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Keep dreaming and hoping, we won't see an Apple tablet anytime soon

By | February 3, 2009, 9:11am PST

Summary: Right at the end of 2008, Michael Arrington posted some info from his sources on a rumored large form Apple iPod touch/table for sometime in 2009. There is now some information available on an Apple patent for a large display device. Even with these pieces of information and hopes of the Apple faithful, I am highly skeptical of Apple ever releasing an Apple tablet/large display iPod. The iPod touch is already priced at $299 and $399 and the original iPhone (unsubsidized) was priced at US$599 so an Apple tablet would easily be priced at $700+ I am sure. In today’s economy that is an unreasonable figure when small form notebooks with actual keyboards can be used to do the same thing for $300.

Right at the end of 2008, Michael Arrington posted some info from his sources on a rumored large form Apple iPod touch/tablet for sometime in 2009. There is now some information available on an Apple patent for a large display device. Even with these pieces of information and hopes of the Apple faithful, I am highly skeptical of Apple ever releasing an Apple tablet/large display iPod. The iPod touch is already priced at $299 and $399 and the original iPhone (unsubsidized) was priced at US$599 so an Apple tablet would easily be priced at $700+ I am sure. In today’s economy that is an unreasonable figure when small form notebooks with actual keyboards can be used to do the same thing for $300.

I am sure there are prototype devices being tested and trialed at Apple, but just because there are prototypes and patents doesn’t mean we will ever see such a device. As a mobile geek, I am sure it would be a very cool device and would sell a few thousand. However, the tablet form factor devices have really only done well in areas like the medical field and I doubt too many people would adopt using a touch screen only keyboard input method and would soon tire of such a device. An iPod touch works just fine for browsing on the couch, watching movies, listening to music, and controlling your home media center. I suppose Apple could come out with a 4 inch or 5 inch iPod touch to give you a bit better experience, but highly doubt we will see anything larger than that from Apple.

We may see a tablet type device running the Android OS because it should be able to be sold for $400 or so down in the iPod touch range. Then again, I still am not convinced people will readily adopt a touch only interface for text input.

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Topics

Apple iPod, Apple Inc., Apple iPod Touch, Tablets, Digital Music, Digital Media, Notebooks, Hardware, Notebooks & Tablets, Personal Technology, Consumer Electronics, Matthew Miller

Matthew Miller is an avid mobile device enthusiast who works during the day as a professional naval architect in Seattle.

Disclosure

Matthew Miller

Matthew is a professional naval architect by day and a mobile gadget freak at all other times. He purchases most of his devices and then sells them on eBay or Craigslist to buy more. Many other devices are sent for review on a 30-day loaner basis and then returned to the carrier or manufacturer. If any are provided as “keeper” or “long term loaner units” this will be clearly disclosed in his reviews.

Biography

Matthew Miller

Matthew Miller is an avid mobile device enthusiast who works during the day as a professional naval architect in Seattle. He is one of three hosts on the MobileTechRoundup podcast and runs the Nokia Experts website. Matthew started using mobile devices in 1997 with a US Robotics Pilot 1000 and has owned over 90 different devices running Palm, Linux, Symbian, Newton, BlackBerry, Mac OS X (iPhone), Google Android, and Windows Mobile operating systems. His current collection includes a Nokia N85, Nokia E71, Nokia 5800, Nokia N810, Apple iPhone, HTC Advantage, T-Mobile G1, Palm Treo Pro, HTC Fuze, MSI Wind, MacBook Pro, and many more, along with tons of accessories and classic devices like the Apple Newton MessagePad 2100 and Sony CLIE UX50. Matthew co-authored Master Visually Windows Mobile 2003, was a member of the Nokia Nseries Blogger relations program, and is a member of the invite-only Microsoft Mobius mobile device evangelist group. He can be found on various discussion forums under the user name of "palmsolo".

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Touch ONLY? No. Touch CAPABLE? Yes.
roystonlodge 9th Feb 2009
I've been shopping eBay for an older tablet-pc onto which I can install a lightweight Linux distro. I'm probably going to settle on one of the older Fujitsu tablets. The plan is to replace the hard-drive with a Compact-Flash-to-IDE adapter. The only stumbling block seems to be the lack of Linux drivers for touchscreens, and only rudimentary handwriting recognition for Linux. But then, I can always plug in a USB keyboard when I need one. I have one of those silicone keyboards you can roll up and stuff in your pocket, so there you go.
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0 Votes
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This Apple faithful...
Userama 3rd Feb 2009
sure is hoping that Apple won't be dumb enough
to make a table-sized touch thingy. I think most
of the hoping for that one is coming from
Microsoft, so that they can say Apple actually
copied something THEY did first! The touch table
is a worthless product, whether it comes from
Microsoft or Apple.
0 Votes
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table or tablet?
PB_z 3rd Feb 2009
You mention both, I'm not sure which you mean, or do you mean both?
0 Votes
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RE: Keep dreaming and hoping, we won
vaedwin 3rd Feb 2009
I personally would love it and would buy it if apple did come out with a tablet. Yes I know you currently can convert your macbook to a tablet, but it would be cool if it came directly from apple. I know that many do not share my opinion, but a 9" to 11" inch tablet would be perfectly fit between the Itouch and the the macbooks, specially if it intergrated a stylus with it.
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RE: Keep dreaming and hoping, we won
jdbroughton@... 3rd Feb 2009
The caveat here is the lack of a keyboard, external display
capability, or storage. Now imagine a larger Touch device
with full bluetooth connectivity which would allow the use
of the Apple Bluetooth keyboard and Might Mouse.
Imagine this device with at least one USB port and either a
mini DVI or more likely, a Mini DisplayPort. All of this is
almost a given for a tablet style Mac. Like Mr. Miller, I
don't see Apple doing this on the cheap but I can see
Apple recognizing a huge growing market for such a
mobile device and coming into the market with something
insanely great and totally different from current offerings.
0 Votes
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Microsoft Balmer's cell phone prediction
Prime Detailer 3rd Feb 2009
I remember Balmer's prediction about what a flop it would be if Apple
got into the cell phone market. This story seems similar to me. You
can't base a prediction on what how you think a new device will work
if you are looking at how someone else is doing it. Apple tends to
leapfrog competitors and comes up with something totally different -
example IPhone.

