I hate to start calling people out, but there’s so much shoddy Apple writing goin on these days that sometimes you have to call em like you see em. In an absurd piece published by Silicon Ally Insider, Dan Frommer argues that Apple needs to come out with a tablet, yet gives no convincing explanation as to why.
What will we use it for? Everything we use the iPhone for, except phone calls. And many things we use our computer for, except everywhere. This includes: Listening to music, watching videos, surfing the Web, reading e-books and Instapaper articles, playing games, writing blog posts, etc. We won’t use it for Photoshop or anything we need a real file system for. But that’s okay — that’s why we have a computer at work and at home.
Seriously? He’s basically describing what the iPhone and iPod Touch already do. Now of course, Frommer is as entitled to his opinion as anyone else, but he writes for Forbes, and you would expect, or at least hope, that articles from a site as reputable as Forbes would have a little bit more substance and insight, if any at all.
December 30th, 2008 at 12:34 pm
Hi!
First off, I’m not sure you understood my post.
It wasn’t that the Apple tablet would do anything that an iPhone and iPod touch don’t already do. The point is that it would be *bigger*, which is better for reading, using the Web, etc. That is precisely why.
And the iPod touch’s/other vendors’ netbook success shows that there could be a market for such a product.
Second, I don’t write for Forbes anymore. I left Forbes a year and a half ago to help launch Silicon Alley Insider. You might want to update your post.
Thanks for reading!
December 30th, 2008 at 8:19 pm
I agree with Dan. Did you even read his article? Perhaps you just skimmed it and something in it touched off a button.
I have an iPod touch and love it. I used to have a Newton 2000, that I loved dearly. Comparing the two products, the Newton falls down because it was bulky and used technology that is almost 20 years old. There was one thing I really liked about it though, and that was its size. Watching movies on the iPod Touch is great – for one person! Tapping out emails is possible on the touch, and if I practiced, I am sure I would get up to speed. But the handwriting recognition on the Newt was superb. At least it was at the end of its life. A tablet the size of the old Newton with today’s technology is JUST what I need. Something I can slip in a pocket and that does most of what a laptop does and that I can take on the road and backup to my main Mac when I get back is EXACTLY what I need.
600 bucks? I’d buy two, one for me and one for my wife.
John Davis