Apple stalls iWatch, 12.9-inch iPad from Quanta rumored for mid-2014 Apple has reportedly chosen its manufacturing partner for a 12.9-inch "MaxiPad" that's scheduled for mass production in the second half of next year, and is presiding over a bidding war to determine which companies will get the lion's share of producing Cupertino's long-rumored iWatch. So say the rumormongers at DigiTimes, the …
... that should be enough to meet the demand consumers have so far shown for smart watches.
The big iPad would be interesting if they were to merge iOS into OS X (ie, make both sets of API available) but that feels exceedingly unlikely. It also suggests I've learnt nothing whatsoever from Windows 8.
An hybrid ARM Apple A7 SoC + Intel i3 ULV CPU system (the A7 iPad motherboard it's so tiny... for a 12.9" iPad there would be plenty of space for both motherboards) would make sense.. then the issue would be the price.
It should be more expensive than an iPad Air but cheaper than a MacBook.
Such a device would run OSX and iOS and could even run Windows like a MacBook....
Then how to merge OSX and iOS seamlessly would be another issue in such an hybrid machine.. making the switching absolutely seamless between the two and giving freedom to the user to choose it as either an iPad or a Mac with touch screen or both...
Could Apple be working on such a beast ? Maybe .. who knows... although I doubt that. Surely it would be a very dangerous product able to cause troubles to standard Windows notebook manufacturers if Apple priced it cheap.
This is the dumbest idea I've read, even dumber than a 12.9" tablet.
Nothing I've read says anything about the 12.9" panels being built with in-cell touch, so they are obviously for a laptop. There's also nothing that specifically links this to using an A7 (or an i3 for that matter) so assuming it is for a Macbook Air of some type, I don't see why the speculation on whether it will be ARM based. Maybe it will, but you can't divine that from the rumors about Apple ordering a lot of 12.9" screens.
Given that 7" tablets outsell 10" tablets, why does anyone think a 12.9" tablet is a good idea? Other than the LCD screen manufacturers, that is (go look at where Digitimes' bread is buttered before you respond to that...)
>why does anyone think a 12.9" tablet is a good idea?
Wacom already make two (one Android, one full fat Win8) with a digitiser and stylus... A tablet that size would be better for creating content, such as touching up photos. I seem to remember reading that most 10" iPads spend most of their time at home, so a 13" screen is worthwhile if it brings some advantages.
Wacom aren't the only people trying to bring productivity to tablets- Adobe are bringing out their first hardware products soon, a pen and 'smart ruler'.
This is a market in which Apple have traditionally played a role, and the easier to sell niches (iPhone for pocket, iPad Mini for bag, iPad for sofa) are becoming saturated...
But why do you want to create content with a tablet? If you're doing that, wouldn't you want a laptop so you can run proper content creation software? I doubt Adobe is coming out with full featured tablet versions of their software suite anytime soon.
I could see using a tablet as a digitizing pad instead of buying a purpose-built peripheral, though it would need some special programming - it would have to have a "stylus only" mode, otherwise your hand resting on the tablet would register same as the pen! Even assuming that is addressed, the bigger problem with this theory is that Apple has focused on the mass market for iOS devices, they aren't trying to fill every possible niche with low volume flavors of their devices like Samsung with their infinite variety of narrow market of Galaxy S4s like the Active, Zoom, Mini and so on.
Apple wouldn't be able to sell even a quarter million bigger iPads to graphic artists for this, and it is hard to see who the buyers are for the millions of additional sales Apple would want to see to justify adding a larger iPad to their product line. The weight/size advantage over a 13" Macbook Air would be pretty minimal, since most of the weight is in the display when you reach that size.
Apple tries to keep their product lines small and with clear divisions between products. To the point that despite some quite obvious demand for it, they still offer only one size of iPhone. Does anyone really believe that before they offer a larger iPhone to satisfy that demand which would clearly number in the millions (some of whom are undoubtedly buying Android but would choose/stay with Apple if they offered a larger iPhone) that they're first going to offer a third size of tablet? I highly doubt that.
"Apple tries to keep their product lines small and with clear divisions between products. To the point that despite some quite obvious demand for it, they still offer only one size of iPhone."
Absolutely right. Though I think they could sell more than a quarter of a million such devices. They would appeal to more than one group. There are now many vertical applications in pro markets that would benefit from the additional screen real estate from medicine to engineering design). Plus there are pro horizontal markets beyond graphic design (finance spreadsheets for example).
