Asus says Apple building Tablet PC
Didn't Microsoft try that a while back?
ASUSTEK HAS helped the dark satanic rumour mill turn by telling world plus dog that Apple is going to build a Tablet PC.
According to Cnet, the leak was made over lunch with some Asus executive, thus proving the age old adage it is always best to drink after you leak.
Asus is Apple's contract manufacturer and has been making Ibooks, Powerbooks and Macbooks with an fruit theme for some time.
It would appear that the Tablet will be based on a patent Apple filed back in May 2005. Besides Intel Core architecture, it will be blessed with the Leopard OS, if they get the bugs ironed out and the multi-touch, CoverFlow interface which has proved popular in the Iphone.
Tablet PCs are a bit of mine field. Redmond was the sort of place that Princess Diana would visit in a flak jacket after its failed attempts in producing one. However Jobs' Mob must be confident that with a fruit theme, the right pastel shades, bucket loads of smug marketing and a fanatical fan base, it can succeed where the Vole couldn't.
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Comments
Been there, done that, got the T-shirt
Fujistu tried ths in 1990's. First they bought PoqetPC. Rhen they starting selling 386 based Stylistic 500 Tablet PC with CIC's New Handwriter Recognition System 5.0 for Windows 95. Worked okay for a few veritcal markets. But was a LOUSY seller to most folks.and I bring you.....
the iNewton?or was the iPhone a Newton with a phone built in.... or was it an iPod with a phone built in..... no the iTouch is an iPhone without the phone.... so will this have no phone, no mp3 player and just be a touchy pointy osx thing?
Haven't been there, haven't done that...
An Apple tablet wouldn't be competing for the 'vertical markets' so much as it would be competing with now-affordable Tablet PCs and the (still extraordinarily unaffordable) Wacom Cintiq.Apple has the Adobe stack and the big design firms as customers. What's amazing is that they didn't cough a tablet up five years ago, when it could've sold at a higher margin.
and the lemmings go...
This will sell sell sell. Just because apple has such marketing power and a huge fanbase.Hell they could sell the iduck, one that you just put in your bath tub. People would just buy it because its got a apple logo on it.
Its like with clothes. If its a certain brand people buy it reguardless.
Can we say $3000 flop?
We all know that Apple is going to charge out the butt for this thing. This is what nearly killed Tablet PCs. I currently own a Toshiba M200 which I bought barely touched for $550... aside from needing a new battery, I love this thing and feel that it was the best $550 I've ever spent. Would I have paid over $1500 for a tablet PC? No. Will Apple fanboys dish out $3000 for an oversized iPhone? nope. Between this and Google's Android, Apple is dead.Iduck
I want an Iduck too!!Now I just need to find out the day before they make their official announcement of their tablet PC so I can make a quick buck on AAPL :)
Might do well
OK, Apple has laid a few eggs in the past.Ok, a few Ostrich eggs (Newton, Pink, etc.) However, Apple's version of a tablet would be welcome in certain circles, including those who work with Photoshop a lot and anyone working on contracts, such as Real Estate Agents. I know many RE Agents who love tablets because their customers can sign the documents right on the screen without printing anything out. Saves trees. Coupled with some kind of efax you can go almost completely paperless.
That doesn't mean that Apple can't ruin it...
Market
I've been thinking about a tablet mac since around January 2003, just before I saw ads for the Compaq tablet PC hit the streets of the UK. Oops.All of my initial sketches and ideas were based on the fact that the Macintosh at the time was rarely seen as a home computer, as it was still often described as 'that computer designers use'.
At that time, as a design student, I thought of a tablet mac as the perfect tool for a designer: from education to profession. It could be a sketchbook, or a retouching machine.
However, people are now waking up and there are more and more Apple computers in homes, so Apple's focus must be broader now, than when they were perhaps targeting the creative industry more. SO maybe they won't build one soon.
Hard to say, though, as everyone seems to be obsessed with 'touch' right now.