Saturday, January 23, 2010

Is this the Real Thing ?



Some time, on week-ends, i'm posting a little "tech" article, and here is one. However it's not totally without a link with Disney as Apple CEO Steve Jobs is Disney's biggest stockholder and member of the WDC board of directors.

So. Next wednesday, January 27th, all Apple geeks - and i'm one of them! - will hold their breath during Steve's keynote at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater in San Francisco where he will announce the highly-awaited Apple's latest creation, the ITablet - or ISlate, or IPad, or IEverything you want. Fans expectations on this new multi touch product are pretty high, may be a little bit too high...

However, considering that Steve Jobs is supposedly "extremely happy" with the new product i think we can await a kind of high-tech E Ticket from the maestro, another big WOW! I can't wait to see if once again Apple will succeed to create a new i-can't-live-without-it product...

Of course everybody would like to know how the tablet will look, how magic the user interface will be, etc... but as a analyst said recently: "All Apple wizards working on the project seems to have disappear in a black hole"...and just like real black holes, nothing gets out of it.

But recently on Youtube two videos appeared, supposedly showing the awaited ITablet. Is it the real thing? Could be, but probably not as many people think it's a fake. If it is a fake, i must say it's a brilliant one. So brilliant that i'm still not totally convinced that it is one! Why? Because the tablet's user interface that you will see on the videos could really been created by Apple wizards. It works like magic. Have a look, and i'll meet you right after for one more thing.







Pretty cool, wasn't it? Now, the reason why i think it's not the real ITablet is because of the date these videos were posted on Youtube - December 29th, almost four weeks ago. If they show the real product there is no doubt that Apple would have asked Youtube to remove them, right? BUT Apple also know that once a video is released on the web, even if their lawyers react the same day, it's too late to stop it. The video has been downloaded and will re-appear the next day on another channel, etc...

SO, if these videos shows the real Apple Tablet - and although Steve is probably totally furious by now - they could decide to don't say anything which could be the best strategy to keep the project secret as viewers will think that "the videos are obviously a fake, if they were not, Apple would have asked for their removal". You got the idea of the third degree strategy? Now, may be i'm more machiavelic than Steve can be (not sure, though!) and very probably these videos DON'T show Apple's "latest creation". All we have to do now is to wait three more days to get the answer. Which is not that long to wait, isn't it?

Picture: copyright Apple Inc

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Just dont see what the big deal is about the tablet. Apple makes great products, no debating that, but I don't have any idea where this product is aiming to drive a wedge. I have a netbook and its good for email and checking out web pages...like disneyandmore! But other than that, its just too small and lacks the umph needed to do real day-to-day work. For real work, I need a bigger screen, more RAM, bigger processor, and Windows! Yes, Windows since I need to be able to connect to production servers, etc.

So Apple adds a touch screen to a netbook and this is supposed to make it great? OK, how? It doesn't even have a keyboard! And its rumored to be in the $1000 range! I paid $300 for my Dell Mini, so I just can't see how the tablet can be worth $1000. Why not just get a real notebook?

Been in the IT business for 20+ years. I just don't see what demographic this is aimed at and who will be buying it other than Apple "sheep" with disposable income. Would somebody purchase this for their kids to do their school work? Doubt it just based on the lack of keyboard. Used for business? how? Or better yet, why?

But just like any Apple product, the uneducated impulsive consumer will go out and get these so we can think they are important when see them at Starbucks sipping their latte while working on their latest movie script. ROFL!

Alain Littaye said...

Dear Major, Although i can agree that some Apple users can have a "posh" attitude, the main reason why Apple fans are fans is because how good, reliable, well designed and easy to work with - the products are.

I always had Mac computers and i NEVER had any problem with them since 12 years, and never one virus, too. So, obviously, it's hard to don't be satisfy...

That said, and to come back to the awaited tablet, it will have a keyboard, a big "touch screen" key board which will appear when you will need it. And i won't be surprised if the possibility to connect a real key board will be included through a USB port.

As a lot of people are over excited on this product i think the best is to wait for Steve's presentation on wednesday. Then we will be able to discuss about the real thing - in good or bad. About the price, my feeling is that it should be - and probably will be - under $1000 which, just like you, i find too expensive (even if Apple will probably do different versions, including a more expensive one). So let's wait and see, may be it will be great, may be not!

Unknown said...

I have no doubt it will be a high quality product. I think Apple makes GREAT stuff, but I think it's waaaaay over priced. Their entire market segment is basically the disposable income segment. No blue collar family is buying this stuff and certainly not in the enterprise.

And the Mac is OK, at best. Mac users tend to forget that its all Intel inside these days and the same chipsets as you can get in just about any PC. Its the MAC OS that is stellar. That being that, why oh why does Apple make it so it ONLY runs on a Mac? I'd love to use it on my PC in a VM or other machines if Apple would allow it. I simply REFUSE to spend $1500 on a PC just to get at the OS! And since I need to do a lot of enterprise related tasks that just cannot be done with a Mac, I almost have to use a PC

That being that, where does the tablet fit in? A $1000 media sharing web surfing gadget? Again, no doubt it will be high quality and highly polished, but the price point simply does not make sense unless its under $500!