Apple Tablet Hype?

There's been a couple of interesting artcles about an Apple tablet device to be ready for

There's been a couple of interesting articles about an Apple tablet device to be ready for Christmas 09 from the Financial Times and PC World.  On the surface, this looks like a device that will offer extra media content with enhanced sleeve-notes from artists, and extras that are found on DVD and Blu-ray disks today.

Looking solely at the device, the iPhone already has many of the technologies required to make this product a reality.  The touch-screen is currently the best for any mobile device, and porting this to a device with a 10" screen wouldn't be a technological problem.

The larger screen would however need more battery power, but with Apple's experience in delivering built-in batteries with a 7 hour capacity for the MacBook Air and the new 13" MacBook Pro, again this isn't a problem.

Solid-state hard drives have been around for a while and again are an option across the MacBook range.

OSX has scaled from Mac Pro through Apple TV to the iPhone, so creating a derivative for this new device is also feasible.

From an engineering perspective, the creation of the device and the operating system are possible.  The question I've been discussing with people is 'why would I want one?'

At the moment I don't think the Amazon Kindle or the Sony Reader are enough to make me want to give up the feel of paper, and I don't think Apple's offering will do much to change that if eBooks are their primary goal.

What about music and video?  My iPhone handles everything I need it to, and I'm happy watching movies on the 3.5" screen while travelling.

What about the touch-screen tablet being better than all the rest?  Tablets have always suffered from input problems.  Apple clearly have an advantage in the wealth of experience gleaned through the iPhone development process, but touch tablets appear more a commercial device (for stock control or medical notes), than a consumer device.

On the surface, there doesn't seem to be many compelling reasons to build this device.  But Apple has a pedigree of creating revolutionary technology, and it's underneath the surface that the interesting possibilities lie.

As reported by AppleInsider, in 2004 Apple filed a patent for the 'integrated sensing display'  which is basically a way of capturing images using a technology hidden behind the screen.  Remember all those iPhone 3G rumours about a forward-facing camera and iChat on the iPhone?  Well this patent was the trigger.

When the iPhone 3G S launched in July there were many disappointed people as the changes were evolutionary and not revolutionary.  However I think that the integrated sensing display technology was probably too big to fit in the hardware footprint of the iPhone shell.  No Apple exec will stand up and announce they've made a thicker iPhone, no matter what it can do.

Hence, a new device.  A touch screen computer combining the best of OSX, with the best of  iPhone hardware, wifi connectivity, potential Bluetooth tethering to an iPhone for 3G connectivity, and a webcam hidden behind the screen so that iChat video conferences feel like you're looking eachother in the eye.

What we're talking about isn't just a tablet PC rival, it's Apple.  Could portable, easy, video conferencing for the masses be Steve Jobs' crowning glory?