did when the first iMac lost the floppy drive. They’ll get over it. Laptops will stay laptops but will be lighter and more transportable.
Think Nintendo DS. What’s hot on the new iPhone3G? Games with movement control. With the price drop the Touch stands out like a sore thumb…not an iPhone, not an iPod. Make it bigger and don’t be surprised if it has a slide out keyboard. Origami meets Newton.
‘Nuff said.
Posted by Hank Lavagnini at July 26th, 2008 at 1:45 pmN-trig – http://www.n-trig.com has it now. They are the OEM provider to Dell’s new Latitude XT.
Video on YouTube:
Full Multi-Touch on Tablet PC
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.....re=related
Full Multi-Touch on large screen:
Posted by Alan Weinkrantz at July 27th, 2008 at 8:40 amhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GeWN2p6jYaA
Sorry, just don’t see it.
What I would expect is a laptop with a touch screen and a keyboard. Let’s kill the track pad off and for people that need a finer level of cursor control they can add an external mouse.
I’ve tried tablets and typing documents on them is a serious pain. I couldn’t imagine trying to do image or video editing with a on screen keyboard. Also, I would hate to have to carry a keyboard with me.
I for one always ignore the trackpad and use a usb mouse. But I never use the apple mouse, I have a number of favorite mice and they are always from the pc market!
So, remove the trackpad, slide the keyboard down a little and fill the space in with great speakers, multi-media controls, a multi-player docking station or a bigger battery.
Regards.
Posted by Richard Nichols at July 27th, 2008 at 6:51 pmYou just don’t realize how efficent this product is. This is a winner.
Mark
Posted by Mark Light at July 28th, 2008 at 12:23 pmYou just don’t realize how efficient this product is. This is a winner.
Mark
Posted by Mark Light at July 28th, 2008 at 12:23 pmOf course you can’t type efficiently on a touch screen! (at least our generation)
Just like you can’t efficiently pass around a laptop to your wife when you want to let her see something you’ve discovered on the Net…
But think about setting up the touch-screen on a stand (like sheet music) and using a wireless keyboard or mouse. (when needed)
Or a docking station with CD/DVD drive and hard disk storage.
Imagine a family easily exchanging the “pad” to view photo albums.
Technician on the road with PDF documentation and email without a cumbersome laptop.
School applications.
Medical interviews. Doctor has his; you have yours and info is exchanged. No more “forgetting” to tell the doctor about all the symptoms… or forgetting just exactly what the doctor told you to do. Remember, one day you’ll all pass 60, 70 and 80…
Let’s get with the unlimited possibilities and break from our narrow view of what a proper computer ought to be.
I bought an iPod Touch this weekend and I see the future.
Posted by Dan Neesley at July 28th, 2008 at 7:17 pmPS – If this comes to pass, kiss your Kindle “goodbye!”
Posted by Dan Neesley at July 28th, 2008 at 7:20 pmBeing the owner of an iTouch I can see the need for a iTablet. I’m hoping it comes with a cover where it can be used as a stand so I can watch my movies on flights. With more CPU power maybe it can run all JAVA apps including flash.
Not tonight dear I have my Apple to play with!
HH
Posted by Daddy Hardhead at July 28th, 2008 at 9:46 pmJobs is being disingenuous by talking about a Tablet as if it’s for handwriting your email.
How can typing documents on a Tablet be a “complete pain” if you’re using the attached keyboard? Doing it with an onscreen keyboard would be a pain, but no one seriously expects someone to enter more than a few words that way…except for those who think of PCs as souped-up typewriters or who just need an anti-tablet straw-man.
A Tablet is for extending the use of your computer: you type where it makes sense, write/draw/point in others ( diagramming, creating music, manipulating maps and photos, …). Often you’re just reading, following links etc so it’s nice to sit back, or sit up at your musical instrument and playing music off screen.
Jobs keeps poo-pooing tablets and styluses simply because he wasn’t there first.
Posted by Mike W at July 30th, 2008 at 10:20 pm