The announcement was made by Steve Jobs yesterday to make it official. Apple has introduced a new tablet on to the market:
I tend to agree with the comments circulating that the tablet looks like a giant Ipod touch. That being said I do see some issues for the tablet.
The tablet will be cheaper that purchasing a touch screen monitor and pc. I see it is a strong possibility that many touch screen applications can be developed for the tablet. One that comes to mind would be a directory in an office building. The Apple Tablet could be mounted in an enclosure. A touch screen application could be developed to display a list of Tenet’s in the office building and their office buildings. Using the current Ipod touch/Iphone type technology you could scroll up and down the list for a list of Tenet’s names. By touching on the Tenet’s name you could receive more information like the suite number and a map to their location.
Besides niche applications like the one above, I personally believe the tablet market is dieing. At the low end we already have netbooks which is a market Apple is not in. At the high end we already full fledged notebooks. Apple is also is the smartphone market with their Iphone. These are the 3 biggest areas of portable machines, not the tablet.
The tablet by many is considered a competitor for the E-book market. I have heard reports that Amazon is greatly concerned. Many people feel that Apple is going after the E-Book reader market. My bet is the tablet will be much too expensive to make it a glorified E-Book reader. It will appeal to some people who just love Apple but not to the masses.
The Apple tablet will be a niche piece of hardware. Personally I will not be rushing to purchase one since I already own an IPhone will you?
