The Evangelist

There have been a lot of people hoping for an Apple Tablet PC, like those that have been released by other companies.

During the October 14 MacBook event, Kirk Hiner said "Oh, and the mythical iTablet? Apple has “experimented” on it, but feels it doesn’t yet make much sense."

Doesn't make sense?! Apple has always been popular among artists and designers. Can't Apple see that there is indeed an audience for such a computer? Companies like Wacom have touch-sensative tablets on the market for both desktops and laptops that are compatible with both Windows and OS X. But it would seem more intelligent of Apple just built it in. The entire "touchscreen" thing just seems like an extension of the direction Apple was taking with the iPhone anyways.

Perhaps Apple is right in that the interest in such a tablet isn't great. But what about making a personal version as well? Certainly the iPhone and iPod Touch have gotten great attention due to their intuitive touch-interfaces. A personal version, perhaps in "slate" form factor without a keyboard, could be easily marketed.

As a side note, I don't see why Apple shouldn't keep with their previous conventions and separate the Macbook Air into "Pro" and consumer models. The lower end could be a netbook targeted at the coffeehouse blogger. Imagine how slim Apple could make it with Intel's new Atom processors.