The waveform is collapsing. Schroedinger’s Box is starting to crack open. The Apple tablet is slowly drifting out of the realm of rumor and toward the realm of sure thing. But is it really meant to be an e-book reader?
At a time when e-ink readers are gradually starting to come down in price, Apple—who has never been known for budget-friendliness—is about to enter the market, or at least produce a device which can be used for e-reading.
There is no way that device’s price is going to be low enough to compete with the Kindle, Sony, and Nook for the same target audience. (Not to mention the fact that many people complain about “staring at a glowing screen” and want to read on e-ink anyway.)
But Apple must at least be thinking about the e-book market. Why else would they introduce a tablet PC now, after every other tablet that has been tried has failed? How can they avoid such a failure themselves?
One thing is certain: whatever Apple does, it is going to surprise us. It surprised us with the iPod. It surprised us with the iPhone. It will probably surprise us with this tablet, even if we think we know what is coming.
Latest rumor round-up after the jump.
Ars Technica quotes an anonymous Apple executive saying to the New York Times that “Steve is extremely happy with the new tablet.” And another recently-departed Apple employee reportedly said that the interface will be unexpected and unusual. (Though given how original the first iPod and iPhone/iPod Touch’s control schemes were, perhaps by now we should be expecting the unexpected.)
Meanwhile, MacRumors suggests that the name of the new device might be the iSlate. They point to Apple possibly obtaining a trademark and domain name featuring this word through a dummy company, the way they did with “iPhone”. TechCrunch chimes in with information about other iSlate-based domain names.
A couple of days ago, Ars reported that Apple had approached some iPhone developers about having versions of their apps that could do larger resolutions than 320×480 available for a January demo.
Perhaps one Apple surprise will be a hand-held reader that is not a dedicated shopping device. Kindle and Nook are outright on-line store promotions. From that perspective e-ink is a decoy that disguises the device as a docile book.
I’d put my chips down on the square for ‘ebookers will not buy the slate for ebook purposes alone, but those who do buy it will read ebooks on it.’
I wonder what the real figures are comparing, historically, how many people read ebooks on dedicated devices like the Nook or Kindle or Sony Reader or RocketBook, and how many read them on devices intended originally for other purposes, like PDAs, laptops, smart phones? My guess would be that the dedicated devices are a pretty small slice of the pie — but that people who do buy a Kindle would buy more and read more books on it than people with an iPod Touch.
Apple wants a multimedia device. They will also be more than happy to take a piece out of the push, downloadable periodicals/newspapers market, should such a market come to blossom. But mostly this slate is meant to watch iTunes TV shows and movies, the ‘LP’ style of music, and so on, as well as games.
I’d rather read comics on a color large screen slate, and it would do better for textbooks and technical books with tables and illustrations. But for novels and matter that’s text-only, I’d prefer a smaller size, and grayscale with better battery life.
As you say, Apple will charge dearly for this item, even though one version may be subsidized by carrier contracts. I haven’t seen any rumors of this device with a sticker price under $800 US, and $1000 US is also mentioned as the upper limit of the price range. It makes the Kindle DX look affordable — as an ebook device.