- Feb 14, 2004
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I recently read an article on AppleInsider that claimed that Apple has ordered 10" touchscreens from Wintek for a mystery product:
http://www.appleinsider.com/ar...r_mystery_product.html
Hmm, I thought - what would Apple want with a giant touchscreen? Steve Jobs has said they're not ready to enter the netbook market. Apple is all about high prices and/or recurring costs, so a $300 netbook doesn't make sense for their business model. Plus it's a difficult niche for Apple - they'd need excellent battery life to power a 10" touchscreen with all the wireless connectivity options available.
So that got me to thinking - why would Apple build a netbook? Or rather, a giant iPod Touch. Well, the netbook market is extremely lucrative. The Atom processors are overkill for 99% of consumer needs (i.e. email, internet, youtube, insant messaging) plus they're cheap, portable (small), and get great battery life compared to regular laptops. But Apple isn't going to violate their business model, so they're not going to release a $300 - $500 netbook.
Plus, their laptop line is already saturated - they have 13", 15", and 17" laptops, plus the ultra-thin netbook-esqe 13" Air. What are they going to do, release a 10" netbook for $499? Nobody would buy an Air! So perhaps the Air is R&D - get things super thin and light, sell some to make money and advance the technology further. Their 17" Macbook Pro broke new ground in terms of battery life - it runs for 8 hours and is good for 5 years, plus I think Apple is making it themselves since it's a new type or approach to the battery. So they have some in-house expertise on good batteries and thin & light components. So laptops are full, desktops are full, not really any place to go with the iPod Touch/iPhone...they need something new & hot!
Okay, so it's do-able - but why? Who is going to use an oversized iPod Touch? You can't carry it in your pocket. Assuming it's a touchscreen and doesn't use a crazy little cramped keyboard the size of my hand (and knowing how much Steve Jobs hates buttons), it's not out to replace your laptop. After talking with a friend last night, the picture of "why" became clearer - there are a lot of compelling reasons why!
I couldn't imagine actually using a 10" all-in-one touchscreen tablet-thingy. Why would I hold it for 2 hours to watch a movie? But then...look at the Kindle. It's big and people hold it for hours on end, just reading. The iPhone has a Kindle app...how much more willing would you be to buy an e-book reader that was also an MP3 player, a video player, an Internet surfing machine, a GPS? Think about using it on an airplane - you don't want to lug out your laptop, you want to slip out a sleek 10" movie player with great battery life so you can actually watch a movie or two! And think about a Garmin or TomTom GPS on a a 10" screen using A-GPS? Yowza! My 3.5" iPhone doesn't cut it for an in-car navigational device (it's just too small!) but a 10" screen certainly would! (assuming it's a slim and sleek Apple device that wouldn't hog a ton of physical space at 10")
The iPhone is a tad too small to really watch a movie on...all you really need is a few inches bigger to make the movie-watching a better experience. Thus a 10" display. And of course multi-touch...Safari is nice on the iPhone, but still - a tad too small! A multi-touch 10" touchscreen with Safari would be amazing! Snow Leopard is supposed to have even more multi-touch capabilities built-in, so it looks like a definite possibility! Plus a GPS, and CoverFlow for your music, perhaps a fancy home entertainment remote control or smart home remote. I'm starting to see how this makes sense...but how much would it cost? I already have a desktop, a laptop, and an iPhone...and this thing would really need 3G to be useful, because it's an Internet device for the most part. Well, an AT&T informer said that Apple is set to sell these for $99 with a monthly contract:
http://www.itproportal.com/por...netbook-says-t-source/
Okay, first, $99 would be amazing. It would totally destroy the netbook market. Multi-touch with always-on Internet at that pricepoint would just be insane! Second, it fits perfectly into Apple's business model - either expensive or recurring. $99 is enough to sucker you in, then they reap the benefit of a monthly fee from you. The iPhone's 3G bill is $30 a month, so I'd say that's a fair price. Any higher and I don't think I'd care - if it was $49 or $59 a month, nah, I'll just use my iPhone, but for $29 a month, I could definitely swing that (it might even make a good case to drop the iPhone and get a cheap cell phone instead!). So Apple takes over the netbook market, Apple gets their profit taken care of with recurring monthly fees, and we get a cheap Tablet with everywhere-Internet for a low monthly fee. This makes complete sense.
So...we hold Kindles, we can hold a 10" screen. Probably won't have a keyboard. Could run OS X or a specialized version of OS X similar to the iPhone. Replaces your laptop for a lot of things. Great battery life. Cheap. 3G Internet wherever you go. Smallish monthly fee (affordable, that is). Apple dominates the netbook market. Happiness, rainbows, unicorns, and butterflies.
