|
Mermaids, fairies, unicorns, Nessie, swamp apes, goat-sucking chupacabras, Apple’s Tablet computer -- all of these fabulous creatures have attained near mythical status, sporadically become the topic of widespread interest, and are occasionally spotted in the wild by a favored few. Some of us simply don’t believe -- "Real computers have keyboards," Steve Jobs has said on more than one occasion -- the rest of us keep hoping.
Below is the wondrous tale of Apple’s legendary Tablet computer, documenting nearly a decade of openly whispered secrets, extraordinary rumors, astonishing apparitions and intrepid souls who pore through patent databases, ask hard questions, and dare to speculate about the magic being conjured up behind closed doors in Cupertino.
May 24, 2001: Kevin Fox, a user experience designer for Google, blogs "At least five times in the past 10 years engineers at Apple have worked on initiatives to bring a full-sized tablet-based computer to market. Though the previous four attempts never saw the light of day, Apple has saved the best for last. This July: Meet iPad." Fox figured that the iPad would be 11.5" x 9" x 0.7" with a 12-inch 1024×768 LCD touch- and stylus-sensitive screen, 2-3 pounds, priced just under a thousand bucks. His "predictive analysis based on past Apple research, Apple’s current market strategies, and recent product and technology positioning" appears flawless, but Apple didn’t deliver.
November 18, 2002: Matthew Rothenberg at eWeek writes that "It's my strong belief, let's call it a hunch, that prototype Mac tablets are already making the rounds among select developers" adding "Nota bene: I've yet to get my hands on a smoking pen that will verify the Tablet Mac's existence. Any readers with first-hand experience are welcome to drop me a line (in the strictest confidence, of course)."
January 5, 2003: Rothenberg’s request for insider information seems to have been granted. He now writes "My sources sketch the following picture: A device that superficially resembles a large iPod with an 8-inch diagonal screen, lacks a keyboard, packs USB and FireWire ports, and runs Mac OS X along with a variety of multimedia goodies." Rothenberg predicts that the device will debut at the upcoming Macworld Expo in San Francisco. (According to Mac Rumors, since eWeek’s links to old stories are broken)
Source: Chris Messina
June 4, 2003: Steve Jobs tells Walter Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal that "There are no plans to make a tablet… people want keyboards. We look at the tablet and we think it is going to fail. Tablets appeal to rich guys with plenty of other PCs and devices already." According to a Google cache of a MacObserver story, Jobs and Mossberg had this chat at the D: All Things Digital conference.
November 27, 2003: Pay no attention to what that silly Steve Jobs told Mossberg a few months back. Robert Cringely, blogging for PBS, reports that an Apple tablet computer is on its way. "Quanta, the Taiwanese company that makes many Apple notebooks, has been apparently switching its production to the new tablets…," Cringley writes, suggesting that Apple may introduce the tablet "as early as January." Cringley notes that response to PC tablets has been tepid but predicts that Apple will revolutionize the market by making the tablet "a digital hub." Tablet owners will be able to "watch TV in your bathroom, access your audio and video collection from anywhere in the house, control your big screen TV and route video to it from your desktop or the Internet. Take a dozen movies and your entire music collection with you on a trip. Strap the gizmo to the back of your car headrest and entertain the kids. Grab e-mail from a passing WiFi hotspot. Surf the web. Play video games
August 13, 2004: The Register’s Tony Smith ferrets out a European design trademark filing by Apple for a vaguely named "Electronic Device." Illustrations for the gadget show what Smith describes as Apple’s "long-awaited tablet computer" a justifiable assumption since the patent directly references several PC tablets. Rumor sites debate whether the device is actually a tablet or a "giant iPod."
August 24, 2005: Apple posts a help wanted ad for a "Handwriting Recognition Engineer … passionate about providing handwriting solutions to end customers" who strongly believes that "using a stylus and a tablet is the way to interact with computers." Endgadget’s Peter Rojas wearily comments that "We should probably resist the temptation to read too much into this" but goes on to wistfully note that "Apple did receive a patent for a tablet-style computer earlier this year and so we wouldn't be surprised if it turns out that one of the reasons they switched to Intel was so they could build an ultralight, ultrathin Tablet Mac."
