Point of the iTablet? Try these variants.

by WyldKard on August 3, 2009

All this talk about the iTablet, and we’re still confused as to what the ultimate point is. Not about the talk itself, but about the reasoning to release an iTablet in the first place, novelty factor aside. The Blog was keen on pointing out the OS possibilities for the rumoured iTablet, and that consideration will clearly define where the device fits into ’s lineup, and what kind of consumer it will target. We thought more on the subject of use, and came up with a couple iTablet versions worth discussing.

The Browser

Those in the “large ” camp are undoubtedly browsers. That is to say, they’re the exact market the Touch and go after when advertises mobile Safari and video features. So why a new device? Because as good a mobile entertainment center it is, the Touch/ isn’t ideal for sitting back on a couch and watching a movie. Granted, that’s what TVs are for, but the iTablet Browser will enable users to take their movies and television shows to places their TVs can’t go: camping, the hotel room, the back-yard, etc. In other words, the iTablet Browser is exactly what the Touch is, albeit bigger, which means less eye strain, easier-to-navigate web pages, etc.

While a niche target for sure, the iTablet Browser could be the most basic of all netbook-like devices: targeting the most casual of casual computer users. In other words, this device would be for the many grandparents out there who only need to get online to check their e-mail to receive pictures of their grandkids, or to folks who do little more than surf the web. It’s the perfect dumb-terminal for people who don’t do enough traveling to justify the small screen real-estate of the Touch, or don’t need a portable phone-computer like the . What’s more, with a screen able to run multiple apps, or even customized apps like a large Kindle application, the iTablet Browser could becomes a cross between the Kindle (albeit with no e-ink display), an Touch, and an AppleTV. In other words, it would be the ultimate throw-in-your-briefcase computer.

The beauty of this device is in its low- requirements. The iTablet Browser needn’t be much faster than the 3GS (though likely will be since its size will be larger), and there’s little need to enable the device to run more than one application at a time, much like with the Touch. Thus, the OS would likely be the same (with minor modifications), and the overall price of the device wil be low.

The Secretary

Moving up a notch, the iTablet Secretary addresses one of our oldest complaints about the : the lack of a solid input mechanism. The iTablet has the additional real-estate we need to adequately review our textual input, but at its core, a bloated Touch still doesn’t have a good way to type. So, the iTablet Secretary will have to either have a bluetooth keyboard, some sort of slideout keyboard, or fancy handwriting recognition ala the legendary Newton. Plus, for bloggers, students, and other multi-taskers, there would need to be an ability to quickly switch between a note-taking application and a browsing screen (mobile Safari, an eBook application, etc.) This could be as simple as beefing up the Notes app and letting it run in the background just like the app, but with this and handwriting recognition, we’d likely be looking at faster . Plus, there’s the whole issue of a stylus, which we wouldn’t discount outright, but it’d still be a questionable move for , since their reliance on new capacitative touchscreens left the stylus behind. Of course, the iTablet Secretary could work by just letting users write letters with their fingers, which seems like the most logical move at this point.

Obviously, the cost of the iTablet Secretary would be greater than the iTablet Browser, but it would have many more uses, and target many more consumers. The cost needn’t be much higher, however, since adequate handwriting recognition was done years ago in portable devices. In fact, one would have to wonder why wouldn’t release the iTablet Secretary over the iTablet Browser given that its requirements wouldn’t be vastly greater, what with considerations being the primary difference. Indeed, a modified Touch OS would work wonderfully here, too.

The Excelsior

The ideal ultra-casual, portable PC, is embodied in our idea of the iTablet Excelsior. In short, it’s a full-on computer with the regular version of OS X. Like the MacBook Air, it would have an attachable SuperDrive as an accessory, and would work with bluetooth devices like keyboards and mice (in addition to maintaining handwriting recognition). It would have a USB port, and maybe even a video-out port. It wouldn’t be particularly powerful, with specs at or below the basic MacBook, but it would easily handle all the tasks the iTablet Secretary could handle. In short, it’s a MacBook Air, sans keyboard.

But why go this route? Some may argue against this because of possible cannibalzing of MacBook sales, but we could make the same argument for the iTablet Browser or iTablet Secretary cannibalizing Touch sales. The reality is that in their current state, the Touch and are mere extensions of the home PC. That is to say, one needs a PC or Mac to sync with, and one needs iTunes to similarly manage media. Without a home computer, the Touch and are artificially limited. The iTablet Excelsior, however, could serve not only as the backbone for one’s existing Touch and , but for those only wanting only one super-portable device for media browsing, the iTablet Excelsior is it.

In other words, for an all-in-one solution for the average student, the MacBook may be the way to go, and maybe the iTablet Excelsior, with all its options (superdrive, keyboard, mouse, external display) would dwarf the MacBook in price, but by itself, it could squeeze well below the 1k mark and still offer a great niche computing experience. In other words, it wouldn’t cannibalize MacBook sales (effectively being part of the lineup), and would serve as the Mac Mini of the notebook world; it would be extensible enough to still offer a great home-computing experience, while working great as an on-the-go computer for class, managing warehouse inventory, or just blogging from the local coffee shop.

Conclusion

Undoubtedly, will be targeting some sort of niche with the iTablet, but just which niche will it go for? Will the iTablet cut into would-be Touch customers, or would-be MacBook customers? And can it carve a definitive place for itself in the market? The hype behind the device will no doubt steamroll it into the mindshare of computer users, but only its practicality will determine its success, and save it from the fate of ’s hobby venture, the AppleTV. We tend to think that the potential for a surefire hit is there, but even as gadget aficionados, we’d be hard-pressed to justify the purchase of anything less than the iTablet Excelsior, considering we already carry an and use a MacBook.

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