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  • Followup on My Predictions for Apple’s Tablet Event

    Chris BenardPersonal

    Happy birthday to me! Also, Apple announced their iPad today. One thing I meant to mention in my previous predictions: I thought it would have at least a front facing camera for video conferencing with iChat and/or Skype. I’m very surprised it doesn’t have that. I predict this will be in the first hardware revision of the device.

    Personal Thoughts

    The iPad is basically a really big iPhone, but the iPhone is great. I was already prepared to buy a Nook for $259. The question is now do I pay $140 more to get an iPad that only has WiFi and no 3G data. The iPad is so much more than the Nook, but isn’t e-ink.

    I haven’t decided yet. I was underwhelmed by what they’re offering, but impressed by the price at which it starts: $499. I would likely sling WiFi from my jailbroken iPhone to the device, rather than pay another $30 a month for unlimited 3G data and another $130 for the device with 3G built in.

    Make recommendations to me in the comments!

    iPad pricing data

    Predictions Followup

    All photos are courtesy of GDGT’s live coverage.

    These were my predictions related to the tablet and the result.

    1. Apple will announce a tablet device of some kind.

      Result: They did.

      Steve Jobs holding iPad

    2. It’s name will begin with a lower case I. I have to get at least one correct, right? I’ll guess iTablet. I don’t think they’ll do iSlate.

      Result: iPad. Not a good name in my opinion. It opens itself to many jokes.

      Name is iPad

    3. The device will not have an e-ink screen.

      Result: Correct.

    4. The device will not have an AMOLED screen.

      Result: Correct.

    5. It will be a conventional LCD screen with LED backlighting.

      Result: Correct (not sure about backlighting, but with 10 hours battery life, I would be surprised if it is not LED).

    6. It will not run full OS X. Only a subset will be allowed, such as Safari, etc. Only apps from an app store will be allowed.

      Result: Correct.

      iTunes in iPhone style interface

    7. There will be a tablet app store.

      Result: Correct.

    8. There will be backwards compatibility for iPhone apps running in some kind of emulation mode.

      Result: Correct. They can run in a pixel-perfect mode letterboxed or zoomed to full screen. All iPhone apps are compatible.

      iPhone app at 1x iPhone app at 2x

    9. There will be a innovative text input method. I can’t speculate as to what it will be, but knowing Apple, it will be good.

      Result: Wrong. Straight up QWERTY, just like the iPhone.

      Standard QWERTY input

    10. Its battery life will be expressed in hours, not days or weeks, unlike the Kindle or Nook.

      Result: Correct. 10 hours.

      10 hour battery life

    11. Verizon will be announced as a 3G data partner for the tablet device.

      Result: Wrong. AT&T only. International carriers to be announced later. All devices are unlocked, and will work with any carrier compatible with micro SIMs (not Verizon or Sprint because they are CDMA [no SIM cards]).

      AT&T data plan information

    12. The tablet will sell like hotcakes at first because Apple made it, but I think this will be a fad device and perhaps regarded as Apple’s second flop (see Newton). I am putting this down “on paper” because I think it will be funny if I’m completely wrong and I can read my own words in a year or so.

      Result: Remains to be seen. I am underwhelmed, but my personal thoughts are at the top.

    Here are the results of my other predictions for the event:

    1. No new iPhone will be announced.

      Result: Correct.

    2. No AT&T exclusivity related announcements will be made (this will be saved until WWDC in June).
      Result: Correct.
    3. Incremental changes will be made for the iPhone OS, perhaps allowing some sort of rudimentary multitasking, perhaps in a 3.5 or 4.0 revision of the OS.

      Result: Wrong. No iPhone related announcements.

  • My Predictions for Apple’s Tablet Event Tomorrow

    Chris BenardPersonal
    Update: I have created a new blog post (Jan 27th, 2010) for my response to what happened and the outcome of each of my predictions.

    Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you are no doubt aware that Apple plans to reveal their “latest creation” tomorrow, January 27th, 2009. It is most likely their long awaited iTablet/iSlate/iWhatever. I’ll be following Engadget’s live blog of the event tomorrow.

    It is also my birthday tomorrow, but I don’t care as much about that. I just want to know what Apple’s been doing all this time and what they’re going to announce. I’m pretty sure that makes me nerdy, among other qualifications.

    These are my tablet related predictions, which I will update with the results:Concept mockup, courtesy of Engadget

    1. Apple will announce a tablet device of some kind.
    2. It’s name will begin with a lower case I. I have to get at least one correct, right? I’ll guess iTablet. I don’t think they’ll do iSlate.
    3. The device will not have an e-ink screen.
    4. The device will not have an AMOLED screen.
    5. It will be a conventional LCD screen with LED backlighting.
    6. It will not run full OS X. Only a subset will be allowed, such as Safari, etc. Only apps from an app store will be allowed.
    7. There will be a tablet app store.
    8. There will be backwards compatibility for iPhone apps running in some kind of emulation mode.
    9. There will be a innovative text input method. I can’t speculate as to what it will be, but knowing Apple, it will be good.
    10. Its battery life will be expressed in hours, not days or weeks, unlike the Kindle or Nook.
    11. Verizon will be announced as a 3G data partner for the tablet device.
    12. The tablet will sell like hotcakes at first because Apple made it, but I think this will be a fad device and perhaps regarded as Apple’s second flop (see Newton). I am putting this down “on paper” because I think it will be funny if I’m completely wrong and I can read my own words in a year or so.

    My other predictions for the event are as follows, which I will also update with results:

    1. No new iPhone will be announced.
    2. No AT&T exclusivity related announcements will be made (this will be saved until WWDC in June).
    3. Incremental changes will be made for the iPhone OS, perhaps allowing some sort of rudimentary multitasking, perhaps in a 3.5 or 4.0 revision of the OS.

    Additionally, I am aware that I haven’t blogged in 5 months. I’ll be following up on this post with some sort of recap explaining what I’ve been doing.