<4.vic.healey@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:28422baa-c973-4b02-84bb-0d8ff69f805e@24g2000hsh.googlegroups.com...
> iPhone Data Only = iTablet?
> Personally I suspect that Apple will soon release a superior internet
> mini device that is a glorified iPod Touch with the data portion only
> of GSM network and WiFi. This would be an Apple iTablet/iPod.
I seriously doubt it. Apple is too savvy to release such a niche product.
Nokia has been the most successful web tablet sellet ever with those N8xx's
Larry always manages to bring up in a thread (regardless of topic!) and even
those don't sell in any real numbers (at least not until Nokia slashed the
price of the N800 to cost to make room for the 810.)
Why in Lord's name, would they sell a tablet with GSM data but no GSM voice
capability? Many of the laptop data cards out there still have headphone
jacks on them so you can make a voice call in a pinch. (My T-Mo data card
has one, for which they charge a $0.25/min. flat rate for voice calls.)
> For
> twenty or thirty dollars you will have unlimited 3G data access to the
> Internet through AT&T and also full use of their WIFI sites. There
> will be no phone capabilty in this tablet. This will give both AT&T a
> new revenue stream and capture customers who are locked into Verizon
> and Sprint with their cellphones but who lust after the neat
> capabilites in an Apple Touch device. I doubt they would allow
> tethering for that price. There probably will be no camera so some
> business and secure government sites would have no problems with this
> as a business tool.
> Apple sales (and stock) will explode if that is their still secret
> plan. Sprint WiMax plans may implode if AT&T trumps them with this and
> Sprint doesn't have a device similar to the iTablet.
Oxford off his meds again? Apple could make the greatest WiFi tablet ever
and neither sales nor stock will "explode" because it's a niche product- a
very small subset of the population likes browsing on devices smaller than a
laptop, and only of subset of those folks (one is Larry, apparently!) are
willing to go BACK to lugging two devices- that's why we bought smartphones
in the first place- to leave our laptops, PDAs, and tablets at home. If
such a device was produced, I'll wager you won't see AT&T data built in, or
cameras left out to cater to the enterprise- instead, it'd be an "iPod Touch
Max," picture a Touch with a 7" screen, designed more to replace a portable
DVD player with web tablet functionality tossed in as a bonus. In fact, if
they built in a sufficiently res TV output, it'd double as a poor man's
Apple TV- content downloaded directly to the device over Wifi via the iTunes
store or pulled from your home network, and displayed on your TV, all from
the control of the large screen tablet. (This idea isn't original- see the
Archos 605 WiFi media player- all but the iTunes purchase functionality is
there. Apple could do the Archos idea a LOT better with the iPod Touch UI
and iTunes compatibility.)
> It may come about this summer since multiple "iPhone" devices are
> rummored to be ready for release.
Prepare to be disappointed like those who hoped/predicted the MacBook Air
would be a tablet or a UMPC-sized MacBook instead of a thinner version of a
standard giant laptop. (When will manufacturers learn that making an
unwieldly brick thinner just gives you a thinner, lighter, yet equally
unwieldy brick?)
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