Posted on 12/31/2009 7:45:26 PM PST by Jet Jaguar
Today's Apple tablet rumor has an optimistic zing to it--and maybe that's a great way to close out a dreary 2009. According to a blog post by former Google China president Kai-Fu Lee, Apple plans to produce nearly 10 million tablets in the still-unannounced product's first year. Lee worked for Apple more than ten years ago and left Google earlier this year, according to published reports.
That figure--10 million--seems awfully high for a consumer product that's charting unknown territory. The tablet (or iSlate or iPad, if you prefer) would target an untapped market, if rumors of the device's form and functionality are true. True, a few tablet-style browser/media players are either already on the market or are arriving shortly, but none has garnered anywhere near the attention of the Apple tablet.
I did some checking at Apple's site to see what sales figures were like for the iPhone in its first year. Here's the breakdown:
(Excerpt) Read more at pcworld.com ...
Ping
Thats way too many. Imagine that they do not sell, then what?
There is a recession going on and tablets are not proven to be very commercially viable.
B4L8r
so it’s a picture frame with a cpu?
wonder what the keyboard will be? flex? virtual?
looks like touchscreen keyboard.
Too late. I got a kindle for Christmas. Apple has been scooped by Amazon. Can’t believe they’ve been so slow in the book market.
Yep! Seen it.
brown, bad - blue, good.
handwriting recognition.
our company has several patents in this area.
So does ART in Israel.
The quality of products is actually so-so. There is always the promise of more, that is never delivered. Only this week, we are totally ditching our Apple TVs (3 of them) as the bloody things work so unreliably on our network with the advent of Snow Leopard. We are ditching Time Capsule. Bloody thing doesn't work for complicated file structures (terrabytes of data in seriously nested folders).
I look at the new iMacs and i think: "I'd rather an HP". I'm not interested in the new iPhones -- I'd rather an android.
I think I have serious Mac fatique.
I guess they could always get a bunch of states to mandate these in schools.
Obama will give them some bailout money.
Hey, if any company can do it, Apple can.
Whether you like or hate them, you can’t argue that they have influenced the adoption of technology in major ways.
They popularized the graphical interface and mouse.
They took USB into the mainstream.
They abolished the floppy.
They were responsible for making electronic distribution of music and mp3 players accessible to everyone.
They made video editing available to everyday people.
They revolutionized the mobile phone...everyone is copying it.
So, I don’t doubt they will bring a product to market that will bring the concept of the tablet PC into the mainstream.
I believe it will heavily leverage touch screen technology and gestures.
But now with the success of the iPhone OS used on the iPhone and iPod touch, we finally have a really viable touchscreen computer interface for the first time. And computing power has caught up with the latest low-power consumption ARM processors (ARM11), which means the rumored Apple iSlate will be powerful enough to not only to Internet access, but also play back videos as high as 720p (1280x720) resolution cleanly. In short, the iSlate will combine the functions of an Internet access device, media player and e-book reader into a singular device with a really viable interface for the first time.
Last time I heard, Apple had 20-30 billion dollars in cash reserves. If there were more companies operating as profitably, we would all be a lot better off.
Last time I heard, Apple had 20-30 billion dollars in cash reserves. If there were more companies operating as profitably, we would all be a lot better off.
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