I can see it happening.
http://www.appleinsider.com/ar...r_mystery_product.html
Hmm, I thought - what would Apple want with a giant touchscreen? Steve Jobs has said they're not ready to enter the netbook market. Apple is all about high prices and/or recurring costs, so a $300 netbook doesn't make sense for their business model. Plus it's a difficult niche for Apple - they'd need excellent battery life to power a 10" touchscreen with all the wireless connectivity options available.
So that got me to thinking - why would Apple build a netbook? Or rather, a giant iPod Touch. Well, the netbook market is extremely lucrative. The Atom processors are overkill for 99% of consumer needs (i.e. email, internet, youtube, insant messaging) plus they're cheap, portable (small), and get great battery life compared to regular laptops. But Apple isn't going to violate their business model, so they're not going to release a $300 - $500 netbook.
Plus, their laptop line is already saturated - they have 13", 15", and 17" laptops, plus the ultra-thin netbook-esqe 13" Air. What are they going to do, release a 10" netbook for $499? Nobody would buy an Air! So perhaps the Air is R&D - get things super thin and light, sell some to make money and advance the technology further. Their 17" Macbook Pro broke new ground in terms of battery life - it runs for 8 hours and is good for 5 years, plus I think Apple is making it themselves since it's a new type or approach to the battery. So they have some in-house expertise on good batteries and thin & light components. So laptops are full, desktops are full, not really any place to go with the iPod Touch/iPhone...they need something new & hot!
Okay, so it's do-able - but why? Who is going to use an oversized iPod Touch? You can't carry it in your pocket. Assuming it's a touchscreen and doesn't use a crazy little cramped keyboard the size of my hand (and knowing how much Steve Jobs hates buttons), it's not out to replace your laptop. After talking with a friend last night, the picture of "why" became clearer - there are a lot of compelling reasons why!
I couldn't imagine actually using a 10" all-in-one touchscreen tablet-thingy. Why would I hold it for 2 hours to watch a movie? But then...look at the Kindle. It's big and people hold it for hours on end, just reading. The iPhone has a Kindle app...how much more willing would you be to buy an e-book reader that was also an MP3 player, a video player, an Internet surfing machine, a GPS? Think about using it on an airplane - you don't want to lug out your laptop, you want to slip out a sleek 10" movie player with great battery life so you can actually watch a movie or two! And think about a Garmin or TomTom GPS on a a 10" screen using A-GPS? Yowza! My 3.5" iPhone doesn't cut it for an in-car navigational device (it's just too small!) but a 10" screen certainly would! (assuming it's a slim and sleek Apple device that wouldn't hog a ton of physical space at 10")
The iPhone is a tad too small to really watch a movie on...all you really need is a few inches bigger to make the movie-watching a better experience. Thus a 10" display. And of course multi-touch...Safari is nice on the iPhone, but still - a tad too small! A multi-touch 10" touchscreen with Safari would be amazing! Snow Leopard is supposed to have even more multi-touch capabilities built-in, so it looks like a definite possibility! Plus a GPS, and CoverFlow for your music, perhaps a fancy home entertainment remote control or smart home remote. I'm starting to see how this makes sense...but how much would it cost? I already have a desktop, a laptop, and an iPhone...and this thing would really need 3G to be useful, because it's an Internet device for the most part. Well, an AT&T informer said that Apple is set to sell these for $99 with a monthly contract:
http://www.itproportal.com/por...netbook-says-t-source/
Okay, first, $99 would be amazing. It would totally destroy the netbook market. Multi-touch with always-on Internet at that pricepoint would just be insane! Second, it fits perfectly into Apple's business model - either expensive or recurring. $99 is enough to sucker you in, then they reap the benefit of a monthly fee from you. The iPhone's 3G bill is $30 a month, so I'd say that's a fair price. Any higher and I don't think I'd care - if it was $49 or $59 a month, nah, I'll just use my iPhone, but for $29 a month, I could definitely swing that (it might even make a good case to drop the iPhone and get a cheap cell phone instead!). So Apple takes over the netbook market, Apple gets their profit taken care of with recurring monthly fees, and we get a cheap Tablet with everywhere-Internet for a low monthly fee. This makes complete sense.
So...we hold Kindles, we can hold a 10" screen. Probably won't have a keyboard. Could run OS X or a specialized version of OS X similar to the iPhone. Replaces your laptop for a lot of things. Great battery life. Cheap. 3G Internet wherever you go. Smallish monthly fee (affordable, that is). Apple dominates the netbook market. Happiness, rainbows, unicorns, and butterflies.
I can see it happening.
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