Apple Set to Ruin Christmas with January Tablet Event
Apple has booked the stage at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in downtown San Francisco for "several days" in late January, according to a report at Financial Times, leading to increased speculation the company is preparing to unveil the long-awaited "Apple Tablet."
Coming on the heels of a Silicon Alley Insider report suggesting that select developers have been asked to prepare their apps for a demo next month, Wednesday's showcase rumor has the tech blogosphere and Twitterverse humming with anticipation that Apple could singlehandedly make every geek and gearhead's Christmas moot with a big product announcement on Tuesday, January 26th.
"Apple has been telling some app makers to prepare apps for a demo next month," according to the source quoted in the Silicon Alley Insider piece. "They've told select developers that as long as they build their apps to support full screen resolution -- rather than a fixed 320x480 -- their apps should run just fine," the source continued, suggesting apps previously built and optimized for the iPhone may soon have a larger platform on which to showcase their magic.
Apple has used the Yerba Buena event center in the past for product announcements such as updates to the iPod line, and has used the Macworld Expo (traditionally held at San Francisco's Moscone Center in early January) several times in the past decade to announce major new products. The last such announcement in 2007, when Apple CEO Steve Jobs introduced the world to the iPhone, marked something of a swansong for the computer giant, which will fail to anchor Macworld in 2010 for the first time in over 20 years.
Macworld 2010 won't kick off its coming event until February 9th this time around, giving Apple a golden opportunity to upstage what has long been the Mac community's most anticipated expo and conference of the year.
Should Apple announce a tablet at its January event, it will no doubt set the technology world on its ear. Conceived as a cross between a laptop computer and a touchscreen device similar to the iPhone, the mythical tablet has been an object of many a geek fantasy since the demise of the Newton. With the advent of handheld touchscreen functionality in the iPhone three years ago, desire for a tablet device has lately reached a fever pitch.
Earlier this month, the Wall Street Journal published a report indicating Apple's tablet would go on sale in March. Though both Apple and The Yerba Buena Center for the Arts declined comment on Wednesday's report, it's not beyond the realm of conjecture that Apple could introduce the Tablet in January. If it does, it's bound to take a bit of the shine off every other piece of technology due to be unwrapped in a couple of days.
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Comments
Great reporting though, Lonnie!
xoxoxo,
I hope they do come out with a tablet. I've been waiting for that size of divice.
I would recommend that no one get too excited about an Apple tablet just yet. First of all, this is all just rumor and conjecture at this point. Second, rarely, if ever, is the first iteration of anything electronic worth anything to anyone who isn't already a collector of such gear.
If Apple does bring something out in January, it will be groundbreaking -- but it might not serve the interests of the masses to well for another year or so. @Ablonde, it's probably OK for you to get an iPhone now, though you may want to hold off till next summer when the next version with the 5 megapixel camera comes out.
Trig, what does X not like about his macbook?
o'steph - see JOY MARS' comment; Apple's been ruining Christmas for some folks a long, long time.
And just so anyone who cares will know - I have no vested interest in the success or failure of Apple or any Apple product. I don't even own any Apple stock. I just happen to follow the company and write about it for a (meager) living and -- full disclosure -- I do happen to believe Apple makes the best consumer level computer/entertainment products available.
You might also be interested to know that Apple bought lala.com. Kind of outdates my post warning Apple to watch out for lala. :-)
I wouldn't mind a little Apple stock in my xmas stocking.
Good job on the reporting!
And I've deleted comments for the first time today, too. Sounds like they're the same as yours.
Supposedly this has the "feel" of a book. Many readers tend to read wholistically and not linearly, and absorb information from multiple visual points seemingly instantaneously, and so page layout is very important, as is the ability to jump back and forth between text and pics while reading.
Knowing Apple, this should get ebooks headed in a very useful direction.
Order some clothing or UGG BOOTS from the spammers and maybe they'll leave us alone?
Wishing you and yours a very peaceful holiday season.
Some suggest that it'll be an Ipod Touch on steroids making it like an 'ebook' with extras.
One thing is for sure, whatever Apple does will be followed by many. A few 'leaked' videos have made the rounds, some of them being apparent disinformation campaigns possibly from Apple themselves.
I'll be logged in and waiting to see what they have up their sleeve for the next 'gotta have' bit of technology.
Funny that this also joins the much rumoured Verizon iPhone too. Stay tuned...
I keep an eye on the Mac Rumors website for a pretty accurate report on what's news, and what isn't, in the Apple world... They will probably be live blogging the event as well.
A company, Axiotron has been modifying Mac notebooks for a while, turning them into tablet computers. They recently made an agreement with Apple (reported at MacRumors) that gave Apple the use of their previous name for their line of tablet mods. The 'TabletMac' name now belongs to Apple for an undisclosed sum of money... That doesn't mean that the new device will be called 'TabletMac' but does come at an interesting time.
How can we live with ourselves until then?
'iSlate'? Hmmm... Interesting idea for a name...
Perhaps you were exaggerating for effect, but I have to point out with friendly intent that the majority of non-rich geeks aren't going to feel less happy about whatever tech presents they were given over this. Most of us learn lasting gratitude for well-chosen gifts as soon as we're old enough to pay our own way in life, especially in this economy; a lot of us figure out that it's unusually lucky to have a loved one that has a clue what to buy us. :-)
"the mythical tablet has been an object of many a geek fantasy since the demise of the Newton."
No offense intended, but I think you're mixing up geeks in general with the subset that's extremely devoted to Apple... From watching comments on major tech sites, the majority of us are neutral regarding Apple's products, and felt the Newton has been surpassed by many PDAs since its time. I've only seen a few people this year saying that they were waiting for Apple's offering, and they were always the hardcore faithful sort.
Actually, if we're talking what "geeks" as a group have been jonesing over, recently it has been Google's phones. There's a bit of a backlash against Apple because of some kind of issue regarding a lot of iPhones, causing many to say they'll switch to G's future unlocked cell once it comes out.
No obnoxious intent or trolling intended... I just had to reply to the two bits I quoted. Hope you can get & enjoy whatever Apple does come out with, if you do find it appealing!
Yes, I was exaggerating for effect with the "take the shine off..." comment.
As to your other points, there are in fact "many" technologically savvy people (a classification sometimes represented in shorthand by the term "geek") who are anticipating very much whatever touchscreen product Apple comes out with next. Even if you want to relegate them to the sub-class that is devoted to Apple, there are "many" in it and the number grows with each passing year.
There have also been several "Google" phones on the market for quite some time, if by Google phone you mean something running the Android OS. Google the company may one day come out with its own hardware running the OS and I'll bet you dollars to donuts it doesn't sell in its first year 1/10th the number of phones Apple sold in the first year of the iPhone.
Be that as it may, I have used several of the major touchscreen smartphones, including those from Apple, Palm, HTC, Verizon, and Blackberry -- and the UI on the iPhone simply is head and shoulders above anything, though I did kinda like the HTC Android device.
Anyway, full disclosure: I'm not neutral on Apple products. As I mentioned in an earlier comment I happen to believe Apple makes the best consumer level computer/entertainment products available.
And I hate Microsoft.
Thanks again for stopping by and being so nice; I mean it.