Train Wreck, Eh?

In the face of ever-more-rampant rumor and speculation that Apple is preparing The Tablet for release, Michael Scalisi has declared it a “train wreck” in a piece for PC World. Yes, it’s a very foolish thing to do, reviewing a product based on nothing more than assumptions and idle speculation.

But really, Scalisi only made one mistake. His list of design and marketing problems faced by any “tablet” computer is accurate. His mistake is assuming that Apple would ship a tablet without having solved these very real problems. How do you type? How do you carry it around? How do you protect the screen from getting scratched? If you’re supposed to watch video on it, how do you prop it up? If you already have an iPhone and a MacBook, what would you need this for?

I have no idea what the answers to any of these questions are. But rest assured that if The Tablet is indeed imminent, Apple does. This thing is like the iPhone before it was revealed. There was a frenzy of speculation and rumor that Apple was poised to announce a mobile phone, but no one had any clue what it was actually going to be like.

★ Tuesday, 28 July 2009