Submitted by Engadget reports: “First unveiled nearly a year ago at Macworld 2007, the MacBook-based, Wacom-modified Modbook has definitely seen its share of delays, although in the days and months since, the 13.3-inch slate has gained the distinction of being one of the few pieces of non-Cupertino, Apple-approved hardware. The world’s first OS X tablet can be yours immediately starting at USD 2290.”
So you couldn’t buy them before? I used to think they were available for purchase.
They offered pre-order of the product. Buy it didn’t shipped the actual product until now (probably duo hi-demand).
Will Apple be releasing their Apple-direct tablet notebook that competes with this? That seems to be where all the rumor sites are going, and with the existence of the iPhone currently in production and with the multitouch GUI working quite well, and keeping in mind past Newton experience, it wouldn’t be surprising.
It’ll be interesting to see how long it lasts.
This looks almost like apple is licencing their os to other manufacturers!!! Could this be a tentative step into clones?
Apple could licence to producers making machines to fill niches they dont want to touch at this time – mac Midi tower? – if the market takes off they can jump in either by buying the company involved and rebranding or simply cutting the licence are releasing their own version
Don’t get your hopes up too much. This guy is buying macbooks and then modifying them, so he is using genuine apple hardware not a clone.
Apple killed the clone licensing program because they created it to fill the server market and then discovered to their dismay that the manufacturers were going after their own desktop market.
Apple prides itself on an end-to-end sense of coverage to its users, and also derives a substantial markup on its hardware. These two things are fairly central to Apple’s business model and are unlikely to change any time soon.
Ok, color me a conspiracy nut, but … wouldn’t this be interesting if the only reason this is “Apple Approved” was that Apple wanted to see what kind of reaction the marketplace would have to one? It doesn’t cost them a penny in development or production or advertising; heck, it might not have even required much in the way of tech support by them.
If this thing sells in any kind of numbers, Apple could see what people like, don’t like, etc., then come swooping in for the corporate “coup de tat” (sorry, sp?) with their own, improved, slick, etc., etc. “Official” version.
Regardless, this looks like a very nice Tablet … I wonder how many levels of pressure-sensitivity it has, or if it supports tilt like higher-end Wacom tablets?
I’m sure Apple will watch to see how successful an OS X tablet will be, but I wouldn’t read too much into it from the clone aspect.
They already tried the clone thing about 10 years ago, it was a huge flop from Apple’s persective because the clone makers (Power Computing, Motorola, etc.) were able to undercut Apple’s pricing. In the end, they took sales away from Apple rather than PC manufacturers and it didn’t grow the Mac OS user base.
What I (and many others here) would like to see is the upgradeable mid-range Mac tower between the iMac and the Pro tower – maybe in the ~$1000 range. It may cannibalize some sales from the other desktops, but I like to think it would attract a lot of first-time buyers as well. It’s ridiculous that it costs $2000+ to get a Mac with a replaceable video card.
The Modbook has 512 levels of pressure-sensitivity, here’s a couple links (all the links in the Engadget article just go to other Engadget articles without any real information):
http://www.axiotron.com/index.php?id=modbook
https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/Modbook
Apple’s always been open-minded to other people doing their R&D for them.
Games and video on iPods was something Jobs didn’t think people needed, and then the iPodLinux project proved the hardware was equal to those tasks. Suddenly, we had video iPods with games downloadable from iTMS.
There’s a reasonably strong consensus that Apple combs MacRumors and the like for plausible ideas and goes with them, the iPhone being the most notable example.
Sales of Windows tablet is not doing too well.
Let’s see if OS X tablet will do much better
I think that most IT purchasing departments have concluded that the modest increase in productivity gained from tablets isn’t worth the premium being charged. Microsoft’s partners are actually offering some nice products now, but the market has really been lukewarm. If tech companies could manage to bring down costs, then I see no reason why every notebook wouldn’t be a tablet. I like the ability to swivel the typical laptop clamshell completely around so that either the keyboard or touchscreen can be used; because I doubt (at least for now) that the average user would want to use the tablet input device exclusively. Granted, all that could change if Apple were to implement the new UI paradigm like Cover Flow throughout its product line.
I work for an employer with over 10,000 employees and work as a Computer Systems Analyst.
I only get involved in niche areas of application support for people that use tablets but I’m around them enough, including techs I work with that have tablet PCs.
I’ve noticed that they rarely use them as a tablet. A vast majority of the time they don’t use any any differently than a regular laptop. When I ask them if they would pay the premium for a home laptop and the typical answer is, “Hell no! It’s definitely not worth the money and if it cost the same I would only get it because it didn’t cost extra.”
The reason for this is with hardware technology itself.
The cursor arrow doesn’t seem to follow quickly the pen tip. And when It comes to handwrite recognition (ie from handwitten text to digital text) then speed would be horrible and alot of hangs would happen on even the fastest CPU, this shows a weakness in interconnects rather than the major components.
Also the screen covering glass would dimm alot the screen luminance and makes the pen friction harder and It would never give you the feeling of a paper but rather like a whiteboard.
At to these problems the uncertinity to which form to follow convertable or slate.
It is not yet the year of the tablet. Technology must mature first.
Right now the people who rave the most about tablet PCs are webcomic artists using illustration packages tailored to the platform.
They love, love, love their tablet PCs. Regrettably this is a tiny market.
There’s also an ergonomics factor most people overlook. (disclaimer: I used to be an embroidery digitizer who used old-school digitizer pucks with crosshairs on a giant 4×3 digitizer table.)
What people forget about tablet PCs is that the last 20 years of desktop/notebook computing have been built around a paradigm of fine-motor finger and wrist movement, not gross-motor shoulder and elbow movement. Artists are used to coordinating gross-motor movements, office lackeys are not. Pen computing is closer to gross motor: try to find someone who handwrites faster than they type and you’ll see one of the reasons written correspondence is dead.
If you aren’t an artist, tablet computing is like virtual reality: a solution searching for a problem.
Yep. I, personally, HATE tablets. I don’t want to do jack with a screen. Software isn’t built around it and it just doesn’t work with ‘desktop’ OSes trying to be tablet OSes.
That’s probably the biggest problem of tablet PC.
It’s reminding me somehow the smartphone vs. iphone evolution. For years they ship smartphone with an OSes built for mousses and keyboards. Then an outsider came (Apple) with an OS that make using small devices easier and efficient. Afterward the procrastinating leader shows his new system feature copy on the new comer.
So, what will it take to make TabletPc a killer platform?
OS X got bigger icon in the Dock and in application, it will certainly help, but will it be enough?
We’ll see!