This Apple Tablet thing isn’t a new concept. In 1997, the man himself (that’s Mr. Jobs for those of you asking), pulled the plug on the Newton, a device that was to revolutionize personal computing, but in the end couldn’t quite live up to the lofty imagineering at One Infinite Loop.
Fast Forward to 2009, and we are again at the doorstep of an anticipated product launch, a ultra portable personal device that is expected to deliver on what the Newton couldn’t do over a decade ago. There is a race to deliver a keyboard-free, touch-screen ultra portable machine in the next six months. All eyes are on Apple, which is expected to deliver such a product early next year.
The excitement surrounding such a product release might be perplexing to some; after all, tablet machines have been around in various forms for quite some time now. Unfortunately, those early incarnations were cumbersome at best, failing to deliver on the promise of a true ultra portable with the power of a desktop. Fresh blood in the industry, coupled with technical advances have generated far reaching visions of what these Tablets would mean to the market, ranging from the savior of newspaper and various print media, to a true portable tv/movie/video game device. Think of it as an iPhone on steriods.
Early Tablets, such as those marketed by Microsoft and its hardware allies suffered from a fatal twin problem: their machines cost too much and did not do much of anything. They were practically worthless. Despite that, Microsoft appears ready to make another foray. Images of a pad-like Microsoft device called Courier, with two 7-inch color screens, made its rounds on the internet earlier this year. Ballmer, Microsoft’s head honcho, would not discuss particulars, but intimated that the company experiments with such prototypes all the time. It appears the market is anxiously awaiting a new computing platform, but the question is, will they be disappointed again?
As always, Apple’s version of the tablet is the most highly anticipated. Apple rehired the original chief marketer of its old Newton, Michael Tchao and Apple colleagues believe he will help market this new device. It appears that the right questions are being asked internally, at least by Apple. They are right to question how such a device will be used by the market, for if they fail to articulate that in their marketing schemes, then the device may not become the hot seller they are hoping for in 2010. The industry in general can ill-afford to bring to market a 2010 version of Microsoft’s failed Tablet device. This time, they need to deliver a useful product that will be adopted. Simple enough?
