What To Expect From Apple's Rumored MacPad 213
Jeff writes "I decided to review the specifications of recent e-readers and mobile devices as well as the ongoing Apple rumor mill to chart out the most likely features, innovations and configuration we can expect from Apple's long awaited Newton successor/Mac Tablet which I'll call the MacPad. The MacPad will arrive in fall '09 or Jan '10, with a 10" diagonal color display, a $599 price point with a Verizon data plan, a stylus, note taking application and handwriting recognition and an e-bookstore for iTunes. Apple's biggest challenge will be convincing its huge installed base of iPhone owners that they need a MacPad too. Past failed Newtonian predictions by others are available on Slashdot and the likelihood that any of this is right can be gauged by earlier Confucian gems such as Haskin warns that Apple may be setting itself up for a failure with the iPhone."
A review of product that is a rumor.. (Score:5, Interesting)
Really, the gem of this is referring to how previous rumor based stories that sided negative were wrong.. If you ignore the fact that the entire idea of this story is cobbled together from fairy dust and wishes.
I love my mac but.. in the words of William Shatner, get a life!
Challenge? (Score:1, Interesting)
Apple's biggest challenge will be convincing its huge installed base of iPhone owners that they need a MacPad too.
How about making the iPhone and MacPad dependent and lock out any 3rd party looking for some interoperability? Seems to have worked for Apple in the past.
Speculation if fun (Score:4, Interesting)
That sound almost nothing like what Gizmodo is reporting: "It'll land in October, to be exact, when we should expect to pay around $800 for it."
Re:Stylus (Score:4, Interesting)
That would smack of playing "catch up" and introducing a "me too" product. Does that sound like Apple?
Yes. The last Apple commercial I saw: "Copy & Paste: New on the iPhone 3GS" Their desktops and servers are using intel chips now. MacOSX proponents were constantly touting "UNIX underpinnings!" Apple does a lot of innovating, but in their innovation, they purposefully ignore others' years old achievements, then add them in a "me too!" style to sell version 2.0 of their innovation.
Re:WTF. (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Mac Tablet History (Score:3, Interesting)
As the saying goes, there's no smoke without fire. Just look at the rumours about the Google OS.
Besides, the Apple tablet in question is rumoured to have taken an unusual time to develop.
Death of the Macintosh (Score:4, Interesting)
The Mac Pad has some possibility to be real simply because you would have to be blind to not see that the end of the Macintosh as a basic consumer device is coming. Anyone that went to WWDC can tell you the focus was entirely on iPhone OS.
The Macintosh will still be around as high end media creation devices and servers. Think of iPhone, Touch and potential MacPad or new consumer devices as media consumption devices. They will have basic editing ability (see iLife and iWork) but that's it. Who really needs a quad quad xenon to play MP3s and watch videos. Also look at the game market on iPhone OS. That's where the money is and that's where Apple is going.
Wrong. (Score:4, Interesting)
"Apple's biggest challenge will be convincing its huge installed base of iPhone owners that they need a MacPad too. "
What? No.
First of all, if this "MacPad" exists it is not going to be targetted at existing iPhone customers. It will be targetted at existing Mac users and PC users. From what I'm hearing this thing more akin to a mobile PC than a Netbook-ified cell phone. You're not going to convince many users of the expensive but very functional iPhone that they need yet another mobile device. So, yes, in a way, this would be a challenge, such a big one, in fact, that it would make no sense to try to do it.