Stephen Withers
Monday, 28 July 2008 11:33
Opinion and Analysis
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An offhand remark by Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer has sparked a fresh round of speculation that an Mac touch tablet will soon be announced. The idea that Apple could release such a device has fascinated commentators for years, but could this be the signal that it's finally about to arrive?
During last week's conference call to discuss the company's quarterly results with analysts, Oppenheimer referred to a "future product transition" that would result in a reduction in gross margins.
That could be something as simple as a MacBook refresh accompanied by lower prices, it could be Apple's entry into the UMPC space (for those that want a lightweight device at a significantly lower price point than the MacBook Air), or it could be the fabled Mac tablet.
Whether the tablet would be necessarily positioned as a full-blown computer as an alternative to a MacBook is a matter for conjecture. Tablets haven't proven very successful except in certain niche markets such as healthcare.
But a wireless tablet that provided little more than Safari for Internet browsing plus remote control of Macs elsewhere in the home or office could be very useful.
Rather than simply screen sharing with the Mac, I envisage the tablet working as a thin client to the host computer, even if another user is already logged on. That would also take care of the big difference in screen dimensions (in pixels) between the tablet and the Mac.
What might it look iike? My suggestions are on
page 2.