I personally would like a small tablet - somewhere between the IPhone
and a mini. I don't understand why any significant number of people
would buy a table device. A tablet with the operating capabilities of
an Iphone would be wonderful. What would be great if you had a
choice of screen size. Something like that could save newsprint types
of media - newspapers, magazines, newsletters, books, etc..
Newspaper and magazine availability on Itunes I think would be a big
hit.
0 Votes
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Contributr
Cool, but expensive
palmsolo (aka Matthew Miller) 3rd Feb 2009
I too think it would be cool, but with the premium price of Apple products it would also be very expensive. I don't see how they could do it for less than $700 and then who would really buy it for surfing on the couch or using around the house when a much more mobile iPhone/iPod touch is already pretty capable and available for much less?
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What price premium?
DeusExMachina 4th Feb 2009
This idea of an "Apple tax" is simply a misinformed myth. If you compare
feature for feature, macs are quite price competitive, even without taking
into consideration less concrete items such as usability, or more concrete
items such as installed software or resale value.
0 Votes
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The Apple Tax comes in when...
olePigeon 5th Feb 2009
The Apple Tax comes in when you don't want features. Even if
Apple provides a computer or notebook that is price competitive or
even cheaper when compared feature to feature, the PC will always be
priced below Apple because you have option of not paying for certain
features.

This can arguably lead to a "better" computer than something from
Apple because you can relocate the expenses saved from components
you didn't want to upgrading components you do want.

One example is that Apple doesn't offer a Mac Pro without a solid 1/8"
sheet of aluminum for the case. If you don't care what your computer
looks like (which seems to be the case for 95% of the PC
manufacturers out here), you can get one made of 1/16" sheet metal
and plastic, then knock off $250 from the price of the computer.
0 Votes
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RE: Keep dreaming and hoping, we won
DeusExMachina Updated - 4th Feb 2009
This article, besides being obvious click bait, is based on
completely absurd and unwarranted assumptions. Any
conclusions reached by the author are, as such, totally
baseless and without any merit whatsoever.

"The iPod touch is already priced at $299 and $399 and
the original iPhone (unsubsidized) was priced at US$599 so
an Apple tablet would easily be priced at $700+ I am
sure."

How is the price of the iPod/iPhone in ANY way relevant to
the issue of pricing for a hypothesized tablet? They are
totally different animals with only slightly overlapping
market demographics. They are also entirely different
hardware platforms, and expecting there to be some
connection between pricing of ultraportable, cutting edge,
miniaturized electronics aimed at media playback and
tablet computers aimed at portable computing markets is
ridiculous. The author implies some kind of technological
or marketing reason that the price of one drives the other,
but contradicts this later by positing potential Android
pricing.
The author appears to realize that the two devices are
aimed at different market with his comments about the
current tablet PCs, but still does not see that this
contradicts his claim of linkage with the media-focused iPod.

None of this is to say that Apple will release their own
tablet. Quite clearly they won't. There is little to no market
viability, and too low a profit margin. One could see the
writing on the wall for MP3 players, and Apple was right to
get in on it. Same is true with the iPhone. The same can not be
said for tablet PCs, whose form factor is simply not
workable for what most people use a computer for. Too
big for portable entertainment, too cramped for general
purpose computing (which is why owners of tablets almost
always own another primary machine.)
This speculation, on both sides, is baseless and rather
poorly thought out.
0 Votes
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counter arguement
8string 5th Feb 2009
If a tablet was built was a pop out 'stand' to hold the screen up when a USB keyboard/mouse was plugged in, this could lower the unit costs of the low end laptops. Given the success of the iPhone/iTouch interface, it would seem that the timing might be right to shoot the lowend market into a large iTouch format. Apple has always taken risks with new form factors, and so far seems to be successful at it. Not sure whether the price point is the issue or whether the screens are somewhat too buggy for consumer use, which is Apple's sweet spot.

Perhaps the better analysis is that they already are making enough money at their current product offerings in a bad market? The worry is that some other company is going to get the tablet form factor 'right'.
0 Votes
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Touch ONLY? No. Touch CAPABLE? Yes.
roystonlodge 9th Feb 2009
I've been shopping eBay for an older tablet-pc onto which I can install a lightweight Linux distro. I'm probably going to settle on one of the older Fujitsu tablets. The plan is to replace the hard-drive with a Compact-Flash-to-IDE adapter. The only stumbling block seems to be the lack of Linux drivers for touchscreens, and only rudimentary handwriting recognition for Linux. But then, I can always plug in a USB keyboard when I need one. I have one of those silicone keyboards you can roll up and stuff in your pocket, so there you go.

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