It has been reported that Apple plans to postpone the launch of their much anticipated tablet PC from an original March 2010 launch to late 2010.
Sources also indicated that in addition to Foxconn Electronics (Hon Hai Precision Industry), Quanta Computer and Pegatron Technology are expected to be manufacturing partners for Apple’s two tablet PC models – one of which will have a 10.6-inch TFT LCD panel while the other will have a 9.7-inch OLED panel.
LG Display currently is making OLED panels using its 4.5G production line and LG Display’s five-year US$500 million panel purchasing contract with Apple includes supply of OLED panels, the sources pointed out.
Since 9.7-inch OLED panels are currently priced at about US$500 and panel costs normally account for about 30% of the device’s total cost, Apple’s 9.7-inch OLED tablet PC is expected to have a cost of about US$1,500-1,700 (based on today’s prices), the sources estimated. However, OLED panel prices are dropping rapidly and are expected to reach an acceptable level for notebook products by 2011, so the sources believe Apple’s delayed schedule may include such considerations.
The sources estimate that Apple’s tablet PC cost will drop to around US$1,200-1,500 by the second half of 2010 with the retail price reaching about US$2,000. The price could be more flexible if bundled with telecom providers’ 3G services. Meanwhile, the 10.6-inch LCD panel-based Apple tablet PC is expected to priced in the US$800-1,000 range.
Remember that puzzle box from the 80’s that kept all of us guessing and some of us frustrated. No…not the one the one from Hellraiser, the other puzzle cube, the Rubik’s cube.
This color puzzle cube kept some of entertained for hours while for others it was a great projectile to throw at your siblings or at the wall, but in either case many of us have come in contact with one at some point in our lives.
Well the puzzle cube has updated itself for the 21st Century, and a whole new generation can become frustrated all over again. The new cube uses touch and sliding technology that most of us will be familiar with already or at least recognize in how we interact with Apple’s products or any other touch interface. the cube still has it’s colorful display but this time the cube is much more fragile.
Coming in at a whopping $150, I’m not quite sure if it’s something everyone will have, but for those of us into nostalgia and who want to pick one up, even if just for novelty purposes you can do so from Amazon.
The downside? Well you can’t take off the stickers and rearrange them to impress your friends. The upside? Well if you know programming, you just might be able to rearrange the colors to impress your friends.
In either case it’s a steep price to pay for frustration but for those of you that mastered the old, here’s a whole new way to master the new. If you’ve got one, seen one, or know someone who has one, I’d love to hear your thoughts on it and whether you find it as fun as the original.
Gizmodo had an exclusive regarding the new Tablet PC from Microsoft. The tablet will be call the Courier and man does it look good.
The Courier is currently in “late prototype” stage of development and not exactly a tablet, its more of a booklet. The dual 7-inch (or so) screens are multitouch, and designed for writing, flicking and drawing with a stylus, in addition to fingers. They’re connected by a hinge that holds a single iPhone-esque home button. Statuses, like wireless signal and battery life, are displayed along the rim of one of the screens. On the back cover is a camera, and it might charge through an inductive pad, like the Palm Touchstone charging dock for Pre.
The Courier user experience presented here is almost the exact opposite of what everyone expects the Apple tablet to be, a kung fu eagle claw to Apple’s tiger style.
It’s complex: Two screens, a mashup of a pen-dominated interface with several types of multitouch finger gestures, and multiple graphically complex themes, modes and applications.
At this stage I’m getting fed up. Every day I open my inbox there are a dozen e-mails from colleagues and readers of the
various publications I write for including Crenk asking about the news or a new product. There’s always at least one talking about the supposed upcoming Mac Tablet.
‘What do you reckon will be included?’, they ask.
Honestly, I’m nowhere near 100% certain. Obviously you’d have a touch screen QWERTY keyboard, media centre of some sort and maybe even fingerprint recognition (I believe Apple have patented that idea).
In truth, only the bigwigs at Apple could tell us. And even then they would probably just numb our brains with pre-release jargon so we all buzz around the internet still asking ‘Ohh, what could it be?!’
My reason for writing this post is clear and simple. I want to know what you would like in a Mac tablet. Send us in your thoughts, opinions and ravings here at Crenk. Either leave a comment below of tell us on the Crenk Twitter.
They could be about anything – ‘when will it be released?’, ‘what features will it have?’, ‘how much will it cost?’, ‘what will it look like?’ and so on. I look forward to reading your replies.
There has been a lot of talk this morning about Apple producing a Tablet computer by 2010. Business Week’s Peter Burrows recently received word of Apple’s plans to build a tablet-based device, to be released in 2010. Now Gene Munster,of reputable investment bank and securities firm Piper Jaffray, has published a note reinforcing the plans.
“We expect Apple to fill the gap between the iPod touch and the MacBook with a new tablet device (not a netbook) priced at about $500-$700. Apple will likely leverage its multi-touch patents to differentiate its product from the typical netbook. We are anticipating a new category of Apple products with an operating system more robust than the iPhone’s but optimized for multi-touch, unlike Mac OS X. The device’s OS could bear a close resemblance to Apple’s mobile OS and run App Store apps, or it could be a modified version of Mac OS X.
As the App Store is currently in record profits and a new iPhone release on the way there is no rush for Apple to release a tablet computer. Of course it aims to fill the market between the iPhone and Macbook, but I cant see this device replacing a computer any time soon.
Last week Techcrunch reported about how images of their new Tablet had leaked. This makes a big difference because it is normally Techcrunch who is the first to report on a leak. However in this case the team over at Techcrunch have been working on a new Tablet in which in essence is a giant iPhone.
The Tablet has been in development for the last six months or so, and it has really changed dramatically in design since the first prototype. This Tablet moves Techcrunch a little away from just being a technology blog and more towards a tech company with two arms, journalism and actual technology.
It has been reported that Apple plans to postpone the launch of their much anticipated tablet PC from an original March 2010 launch to late 2010.
Dear Readers,
