Rumor: Tablet Mac to appear this fall

Jason O’Grady over at ZDNet is blogging that a Tablet Mac is to appear this fall. I’ve been hearing similar rumors for awhile too. But nothing has hit the market yet. Is the time coming soon though? I hope so. I think the market needs a little more shaking up. Competition is good.

Jason writes:

“A little birdy tells me that Apple will announce a 12 or 13-inch tablet in the fall of this year. Most likely in the September or October time frame. It will run the full Mac OS X and have a slot loading SuperDrive, an “iPhone-type” GPS chip and an Intel Core Duo processor, presumably Intel’s Atom.”

The size is consistent with one rumor I heard, although it doesn’t quite make sense since I’d expect an incremental step up from the iPhone. I’m thinking of something with a 5 to 7 inch display.

Jason doesn’t seem to have any hint as to the OS, which might be suggestive of the size. He says, “Whether it’ll be a based on the iPhone or MacBook form-factor remains to be seen.” A smaller device is more likely to have the iPhone OS versus a larger one. A larger device, though, might have an embedded OS if we’re talking about something super thin, such as a companion display with a built-in digitizer for your desktop or notebook. That might make a lot of sense. Apple’s been pretty good with creating well engineered products. Something thin would be another Apple wonder.

Oh, how I long for thinner Tablets. Could Apple be teaching the Tablet world how to make a slate?