taken from dougbest.net/wordpress/

Even if you aren’t a rabid Apple fanboy like me, it’s been hard to ignore recent media attention swirling around the rumored Apple tablet. Described as essentially a large (10-inch diagonal screen) iPod Touch, with a launch date ranging from September to early 2010, this device is either going to be a total flop or bigger than the iPhone, the Beatles, and Jesus combined (depending on which so-called journalist you listen to).

It’s known that Apple has been exploring this form factor. A proposed device running a mobile version of Safari, internally referred to as “Safari Pad”, was judged, several years ago, to be not-ready-for-prime-time, but served as Steve Jobs’ inspiration, in shrunken form, for the iPhone. And let’s not forget, the Apple Newton of the 1990s essentially created the tablet form factor.

But therein lies the problem. The Newton, a technical marvel with devoted followers, was nonetheless a financial flop. Too costly, and with an undefined target market, it came to represent an Apple that had lost focus and discipline.

Others had similar lack of success with the tablet form factor. The nascent hand-held computing market of the ’90s seemed to split into two directions – PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants) such as the Palm Pilot, and larger tablet computers, which were laptops without the keyboard, using a stylus for input. Palm, a dotcom darling, is now on life support, as the humble cellphone morphed into the smartphone and made the term “PDA” an anachronism. And tablets have been nothing but a black hole for computer makers to throw money into. It turns out a resource-hungry operating system designed for keyboard input (Windows) provides a less than satisfactory experience in tablet form.

But more important, there has simply been no compelling reason to use a tablet. Need to surf or type? Get a laptop. Need to check email or text? Get a smartphone. Need to crunch numbers or design? Go back to the office. Want to listen to music? Pull out your iPod.

But it turns out the tablet computing market was stealthily redefined with its first smash hit product a couple years ago, and nobody realized it. The first wildly successful tablet computer, with a powerful, robust operating system designed specifically for tablet computing and touch input, was the iPhone, of course. And it was followed closely by the iPod Touch.

Since the introduction of the iPhone, Palm, Nokia, Samsung, RIM, HTC and others have had multiple failures in their attempts to create a touch-based smartphone to even compete with the iPhone. Apple, meanwhile, is about to supersede themselves again with the introduction of their tablet.

Let’s take a moment to discuss where this tablet fits in Apple’s product lineup. Recently Apple has populated its MacBook Pro lineup with a 13″ inch model and lower prices, leaving the old, now cannabalized, plastic MacBook to languish in neglect. Clearly, the moniker “MacBook” is about to be up for grabs, and the new tablet will indeed be called the MacBook, and the plastic laptop laid to rest.

The price point for the new MacBook is a matter of much speculation. $399 or below seems very unlikely as it competes too closely with the iPod Touch, but some pundits feel it’s necessary to compete with the netbook market, which they argue the new MacBook was designed to faceoff against. A MacBook with 3G, and a subsidized price achieved by a two-year carrier contract, brings this into the realm of possibility. But I judge this scenario unlikely. There is a significant audience interested in a tablet MacBook without 3G, and Apple has probably judged, rightly so, that people will simply pay more for a tablet MacBook.

So, let’s speculate on a $499 - $699 price range. This still leaves a hole in Apple’s lineup between the $699 MacBook and $1199 MacBook Pro. This gap is soon to be filled be a refreshed and repositioned MacBook Air.

When the MacBook Air debuted in January, 2008, the netbook market and terminology itself was brand new, having emerged in fall 2007 with the tiny Asustek Eee PC, priced starting at $199. Clearly, when the MacBook Air was being developed, the fruition of the netbook market was not accurately foreseen, and paying a premium for a lightweight, thin, ultra-portable laptop still seemed reasonable. And to a degree, it was - the MacBook Air sold well and received positive reviews. Unlike a typical netbook, there were little or no performance or usability compromises - it had adequate horsepower, a fantastic keyboard, bright, crisp display, incredible design, and was of sturdy manufacture. But its sales have slacked as Apple has failed to refresh it, and despite price drops, it remains, for now, a bench-warmer.

Let us imagine a new MacBook Air. Flash drive only, as the component cost of SSDs has dropped precipitously. With an 11″ or 12″ screen and even thinner enclosure it will be even lighter and more portable, and sufficiently differentiated from the 13″ MacBook Pro. Technical specs will otherwise be low-end, enabling a $799 - $999 price point.

Still not a competitor with a $299 netbook, you say? Listen, Apple is not interested in competing in the $299 netbook market. Those products are of poor quality and performance with razor-thin profit margins, and appeal to consumers who target price only. This is not where Apple competes. There is not only no advantage for Apple to enter the $299 netbook market; there is no demand.

So we return to the new, tablet MacBook. Rather than launch a tablet as simply a hardware product and hope it succeeds, Apple has certainly developed a new, “killer” feature for this tablet. Perhaps more than one. I shall elaborate.

Industry insiders have revealed that Apple and the music labels have been in discussions to develop a new, digital album format for iTunes only. When you purchase the whole album, it inclu