12" Macbook Pro...with touchscreen keyboard

June 7, 2007 - 7:51pm — bmann

OK, WWDC is on its way and we need to guess what might be announced. Here are some data points:

a Macbook rev has been announced
a Macbook Pro rev has been announced
the iPhone is out and is supercoolawesome already
we don't know everything about Leopard
usually something "cool" gets announced at WWDC

So, by that logic, we might see something not so exciting like "brushed steel iMacs" (rumor passing on credit to Dave Shea).

But, I'm going to take a stab at predicting what we might see: I think we're in for a 12" Macbook Pro (or a different name?). But with a difference. No keyboard. The entire surface will be a touchpad / tablet / screen thingie, kind of like the iPhone. You can use a virtual keyboard, or you can do crazy touch sensitive actions.

There are reports of patents going back a while (and yes, that might just be iPhone related), and then there is that crazy virtual keyboard company that I can't find a link to now, that Apple bought some time ago.

There. That's it. That's my guess. I hope I'm right :P

Update: I found a link to a "leaked" outline for the WWDC keynote tomorrow -- talking about a 10" iPhone at Home...which is pretty close to the "tablet / non computer" that I've been thinking Apple would launch for quite some time.

Comments

June 11, 2007 - 5:44pm — gfair

Looks like we were all wrong

Well nothing new on the hardware side today. Looks like we're all wrong, and that German "leak" turned out to be way off on the hardware, even worse than we were.

I got Safari up and running on XP. It's amazing. Passes the Acid2 browser test, uses little memory, it's great.

June 11, 2007 - 9:05pm — bmann

No hardware WWDC

I forget the golden rule that no new *hardware* gets intro'd at WWDC....

...and I still want the iPhone @ Home and think it's the perfect "companion" product.

June 10, 2007 - 11:38pm — gfair

Tough call

Jobs did mention a substantial hardware upgrade in the Jobs & Gates interview.

I'm going to say new iMacs. New case design, and an upgrade for the core hardware: CPU, base memory, hard drives and, most importantly, graphics.

I'd also expect either a new iMac design, or perhaps Blu-Ray drives as optional, or possibly even mandatory. Jobs really did push the SuperDrive to market, so I could see him doing that again with Blu-Ray.

I bet the Mac Mini will also get an update. Maybe low-end Core 2 Duo, up from Core Duo, and with more TV recording / Slingbox features and more storage.

Other than that, I'd predict nothing more than software updates for some of Apple's pro products.

A MacBook Tablet? MacSlab? MacSlate? Apple Space? (Surface is obviously out :) ) It's possible, but isn't the tablet market a small niche?

June 11, 2007 - 12:13am — bmann

It's not a tablet

It's possible, but isn't the tablet market a small niche?

If you consider that it's "not a tablet" ... then no, it's not a small niche. It's a second device for lounging around the house with, doing ALL the major functionality that people want to do in a mobile way. Chat/IM. Video. Listen to music. Stream music/video from your Apple TV. YouTube on the go.

It's a tablet for the HOME market...which is a gazillion times bigger than the "work" market for tablets.

If I didn't already have a laptop, this would be THE device I would want as an addition to a desktop. How many iMac owners might get this thing?

Even with a laptop, depending on what this device can do, it would be fantastic for note taking.

Think students as well...

Like I said...it's what I've been talking about / predicting for some time...I see no end of uses for it.

June 7, 2007 - 9:49pm — jame@jamehealy.com

Multi-touch screen?

I'm with you Boris ... why do you think I've waited so long to get a new Tablet PC (I've been using the Windows-based technology for over 3yrs now). I can't wait to see what Jobs can do with that concept.

I'm kind of hoping there's an original spin to it (there has to be, no? This is Apple!), and that I'm hoping is multi-touch a la iPhone and now Microsoft's Surface Computing.

Think so?

January 24, 2008 - 7:29pm — pb12 (not verified)