“A report has surfaced claiming Apple has ordered 10-inch displays that will likely be used in the company’s rumored tablet PC. Assuming Apple does finally release the Apple Tablet, it will need some features to help it achieve the kind of success the company has enjoyed with its iPhone,” Don Reisinger writes for eWeek. “So let’s take a look at some of the features the Apple Tablet should have when it makes its rumored debut on store shelves sometime in 2010.”
10 Features an Apple tablet must have to succeed:
1. A useful keyboard
MacDailyNews Take: Who gets to define “useful?” People who’ve actually used it for a meaningful period of time? Or, as with iPhone, luddites who are used to antiquated mechanical plastic-buttoned keyboards who’ve never used Apple’s keyboard and only seen one via online photos and YouTube videos?
2. App Store integration
3. A responsive display
4. True Apple design (Customers expect a certain design aesthetic from Apple. The company needs to deliver.)
5. Uniqueness
6. Appeal to enterprise users (The Apple Tablet doesn’t necessarily need to be an enterprise device, but it should appeal to the enterprise.)
7. Apple’s support (If Apple wants the Apple Tablet to be a big success, it had better not treat it [the] way [they treat Apple TV].)
8. iPhone’s intuitive multitouch gestures
9. A 3G option
10. A vision (How does Apple want to market the device? How does it want consumers to view it in the marketplace?)
Full article here.
I’m getting tired of pointless rubbish like this.
The list seems reasonable wiht a few modifications:
1. Keyboard – as MDN states, who decides what is useful?
6. Appeal to Enterprise customers – why? If it is great, employees will bring it to work and force businesses to adopt it, like the iPhone.
7. …not treat it like Apple TV – WTF? Apple TV is waiting for content, which will come soon enough.
9. 3G option – how 2009. How about a 4G/WiMax option.
And since I dumped on #6, here is my #6:
Run OS X with the ability to run iPhone apps. That would be the best of both worlds.
No shit Sherlock …
An Apple product needs “True Apple design”. What a shitshow eWeek is.
Pardon me for asking, but why does this idiotic article even make the cut at such a classy spot as MDN?
Have you noticed some of the keys to success on the list?
2. App Store integration — a given
3. A responsive display — a given
4. True Apple design — probably the dumbest item listed
5. Uniqueness — again, a given
6. Appeal to enterprise users — really, when was the lat time Apple directly targeted the Enterprise? Do they really need to?
7. Apple’s support — again, idiotic. Why wouldn’t Apple support their own product, even when it’s classified as a “hobby”?
8. iPhone’s intuitive multitouch gestures — a given
9. A 3G option — if its an option then it’s not a deal breaker
10. A vision — OMG. I can’t take it any more.
MDN, please do us a favor. Do not link to this type of stuff that adds absolutely NOTHING.
All this great knowledge, using loosely, and yet they can not build a damn thing themselves. They can only comment!
Talk that means nothing until a shipping product appears and even the great parts of the iPhone they never believed would work or put on a list that would be the killer features needed to suceed in the market. So their it is, worthless info from the unknowning.
another example of an american journalist with nothing useful to say and saying it anyway…
Why is it that people with only 4-5 things to say still have a strong desire to create a list of 10?
Here’s my list
1. A screen
2. A way to “work widdit” (With fingers, stylus, don’t care how. Anything Apple does will be great just don’t make it just sit there… like…. y’know… one-a them photo frame thangs)
3. No razor sharp edges
4. Not smeared with poop
5. No Windows or Linux (I MEAN IT!!!)
6. No lack of battery (I want to be able to use it without it being connected ta nuthin’)
7. A back side (Most screens have some sort of back part behind the glassy colory thing. Just want to state that I’d rather it have a back than be some form of exotic shape that has a front, no back and razor sharp two-d sides that might cut ya… see number 3)
8. Pornable. That is, I have to be able to view porn on it
9. PORN-able. Really, this one deserves two
10. No lack of not having a non-Apple logo (Can I make it any plainer?)
I guarantee that when it comes out, you can look at the list above and see that this PERFECTLY matches it. F’reals, yo.
Heres my top 10.
1 Its gotta blow the users mind.
2 Its gotta be addictive and fun to use.
3 Its gotta blast away the competitors.
4 Its gotta deter would be cloners from even trying.
5 Its gotta be very, very useful.
6 Its gotta make you want to have it with you at all times.
7 Its gotta be smart and upmarket looking.
8 Its gotta have universal appeal.
9 Its gotta be the gadget to be seen with.
10 Its gotta be really truly amazing.
See how easy journalism can be!
@Wrong Again
I think you can replace old Don a eWeek.
I predict that Apple will announce new products in the coming new year. They will also sell more computers than last year and net income will grow.
Hey, this is easy.
We don’t need a stinkin’ keyboard…
features an Apple tablet must have to succeed
It only needs one.
