Long-awaited Mac Tablet finally coming Q3 2008?

By Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Sunday, 25 May 2008 15:11

Opinion and Analysis

The latest rumour says a Mac Tablet is due in September or October this year. Due to run OS X, inexplicably equipped with a slot loading Superdrive and an Intel Atom chip, will it be a Mac Tablet or a large iPhone?

Although Apple has had patents on Mac Tablet style devices for years, with one of the most recent from 2005, according to MacRumors, ZDNet in the US claims a ‘first hand’ rumor from a ‘reliable source’ says it’s really on the way – this time.

The specs fed to ZDNet US blogger Jason D. O’Grady sounds partially believable: a 12 or 13-inch touch screen tablet, full Mac OS X (not the iPhone version), a slot loading Superdrive, an “iPhone type” GPS chip and the likelihood of the Intel Atom processor.

Quite why a Mac Tablet would need the legacy ball and chain of a battery sapping DVD Superdrive is unknown, especially when the MacBook Air has done away with such Jurassic-like technology, but if the September/October time-frame is correct, it could mean massive end-of-year sales unlike any Apple has ever seen before.

Of course, that will depend on the price, and just how smart the touch screen interface is, along with battery life and the ability to pair with a wired or Bluetooth wireless keyboard, despite being slated to have an on-screen virtual keyboard a la the existing iPhone.

But Apple’s iPhone touch interface blows all other attempts at previously interfaces out of the water. Even Microsoft’s Origami 2.0 interface on the latest UMPCs (ultra mobile PCs) comes nowhere near the iPhone true simplicity, and one can only imagine Steve Jobs would have any PC touch interface ready to blow our minds and get our fingers dancing across a large touch screen.

ZDNet’s O’Grady brings up the slip by Intel’s German CEO Hannes Schwaderer that a future “iPhone” would sport an Intel Atom chip, something that could possibly find its way into the upcoming 3G iPhone, but is much more suited to a true Mac Tablet computing device.

O’Grady puts a lot of faith into his leak-loving “birdy”, who has been “reliable in the past” at feeding him iRumors, but O’Grady then takes the safe house option of saying “nothing’s for sure”.

Please read on to page 2 where we look at the potential specs any Mac Tablet might contain...