The 2008 Mac touch Concept

Let’s recap the  2008 January details of what we imagined (both Sheehan and Architosh) the future touch-based device would be like. Here were are essentials:

• Apple multi-touch based input
• 11 inch sized screen
• iPhone like front device appearance
• solid state memory (64-128 GB)
• Intel-based primary CPU
• ATI graphics
• ARM secondary processing unit
• modified Mac OS X operating system

In the last two years we have learned quite a bit of information that makes this earlier attempt at imagining the Mac touch incorrect. For starters, as we look at the list above, it is the second half of those bullet points that get very particular and hence very subject to change. Yet some of our concepts about “use” are likely spot on.

One reader's vision of what a Mac touch would look like, pictured here next to Black Mac Book

The Updated View

First of all in terms of a name Apple will likely surprise us this time. iSlate, iTablet, iScreen, Mac touch…unlike the iPhone name, which was obvious, there is no single name that makes perfect sense. One name that hasn’t been bandied about too much is iPad. This harks back of course to the Newton MessagePad, which Steve Jobs despised. The word “Pad” is likely not in the upcoming product name. If we hark back further we can look at Apple’s Juggarnaut Design Investigation which studied a touch-based device this size and that device was given the name WorkCase. There are just so many possibilities…we’ll just have to wait and see!

Getting back to the details we can now make some 2010 revisions to our 2008 ideas. Here is what Architosh believes will likely be introduced today:

• 10 inch computer screen, touch-based (Multi-touch)
• next-generation iPhone OS (which itself is a variant of the basis of Mac OS X)
• ARM-Architecture CPU (in-house Apple design a very real possibility here!!)
• Imagination Technologies GPU (PowerVR variant)

Further Details on Apple’s Announcement Today

We stick to our belief that the new touch based device will be able to serve two very distinguished groups of users who do not need the true-typing experience that can only be found on a laptop. We said this two years ago and we stand by this assumption for this new product. So let’s recap these groups and how the new device fits them:

Group One: Media Consumers

As we mentioned before we believe that “consumer computing is now the place where the ledging edge now exist” and this has only grown stronger since that last article. The new Apple tablet device will be a game-changer in software and a best-in-breed in hardware for this category. Expect more or less all of this:

• Direct Kindle competition: Apple will change the rules about how we obtain and consume the written word (books, magazines and maybe webzines) in much the same way they did with music with iTunes.
• Gaming: Apple’s iPhone is a stunning success in the world of gaming and the new tablet device will continue to push this success even further. Leading edge OpenGL ES  combined with superior best-in-breed GPU hardware (Imagination Technologies?) and innovative API in the OS will propel this device forward.
• Movies, TV and Music: As we emphasized before a wired connection to iTunes on the computer (a la AppleTV) can make the slate device a great movie watching screen in bed or on the couch.

Group Two: Professional Vertical and Education

We also said that light typers need a device that is touch based and is ideal for the field. This means medicine, science, field workers in many industries, including AEC (architecture, engineering, construction) to education. We don’t see Apple emphasizing this today but the fundamental technologies that are there for gaming will make this a great platform for many of these vertical professional applications.

• Architecture, engineering and construction (AEC). This industry needs a great touch-screen with pen-input option platform badly. Viewing a big book is really no different than viewing a big set of construction drawings. Multi-touch opens up so many possibilities.
• Medicine is an ideal place for the new tablet from Apple. Doctors today already use the iPhone and iPod touch for similar use today
• Sciences: field and lab can utilize a touch-based device
• Field workers in all industries today rely on a multitude of platforms but none of them have the promise and capability of the iPhone OS and eco-system of software development and distribution

Closing Comments

Apple’s future will be revealed at 1:00pm EST as Steve Jobs hits the stage in San Francisco. It will be exciting to see what he introduces. We know that Apple has been working on a fifth product category for many years because Jobs said so years ago.

What will really be stunning today is if Apple has based the device on its own silicon design–namely that it has utilized its PA Semi group it acquired a few years ago to design a custom ARM Architecture main processor (CPU). This will mark a big moment for Apple for it will mean that the company is willing to compete with Intel and other semi-conductor designers head-to-head in order to differentiate itself from its competition.

While a home button is present in the center lower region on the upper region we find both an optical sensor and a proximity sensor. A speaker sits along side those. An accelerometer and microphone flanks the home button at the bottom.

