AppleInsider seems pretty confident now in detailing that the rumored Apple Tablet will be available in the first part of 2010, specifically sometime between January and March.
For those of us that have been following the Apple Tablet rumors, this date is somewhat consistent with what we heard from others–I think Michael Arrington was one of the first to pick this time.
What’s interesting is that we seem to have a confluence of opinion that the Apple Tablet is imminent. A Taiwanese report the other day suggested an October launch in time for Christmas sales. This seems a little rushed, but then again, maybe that’s when it’ll be announced and manufacturing will begin. Who knows, maybe pre-sales will start at this time too, which might be the Christmas sales they are referring to.
Whatever date, I am interested in hearing which processor(s) Apple has picked for the Tablet. I’m with AppleInsider guessing that it’ll be some type of ARM combination. Currently Intel can’t beat its power budget and if there’s anything we’ve learned about having a great Tablet experience is that you need good battery life. I’d also hold out a very small likelihood that a next generation Intel Moorestown platform is built in. It should support better battery life than previous Atom processor generations, but still I bet Apple went with the even more efficient ARM approach. That’s just a guess though. For the next two years I bet the ARM is still the better pick. And since Apple already has experience with ARM courtesy of the iPhone, I can see where the engineers would want to continue to leverage their knowledge and experience with the technology.
In the AppleInsider article we also see a repeat of the 10″ form factor that’s iPhone thin. This somewhat makes sense, particularly if the apsect ratio matches the iPhone. Why? Because if Apple picks a resolution and aspect ratio that is consistent with the iPhone and the Tablet and iPhone share components like an accelerometer, multi-touch and so on, then they might be able to share software from the App Store. That would be a big win for developers. There might actually be recompiled versions, one for the iPhone and one for the Apple Tablet, but they might not require massive recoding. At least this is the approach I’d try to take. It might not be feasible, but then again, Apple’s taken so long to get a “large iPod Touch” out that I’m thinking they’ve really thought issues like this through. Why not leverage the App Store for the Apple Tablet? Think about it: If an Apple Tablet can share iPhone apps with not too much burden on the developers, in no short order the Apple Tablet could blow away all other Tablets in terms of software available for it. That would be a big win for Apple and the ISVs.
Personally, I’m glad we’re talking about 2010 for the Apple Tablet. I don’t have a spare nickel right now for another $800 device. 🙂