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Hardly a comfort, more of an embarrasment…

The Year Of The Tablet

For the last two years speculation has run wild that Apple will release a tablet, with each new press conference that Apple holds the rumor mills go wild. Apple has announced another press conference on January 27, 2010, speculation has again run wild, but this time I think the rumors are true and here’s why:

The technology timing is right
10 years ago all tablets used a stylus, but in the last couple of years touchscreens have evolved to support multi-touch capabilities. Along with that we now have processors that are quick, battery friendly and do not run as hot as their ancestors, the intel Atom line being an example. While these are not CPU’s meant for blazing computing needs, they do fill a great niche for small devices that don’t need to drive as much real estate as say a desktop computer.

The interface issues are quickly maturing
It’s take some time to move from the stylus to a true touch pad, but one look at the iPhone and iPod and there’s not doubt we have finally arrived. While there’s still room for refinement, the majority of the hurdles have been passed.

The market is ready
I’ve heard lots of people talk about how tablets have been around for years and have never taken off, true but those tablets all where nothing more than a laptop with a stylus. They where expensive and limited in power and scope, but now you buy a netbook for under $500, a wireless router for $40 and within a short time be sitting on your couch surfing the net, reading email or any number of other tasks. Net books have exploded and they have lead the way for tablets to now storm onto the scene. We even now have netbooks and devices with 3g wireless meaning you can have internet access (albeit slow) from just about anywhere.

The rest of industry is already onboard
Microsoft showed off a new tablet running a touch version of windows 7 at CES, there are at least a dozen touchpads running android already being announced and some available now. Some of the early ones have been less than successful, but almost all the big players are now promising tablets at some point this year.

With our without the rumor mill, there’s no way in my opinion that Apple is going to let this slip by. The iPhone allowed them time to polish the interface, they now have the technology to actually create a tablet that consumers will flock too. I can think of a myriad of uses for a small thin tablet, that has both wireless and 3g, given the app base for the iPhone they already have a head start on applications. The coding structure for iPhone apps would apply very well to a tablet, they have all the pieces.

Now all they have to do is pull the trigger, if they can keep the cost reasonable then I think they could take the entire market by storm. We’ll know for sure on the 27th, but I’m already saving my money