Foxconn to send Apple 400,000 iTablets in Q1 2010, say moles

All systems go then!

Tablets have never been a winner for anyone in the past, remember Compaq's failed attempt around 2001? One of the few companies with enough cachet to be able to pull this off is Apple. Interesting to see if this will be the crown on the cake or the turd in the water-pipe?!

@ AC, 12:16

Sorry, but your post reveals a lack of knowledge of the PC market when it comes to tablets. Compaq, HP, Archos, Toshiba, Gateway, Acer, etc. have all been making tablets over the last 8 years or so. While none of these tablets have replaced the traditional desktop/laptop format, that doesn't make them failure. Microsoft has made money on the OS, and the OEMs have made money on the hardware.

The tablets themselves are also pretty successful at what they do. I have an HP TC 1100. Its pressure-sensitive interface allows me to draw straight onto the screen, in photoshop, exactly as I would with a pencil & paper (so I can shade, press harder to go darker, softer for lighter, etc.). But I still have two desktops (one Win7RC and one Ubuntu Linux).

The problem with Apple's rumoured tablet is where to pitch it. If it only runs the iPhone OS, then what's the point? You can't run Photoshop, CorelDraw or Painter (or any other truly useful software) on the underpowered iPhone OS, so one of the biggest reasons to buy one (the ability to draw on the screen) as just evaporated. Sure, you can still play with it like you would an iPhone, but then why not just buy an iPhone?

On the other hand, if it runs a full copy of Snow Leopard and has a pressure sensitive touchscreen, then it will cost around the same to manufacture as a macbook (assuming all the other specs are inline/lower than the macbook). Which will make it significantly more expensive than current Windows tablets that have higher specs and can run all of the same or better software, and cost less.

Which begs the question, why would anyone buy an Apple tablet? The answer, as ever, is the fanboi mentality.

@whiteafrican

"Which will make it significantly more expensive than current Windows tablets that have higher specs and can run all of the same or better software, and cost less."

And you know this how?

Don't tell me you've bought the typical anti-fanboy FUD of Apple hardware being "significantly" more expensive than PC hardware. Tell ya what, type "apple pc price comparison" into Google and read the first 20 or so articles comparing price. Maybe you'll learn something :-D

It's not a tablet, it's a netbook

Now, remember where you heard that first.