It IS an incredible device. (Just like the iPhone IS)
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I read a similar article that actually talks about features rather than just uniqueness, Apple support,and a vision. The five features in the article will really make the tablet a success. the link to the article is:
http://techztalk.com/techwebsite/12-29-09-5-must-have-features-for-upcoming-apple-tablet-islate
Of course Reisinger as a technical anal-ist knows more than Steve Jobs about what Apple needs to succeed…..
just my $0.02
I started typing before reading any other comments, but what the heck, here’s my take.
1. Let’s just agree to define anything with a keyboard a laptop. It certainly can’t be a tablet with a keyboard, so they can all shut up about a keyboard. (either that or just call it a Kindle)
2. Duhh!!
3. Duhh!! (again)
4. Duhh!! (This is getting repetitive.)
5. Duhh!! (This is getting repetitive.)
6. Debatable
7. Debatable. But if Apple does come out with this type of product, in the environment that has developed around the concept (much like the iPhone hype) then you can be certain that they will be behind it. The expectation is simply too high, and Apple knows it, and they have a plan for making the product a huge success. They’ve done the research and they have the pieces in place.
8. Oh, crap. Duhh!!! (again)
9. Debatable. It depends on what Apple’s focus is.
10. Duhh!!! (and that’s saying it politely)
All Reisinger has done is take his 10 top reasons he thinks it will fail, and rewritten them with a neutral spin to make them less inflammatory. Clearly I’ve wasted my time reading them, and certainly wasted my time commenting.
Oh, let’s see:
An FM tuner.
A “real” keyboard, you know, like my Treo 600.
Ability to “squirt” files.
Native support for all XBox 360 games.
A TRS-80 emulator.
Real Basic.
Floppy drive.
Without all these features, Apple will surely fail. How do I know? I’m a consultant. Just like it says on the business card I just printed up.
That a stupid list.
Except for #1, everything listed is obvious. #5 “Uniqueness”? Just about every major product Apple releases is unique is some important way. That’s why they are successful and can command high profit margins.
I remember when eWeek used to have a decent article or two. Sigh. No longer. They’re like the Wall Street Journal now.
@Mike
Love the TRS-80 reference..
I cant believe the crapola these places publish. I cant wait till this device see’s the light of day so we can stop listening to all the supposition..
comment not about the list, but the item that states apple “must ” support it.
please name one company, just one that has a hit like ipod. zero. now name one company that has a hit like an iphone. zero. imagine a company that had a hit like an ipod or iphone and their relationship with the rest of their product line. would any analyst comment that the company is ignoring the secondary products? even one analyst think of wasting airtime mentioning this? now take apple with ipod and iphone and look for a company with two simultaneous hits. zero. so what sense does it make whatsoever to comment on atv and mini as ignored products?
does any company that makes a set top box that sells to the consumer market outsell atv? i don’t know, just asking. so in this space, apple competes by ignoring. that’s not bad.
does any pc company make a headless box that sells to the consumer market (ignoring clients for business systems) out-profit the mini line? i don’t know, just asking. not a bad product line if it can have revenue generating market years after introduction in a market that changes every 18 months.
btw, neither of these are eol and most companies would kill to have the success of either of these. most companies are made up of product lines with items in the success range of atv and mini and are doing ok. kind of like hitting it out of the park and someone complains that you missed the cycle.
bottom line is that apple is so far ahead of the competition, that analysts have to dig up stuff like this to be critical. they are so superficial that they don’t comprehend how stupid they sound upon a little deeper reflection.
I think it’s high time for Apple to bring back Inkwell. It’s been in development for over 16 years. It is in OS X, but does not have any kind of *active* support from Apple. I’ve yet to see any handwriting recognition software that beats the last version that shipped for the Newton OS.
If an updated version of Inkwell ships with a tablet (and it is even more accurate than it was) then this will be a significant point of differentiation for the iSlate.
If you get paid for such a load of horsesh!t, maybe I should consider a career in journalism? I can make up a bullsh!t or two. I can compose a fantasy list, “Mr.Obvious list” or compilation of speculations based on rumors. I can even wash it all in unicorn tears.
MDN MW: “should”. As in “Should I?”.
Here is my prediction of ten things the Apple iThingy will have:
1. A feature no one thought of.
2. The absence of a feature everyone thought was essential, but turns out not to be.
3. Complaints that there is no handwriting recognition from the three people who still know how to write in longhand.
4. Complaints that there is no physical keyboard, which Apple won’t include, because they prefer one SKU for the whole world.
5. Several copycat devices within six months
6. A bogus lawsuit for patent infringement.
7. Sarcastic, almost shrill comments from Paul Thurrott, whose wife will own one.
8. Content providers, astonished by the avalanche of cash
9. Loud denunciations and ridicule from Steve Ballmer, at the same time that Microsoft is developing for the platform.
10. Lines of people to buy one.
What Harvey said.