With hours to go until Apple unveils its latest creation — believed to be a keyboardless “tablet” computer with a 10-inch touch-sensitive screen — the internet is abuzz with last-minute rumours and speculation about what it will be like, and more importantly, who will benefit most from it.
The machine — dubbed the iSlate by fans building on the Californian company’s previous attachment to the i prefix, and slate for touch-screen computers without a keyboard — is expected to be launched by Steve Jobs, Apple’s chief executive, in San Francisco on Wednesday.
The excitement has risen to levels not seen since Apple launched the iPhone in January 2007. Fan sites have vied to produce composite images and ask: “Is this Apple’s new tablet?” But the key question is about which partners, particularly in games, music and publishing, will join Jobs on stage to show off content specially adapted for the large-scale format, which is expected to have a screen area about four times larger than the iPhone’s.
The Guardian has learned that a number of print publishers have been developing applications to be showcased on Wednesday — including Condé Nast, the publisher of Vogue and Wired magazine, and other European and American print groups.
Other reports suggest developers from the New York Times have been camped for several weeks near Apple’s Silicon Valley headquarters. The organisation announced on Tuesday it had created a Reader Applications Division, giving “an operational and financial home to the products that offer a digital reading experience similar to the print platform”.
Many publishers are believed to be looking to the machine to start an explosion in ebook and electronic magazine and newspaper sales — just as the iPod did for downloaded music with iTunes Music Store in 2003, and the iPhone for apps in 2008.
“Like the music industry, publishers are now deeply threatened by free content sharing on the internet and Apple are uniquely placed to solve this problem with iTunes, a digital shopfront that’s trusted by publishers and consumers alike,” said Ben Trewhella, chief technology officer of Mubaloo, which writes iPhone apps for businesses. “The immediate problem is that neither laptops, MP3 players or mobile phones are suited to reading the printed word, which has led to the rise of the ebook.”
But if the tablet does offer those capabilities, it may be a double-edged sword for publishers.
Apple is now the largest music retailer in the US, and has 99,4% of the world market for apps, say analysts. Both the record labels and authors of apps have struggled with Apple’s grip on their respective markets, complaining of restrictions it applies to sales.
The new machine is expected to add ereader capabilities, as well as play music, browse the web and play games.
The Apple launch invitation, sent out only a week ago, offers few clues and simply invites journalists to “Come see our latest creation” against a background of paint-like splotches — and despite months of rumours with growing credence, the invitation itself was only sent out a week ago.
Since then the only other recognition came in a brief statement from Jobs on Monday in a press release about Apple’s financial results, in which he mentioned “a major new product that we’re really excited about”.
While some of the rumours verge on the incredible, others have been trying to base their guesses on a scant number of clues and trace evidence. Website analytics company Flurry says it has studied what around 50 mysterious devices are being used for in and around Apple’s campus in Cupertino, California, and that they are largely being used to test games and other entertainment software.
Meanwhile, Apple is understood to be talking to a number of cellphone operators to provide connectivity for the new gadget, suggesting that — like the iPhone — it will have built-in 3G.
Whatever is announced, the new product will get a running start since it comes on the back of the most successful period in the company’s long history.
Apple released its quarterly financial results on Monday, registering its highest profits at almost $3,4-billion in the three months to Christmas — apparently immune to the economic crisis and impervious to fashions. Even before it is unveiled, the device has cast a long shadow over the company’s rivals.
Your guesses on the iWhat?
If you ask a crowd to guess how many sweets are in a jar, the average of each individual guess will be very close to the correct answer — a phenomenon known as crowdsourcing that was first observed in 1906. So, to find out how Apple’s device will look and work, we asked the readers of the Guardian Technology blog, and the 1,5-million readers of its Twitter feed, what they thought: precisely how big will the screen be? How much will it weigh? What will it cost? And what on Earth will it be called?
The answers of more than 8 000 people to the poll suggest the machine:
- will be called “iPad” or “iSlate” (with “iTablet” and “Canvas” coming in third and fourth)
- will weigh 1,1kg (compared to 0,53kg for Amazon’s Kindle DX ereader, and 2,1kg for an Apple MacBook laptop)
- will come in only one screen size
- will have a screen measuring up to 10.3″ diagonally
- will include mobile connectivity such as 3G
- will get its mobile service from AT&T, the iPhone provider, in the US
- will have a screen using OLED (organic light emitting diode) technology
- will have a black finish, like the iPhone
- will have USB, headphones, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity
- will be able to play Adobe Flash content — unlike the iPhone, which cannot
- will introduce a new protection format to offer electronic books, papers and magazines
- will cost between $1 100 and $1290.
Are the answers infallible? No, because we couldn’t give people completely free range, as it would be impossible to collate the answers. But given a large enough number of responses, and enough people with experience of Apple products, one would expect that there should be at least something correct.
And if anyone from Apple wants to enter and give the right answers … they’ll just be part of the crowd. – guardian.co.uk