As I'm sure you know, Steve jobs, on his return to Apple, famously slashed the product line to minimise the number of models. His philosophy was to ensure there were only as many products as they could produce with love, care and attention to every aspect of every model produced.
I'm not so sure however, that he viewed this as an ideal state for the company to remain in, or more a matter of hitting the reset button to jettison a bloated product line with many irrelevant models. I think now the company has successful product lines and established the tablet as a commercially viable product category with the iPad, it is also inevitable that as the market matures they should "mine the seam" and establish more specialist models which appeal to a niche market but are unified with and and contribute to the core market. I know I for one have been considering an MS Surface, just for graohic arts (and not even in a pro capacity). Jobs also advised Cook, do his own thing and avoid continually asking "what would Steve do."
What will be interesting though, is if Apple drop old less profitable product lines that are no longer the future, even if some profit margin remains, just because keeping them around is likely to defocus the senior team. As iconic as it is (and breaking the "what would Steve do" advice) I suspect Jobs would be considering dropping the iPod by now. I also suspect their re-commitment to the Mac Pro line is a decisions that was hanging by a thread
I get the feeling that this devices (should it ever see the light of day) will be an entry level 4K TV display.
That part of the market is AFAIK virgin Territory. Everyone else is going after 40/50in+ displays. There is a clear niche for smaller 'personal' 4K displays.
The biggest problem in my opinion is not the technology but the content. 90% of what Hollywood produces is remakes, sequels,prequels and teen coming of age crap.
Original content and ideas are few and far between.
so you have your 4K display but what do you show on it?
Much like being all dressed up with nowhere to go.
Suck on this Hollywood Accountants and accounting rules--->
Why do you think you need a 4K display to watch "original content", but not remakes, sequels, prequels and teen coming of age crap? Is a 4K display going to make Citizen Kane or Blade Runner better? If you think it will, why wouldn't it provide the same benefit to Star Wars Episode VII or Star Trek "I think we'll reset the timeline so we can show Kirk some more"? Or even Twilight: The Hunger Games?
>But why do you want to create content with a tablet? If you're doing that, wouldn't you want a laptop so you can run proper content creation software? I doubt Adobe is coming out with full featured tablet versions of their software suite anytime soon.
Because, for certain tasks such as drawing or a using a virtual mixing desk for audio, a tablet is better suited to the job. You use a keyboard for typing, you might use a gamepad (or a steering wheel, or a mouse) for gaming... whatever works best. There is no inherent reason why an ARM-based OS such as Android or iOS can't run decent productivity apps. Of course there will always be a role for machines that have lots of RAM, storage and IO, but the the underlying OS is irrelevant to the user as long as the UI is fit for purpose.
Adobe's take on it is not to replace laptops with tablets, but enable them to be a very useful companion devices.
If I was on site and wanted to make a note of dimensions, for example, a tablet with a sketching/drafting app would be my tool of choice.
Interesting but ...
I can't see the point of prolonging OS longer on a small device when iOS and ARM do such a wonderful job anyway.
Maybe a mash up device is interesting from a technical or project perspective and if there is anything singularly and particularly objective what notions of longterm support are likely?
Well first of all I have no idea what you are talking about here:
" the point of prolonging OS longer on a small device"
If what you are getting at is that you don't need anything more than iOS and ARM, that's fine, just stay where you are and keep crushing them candies.
But I keep my i7 desktop and laptop, with a real OS for photoshop, 3d, compiling a couple hundred thousand c++ lines, and other more-fun-than-crushing-candies things.
"..."touch cover" keyboards, à la Microsoft's Surface keyboard.""
If Apple is going to release one of these crappy "touch cover" things then Apple quality has taken a downturn on a rocket sled to fail-hell. I've tried Microsoft's "touch cover", it was unusable. It was horrifyingly low quality rubbish.
"...their number of correct reports is relatively high, even if their percentage of accuracy is not."
Which is all they need to keep getting paid for this nonsense, because people remember the successes, the failures not so much.
This is exactly the psychological loophole exploited by psychics and prophets.
The iPad is a device for consuming information, not creating it, although it makes a great input device for some apps.
That's where MS went wrong with the Surface, trying to make it a Jack of all trades.
I can't see a larger iPad being successful - but then I said the same of the iPad mini so, no doubt, it will be a great success.....
1
Develop architectures that will enable super-tablets to excel in limited function devices.
For example:
Photoshop type devices
3D type device
...
And these devices are capable of talking to each other in meaningful and productive ways.
2
Start from where Archimedes left off and develop a wide ranging device that runs 3rd party software in a reasonably specced ecosystem.
?
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