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Rumors are running rampant lately about an impending announcement/release of an Apple tablet device. So feverish is the pitch that we’ve now entered the realm of rumoring that some of the rumors are actually controlled leaks. (For the record, I think the argument makes sense. Then again, I also think it’s evidence that we’ll stretch our imaginations as far as we can go to convince ourselves that this is finally happening again.)

It’s surprising to me, and perhaps to others, that I’ve remained so quiet on the subject considering my 1) inexplicable love for the tablet computer form factor and 2) recent conversion to Mac enthusiast. I think part of my hesitation is I haven’t wanted to put my own conjecture of what the rumored device will be like out of fear of increasing my level of disappointment when (if?) it does finally come out. But now that we’re talking about controlled leaks and unconfirmed confirmed ship dates, I figure I might as well throw my hat into the ring as well.

First let me start by stating that I want the device to be a full fledged computer – at least as powerful as a MacBook Air – but I know that isn’t going to happen. And the reason is simple: I’m among the minority of people that would actually pay the premium to have such a device. If it were up to me, the vaunted Apple Tablet would be a MacBook Pro with a screen that swivels and folds down just like my Thinkpad X41 tablet. But the price tag on an Apple device like that would limit the kind of market penetration Apple would get, and I think they’re trying to learn from their “mistakes” from the initial iPhone launch.

Now that we’ve established what the Apple tablet won’t be, let’s talk about what it could be. The primary theme that keeps popping up is media; more specifically multi-media. The iPod Touch/iPhone platform is probably the best portable media and mobile application platform on the market but there’s room for growth. In terms of media, the screen could be larger, the resolution better, and easier on the eyes for reading. It’ll be interesting to see how they handle larger screen/better resolution in combination with readability. There’s a reason Amazon’s Kindle doesn’t play movies. And this is where I think the Apple Tablet is going to be revolutionary. I think they’ve figured out a way to merge the readability of eInk with the boom boom pow of higher resolution graphics displays. I don’t even think the great innovation has to be in combining the two distinct display capabilities into one magic display. It could be as simple as having one side of the slate be a color multimedia display and the other side your typical eInk display. Of the rumors that are circulating out there, I would point to their supposed testing of two different material casings, their pursuit of TV networks for a subscription based TV service, and the design prototypes that Time, Inc demoed recently as support for this supposed 2-in-1 display design.

On a more practical side, there is also room for growth in the mobile application arena. Which must be music to Apple’s ears considering the already huge success of the App Store. I’ll admit that I’m still not a huge fan of typing long emails or creating/editing even the most basic documents on the iPhone platform. Several rumors point to a completely new UI, one with a “steep learning curve” in fact, that would completely change the way we interact with would typically interact with a mobile device. This would also go along with a supposed beta release of the next iPhone OS (version 4.0), which many believe is what will provide the logic for the device’s unconfirmed, but wildly speculated brains.

So, those are my barely cohesive thoughts on the upcoming Apple announcement: a do-almost-everything device that is a step up from an iPhone, but not quite a MacBook. I guess we’ll see what happens when January 26th finally gets here. Until then, happy speculating!

This entry was posted Wednesday, January 6th, 2010 at 8:47 pm and is filed under play. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.