You can check out Gus’ article here for a picture. He did a good job of digging up the background on the patent itself, which belongs to three French Apple employees.

It seems clear that Apple intends utilize motion and optical sensor-based user interface technology with its next revolutionary product. We saw an example of this in our report that linked to a video and we are seeing more and more details pour out on its upcoming tablet-like computer.

What’s exciting about this is when we wrote about the Mac touch product concept more than a year ago we talked about such a handheld device being great for field workers…of which the AEC (architecture/engineering/construction) market is a excellent example. Having a tablet computer wherein you can easily rotate BIM models or 3D models of buildings in the field using your body and head would absolutely rock! Apple intends to make more and better use of our bodies for future handheld devices as well as our voices (note the microphone in this patent!). This is all very exciting stuff.

According to a report by the Enterprise Desktop Alliance, 74 percent of companies plan to expand Mac use within their companies. 314 companies took the survey and only 2 percent said they would be decreasing the use of Macs within their companies. The survey cited both productivity gains and employee preference as the main reasons enterprises are adopting more Macs within their organizations. Lower cost of ownership is also playing an important role. Of the IT managers in the survey nearly 60 percent are managing more than 100 Macs within a wide range of enterprise-class companies. To read the full report go here.

No. 2 – Apple to preview iPhone OS X 3.0 at Town Hall Event

Apple invited press to a special Town Hall style event to take an early look at the iPhone 3.0 firmware update. Apple intends to show the IT press that the company plans to stay on the bleeding edge of mobile operating system software and not fall behind its key rivals such as the new Palm-pre with its advanced Web-OS. 

No. 3 – Apple Set to Introduce Netbook-like Device this Summar/Fall

Taiwanese touch panel maker claims working order for Apple. Wintek, according to this post on Forbes, is set to supply touch panels for an yet-to-be-named Apple device. This maybe the long-awaited and anticipated Mac touch Architosh has written about in the past (see images). 

Apple is not the same position as its OEM computer-maker competition. The company’s regular-sized laptops continue to be hot sellers, meaning the company is not under pressure to deliver and compete in the low-cost Netbook market. This means Apple will likely wait to deliver something that changes the overall game for a device that is touch-based and fits between its popular iPhone and iPod touch devices and its wildly popular Mac mobile lineup. This future device may also be powered by a chip from Apple’s PA Semi division. 

No. 4 – Apple’s App Store Now at 25,000 Applications and Growing

Apple’s App Store is now at 25,000 applications and still growing. A report on AppleInsider says the store is nearing a pace of $1 billion in annual revenue. Apple has accomplished with the App Store in just nine months what Microsoft has taken nine years to accomplish. 

“The iPhone App Store has redefined the smartphone industry,” said Needham & Co. analyst Charlie Wolf. “In a game of ‘follow the leader’, most operating system platforms, including Android, Windows Mobile, Palm and Symbian, announced they were opening similar online stores.”

No. 5 – Snow Leopard to launch June 8

Infoworld.com has a report claiming that Apple’s next operating system, Snow Leopard, will be rolled out June 8 during the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), which takes place June 6-12, 2009. 

Is Snow Leopard Apple’s Secret Business Weapon? (see Infoworld report).

Apple has not published the schedule for WWDC 2009 yet. However, reports are coming out of information listed at the Moscone Center.

Imagine an updated version of this machine in all aluminum.