February 2, 2006: Apple is granted a new patent for a tablet computer apparently intended for use by zombies. The 52-page "Mode-based graphical user interfaces for touch sensitive input devices" patent filing (US 0026535) shows a hybrid tablet/notebook being poked and prodded by scary ghoul hands. Nearly and newly deceased Apple fans are thrilled.
May 14, 2007: AppleBlog’s Eddie Hargreaves lists the Apple Tablet as one of the “Ten Biggest Apple Rumors That Never Came True.”
November 6, 2007: CNET’s Crave reporter Rory Reid has dinner with some folks from Asus, who whisper to him that hush, hush "Asus is helping Apple build a Tablet PC." Fuhgeddabout that hush, hush nonsense, Reid writes a story promising "you can bet your bottom dollar it's being built as you read this. Mac fanboys rejoice." Damn you, Asus, for being a big old tech tease.
January 9, 2008: Fred Vogelstein’s Wired Magazine story on the development of the iPhone states "Apple's hardware engineers had spent about a year working on touchscreen technology for a tablet PC" called the Safari Pad, the tech was ported over to what became the iPhone.
March 3, 2008: New York Times reporter John Markoff asks Steve Jobs about the possibility of a large, Newton-like tablet device, Jobs snappily replies that "I can't talk about unannounced products." Mac rumor sites dutifully report the story. "Unannounced" actually means coming soon to an Apple store near you, right?
April 11, 2009: The Wall Street Journal cagily reports that "People privy to the company's strategy say Apple is working on… a portable device that is smaller than its current laptop computers but bigger than the iPhone or iPod touch."
April 27, 2009: Boldly going where WSJ feared to go, BusinessWeek bluntly states that Apple’s in-development "Media Pad" is smaller than a Kindle but has a display that’s bigger than the Kindle’s. BusinessWeek quotes an anonymous source: "We are talking about a device where people will say, 'Damn, why didn't we do this?' Apple is probably going to define the damn category." The Media Pad might be released in Autumn 2009.
Source: Chris Messina
May 21, 2009: Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster insists that there will be no Apple tablet until mid-2010, citing his component manufacturer sources in Asia. Seth Weintraub at ComputerWorld is bummed, but cheers himself, and his readers, up by pointing out the flaws in Munster’s previous reports of Apple rumors. "I am still very excited and frankly would be a bit surprised not to see something by the holidays," writes Weintraub.
July 21, 2009: Investment news site The Street confidently states that Apple will indeed have a tablet computer in time for the 2009 holiday season, adding that Apple has had a prototype of the device for about a year but is still unsure how to market it. Reporter Scott Moritz tells us the device will look like a super-sized iPod touch, with a 9-inch to 10-inch touchscreen and possibly a keyboard. Initially it will be subsidized by Verizon. Moritz also states that after a dazzling debut the device will be a total fiscal failure, because no one really wants a tablet computer.
July 27, 2009: Britain’s Financial Times reports that "Apple is racing to offer a portable tablet-sized computer in time for the Christmas shopping season, in what the entertainment industry hopes will be a new revolution. The device is expected to be launched alongside new content deals, including some aimed at stimulating sales of CD-length music… the touch-sensitive computer will have a screen that may be up to 10 inches diagonally. It will connect to the internet like the iPod touch – probably without phone capability but with access to the web, and to Apple’s online stores for software and entertainment." FT reports that the Tablet will be promoted as an alternative to Amazon’s Kindle, will be released in September or October, priced somewhere around $600-$1000.
So, has the mythical Apple Tablet beast finally decided to make itself known to mere mortals? Perhaps… but there’s a sour note at the very end of the Financial Times article, Oppenheimer & Co analyst Yair Reiner and others caution that "Apple might not be able to get all of the components it needs in the right packaging by the end of the year."
Sigh.
