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By Chris Meadows

appletablet If this seems like a repeat story, it is only because history is repeating itself yet again. Ars Technica reports that for at least a third time, Apple has applied for a tablet computing patent.

The details of the patent—it seems to focus on case design for tablets, including such things as backlit logos—are not so important as what the patent itself says about what Apple may be planning. There is an old saying that goes “Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, three times is enemy action.”

As the iPod and iPhone show us, Apple has a history of not being the first mover in a niche, but rather of waiting until others have marked out the playing field with their own devices. Just when everyone thinks things have settled down, Apple introduces its newest wonder appliance and completely changes the nature of the game. There were portable mp3 players before the iPod, but now almost nobody remembers them.

You can bet that Apple will be keeping a close eye on the netbook market, and perhaps even on Amazon and Plastic Logic, both of whom have planned big announcements about their new products for later today. Yes, Jobs has pooh-poohed the idea of e-books—but then, Jobs has been known to bash potential products shortly before Apple has introduced them anyway.

Sooner or later, Apple may just surprise us again.

 
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