• All aluminum updated version of the original Macintosh – The product would be a “limited edition” run modern Mac redone that had a full blown emulator of all the classic software available on the original Mac. Part collector’s item, part novelty, part modern computer, such a machine would enable you run the old classic stuff side by side with the modern environment of OS X. Original Macs are collectors items; a special aluminum version would be both a homage to the Mac’s beginnings and to its current success and shiny future! How much could such a machine really fetch?  It depends on the size of the limited run. A 100k limited run might see machines fly off the shelf at very high prices, while a larger limited run at reasonable prices could see it become a “must have” Mac darling for macolytes around the globe. 
• New Mac Pro Ultra -  A dream power machine that would represent the “state-of-the-art” in technical capabilities possible. For starters it wouldn’t ship until Snow Leopard because it would need Grand Central and OpenCL. It would be the fastest computer in the world and hold that title for more than a year. Why? Because the PA Semi guys crafted an amazing energy efficient, multi-core processor based on the Power Architecture for which they hold unique expertise and capability. It would feature not four but eight (8) multi-core processors and run so cool you would think Apple found a way to pack the North Pole into it. It would feature multiple Nvidia Quadro GPU’s (making it the ultimate OpenCL dream machine) and it would come with new multi-touch capable monitors that could be positioned for touch-based drawing and input functionalities or run in conventional stand-up mode. Every engineer, scientist and architect would drool and lust for one. And though very expensive…they would sell like hot cakes! 
• New Mac touch – Back to a more Earth-based dream scenario, what Apple very well might introduce at Macworld Expo this January is the Mac touch. We have written about it here. The multi-touch patents that keep coming up in expanded and more elaborate form are, we think, somehow connected to the very existence of this machine. The Mac touch would be Apple’s answer to the rapid rise in the popularity of Netbooks. It would be very affordable. It would be multi-touch based but have a keyboard like an iPhone has a keyboard. It would make a wonderful media entertainment machine and work beautifully in ruggedized mode for specific industries like medicine and AEC (architecture/engineering/construction). We think the Mac touch has serious legs in verticals that need touch-based computing but today are poorly served by a clunky and worrisome Windows OS infrastructure. They would be much better served by OS X and Apple’s future. 

The Quadra had a special feeling to it. It was the ultimate Macintosh...wouldn't a new ultimate Mac be fitting for a Silver Anniversary?

 

Because it is a Mac, not an iPod, the Mac touch would be a new type of Mac computer whose primary interface methodology would be centered around Apple’s innovative Multi-touch technology. Brendan argues that a tablet is an obvious direction for Apple and that a convertible type of unit “doesn’t seem very Apple like.” We can’t argue with that.

One reader's vision of a Mac touch

Brendan swears the Mac touch idea was developed in his mind weeks ago and sent an email to a friend about it. Included were some very reasonable specs, including the use of solid state storage memory (64GB to 128GB), an included stylus for more intricate work (think of a new technical drawing program in iWork), a dock that works with iTunes, and WiFi and built in iSight camera.

Flushing out the Mac touch

Since Brendan started this ball rolling with his imageand imaginary spec sheet, we might want to elaborate a bit more.

The Mac touch is a full Multi-touch Mac with a modified OS X operating system. It’s primary CPU would be Intel-based, not ARM-based, though it may contain both ARM and ATi secondary processing units.

In particular, ATi may be tapped for its expertise in not just graphics processing units but OpenGL and OpenGL ES. Think of the Mac touch as a field Mac in industries like engineering, medicine, architecture, science and construction. With the included stylus or just your finger the Mac touch would be a wonderful drawing tool, like the old Newton was.

Media Infused Teens and the Nurse

In our crystall bar article, slanted towards the reasonable and the known, we emphasized consumer computing as the place where the leading edge now exists and just how important entertainment (digital forms) is in our life styles.

Unlike Brendan we don’t see the need for the Mac touch to have a dock to iTunes. It would contain the same technology that is built into theAppleTV and obtain all forms of media via iTunes through a WiFi connection. This is a device that would be designed to sit like a digital picture frame on the bedroom nightstand when not in use. It would display pictures from iPhoto in a semi-sleep mode. It would act like a clock if you wanted it to and could wake you and display your iCal calendar first thing in the morning.

The problem with tablet computers thus far is that they have tended to want to be full laptop replacements, rather than looking at how such a form factor can tackle new functional needs. The key function that splits the domains of use of tablets versus laptops is the need to seriously type. And because typing is a key function with general business domains, tablet PCs have not taken off in the enterprise.

However, a light-weight and inexpensive digital slate device like the Mac touch could serve many industries extremely well where typing is not a dominant function. The defunct Newton MessagePad became a popular device in many such fields, from the greeters at Disneyland to doctors and nurses in hospitals around the world.

At the the same time, media-centric users don’t need to type like business people either. A teenager would use a Mac touch to interact with Facebook, listen to iTunes music or watch an iTunes streamed movie and IM all at the same time — all from a position on their bed or the couch that is anything but ergonomically orthodox. A virtual keyboard like that in the iPhone will suffice just fine for these two branches of users.

In short the Mac touch could serve two very different audience segments with the same set of technology virtues. As a media viewing extension of Apple’s iTunes and AppleTV intiatives the Mac touch provides unique value. And because it can be cheap enough, light enough and because Multi-touch and OS X rock as platform technologies, the Mac touch could become a technology staple in industries such as medicine and construction.

Related Articles

Apple in 2008 – What Likely Lies Ahead