For some time the computer punditocracy has been telling Apple they need to come out with a netbook computer in order to keep up with the Joneses. After all, if everyone else is making small, cheap computers with small screens and small keyboards, shouldn’t Apple be following suit?
If you’re an Apple watcher, the standard rejoinder is that Apple has instead been busy working on a touchscreen tablet device. This rumor has been rolling for years now, and many Apple followers have gotten rather lathered up as the Mac tablet has repeatedly failed to materialize. In keeping with its penchant for secrecy, Apple has never responded to the tablet rumors. But tales of its impending arrival continue to appear.
The latest account from AppleInsider proclaims that Apple is “racing toward an early 2010 launch” of a device “akin to a jumbo iPod touch” with a 10″ screen, WiFi, and 3G capability. Color me a sucker, but I think this iSnipe may actually show up. It makes sense for Apple to leverage the immense developer base for the iPhone/iPod touch. Apple has been highly focused on mobile computing in recent years, and the spot between handhelds and laptops needs to be filled. I imagine there are plenty of iPhone developers who would love to move into larger screen territory (and establish themselves in what has been traditionally considered the laptop market). Macintosh software developers whose apps need more screen real estate than the iPhone and iPod touch provide could also benefit.
A thin touchscreen tablet built around ubiquitous connectivity could be the perfect computing device for law students, particularly if Apple were to sell it for less than the price of a MacBook. Would you run FinalCut Pro on an iSnipe? No. But for taking notes, writing reports, researching, and even playing the occasional game to blow off steam, it could be just right.
I say could because it may never see the light of day. It may just be a research project at Apple, or a side project that gets killed off. Who knows. But I’m hoping the iSnipe is real. I’m also hoping Apple gives it a better moniker than iSnipe, for all our sakes.
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2 Comments
… without a real keyboard???
That’s the billion dollar question. I can’t imagine Apple releasing a tablet that doesn’t include input functionality that meets or exceeds what netbooks provide. It seems to me that in order to make a successful tablet, they’ll have to persuade people to drop physical keyboards for virtual ones. If Apple can make the experience of entering information into the tablet as fluid and responsive with a touchscreen as it is with a keyboard, they could completely change the way we think of computers.
Apple has already changed the way people think about handheld devices. For the longest time mainstream users were blinded by the ubiquitousness of the numeric keypad as the default entry mechanism on mobile phones. It took Apple jumping into a touchscreen interface for consumers to recognize that keeping an advanced device was being held captive by an antiquated interface mechanism.
One screen for both input and display makes so many things possible. I’d love to see Apple pull this off.