Filed under: Hardware
ModBook almost ready to ship?
Our friends at jkOnTheRun recently got word from Axiotron that the long fabled ModBook, which you might recall from Macworld 2007 (here is a video we shot of the ModBook, and a gallery), is going to ship on or around January 8th, 2008 a year since it was announced. Since the ModBook has been delayed so much, its specs have changed. It is now running Leopard, the GPS option is standard (formerly $99), and the specs reflect the latest MacBook hardware rev (since the ModBook is basically a MacBook converted into a tablet with a pressure sensitive touch screen).
All of this starting at $2279.00. Here's hoping that Apple doesn't rev the MacBook at Macworld this year, for Axiotron's sake.
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Fourbin said 9:52PM on 12-24-2007
Yeah I mean it's really going to suck for them if Steve drops a new MacBook or even Tablet at MacWorld this year...
Reply
Simon Arch said 12:51AM on 12-25-2007
I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for a tablet Mac. Apple tends to steer clear of niche products these days, the Apple TV excepted.
Tim said 1:27PM on 12-25-2007
@Simon: Apple actually seems to be into expanding niches. Before the iPod, MP3 players were kind of a nerdy thing. Same with smart phones pre-iPhone, with the exception of the Blackberry which was made with a business focus rather than consumer. Ultramobile computers and small laptops are appealing, but the prices and interfaces (tiny, awkward keyboards, unresponsive touchscreens/mouse devices) make them something most people avoid. I think Apple could definitely make a small computer which would be like the child of a MacBook Pro and an iPhone. The iPhone's given them the tech they need for a good touchscreen, meaning no mouse is needed. Also, they have developed a keyboard for the MacBook most people seem to like. I imagine they could scale it down for a small computer, or at least use some of the R&D to make an intuitive compact keyboard.
Simon Arch said 2:19AM on 12-26-2007
@Tim: "Before the iPod, MP3 players were kind of a nerdy thing."
Well, not nerdy, just klunky. But there was a market for them. It was clear and obvious and it was just waiting for the right player to come along and blow it open. Apple did that. And Apple hardly pioneered smart phones. Blackberry is still the #1 smart phone manufacturer, has been for years and is likely to continue to be for some time. (and it's got a bigger consumer-level following than you seem to think) The iPhone is NICE, but it's hardly groundbreaking in terms of creating a new market where there was none before. Technologically the multi-touch interface is pretty hot, but there's not much else that's hugely innovative in the iPhone. Neither MP3 players nor smart phones fit the definition of niche products.
I'm not Apple and I can't claim any special insight into what's going on in Cupertino. I just know what does and doesn't make sense to me, and the tablet machine makes no sense whatsoever. More likely they'll open the iPod Touch and iPhone to outside developers and leave it at that for the time being.
Of course I also thought the iPhone was a virtual impossibility, so I reserve the right to be wrong and look like an idiot. :)
robogobo said 1:37PM on 12-26-2007
@Tim....
The must be into niches, because they sure haven't been into expanding the Pro.
LD said 9:51PM on 12-24-2007
I am going to laugh my ass off when Apple releases the rumored ultraportable. It will probably have touchscreen and all kinds of goodies and put this to shame.
That should be a lesson. You don't announced shit until it's ready to ship! That's the first rule of any technology business. If a company announces and can't ship you can be sure they are having problems, either financial, technical, or both.
Reply
Simon Arch said 12:48AM on 12-25-2007
And when Apple DOESN'T release an ultraportable? What then?
Greg G said 11:08PM on 12-24-2007
Wow, I've even seen ads for this in magazines, I thought it was released long ago
Reply
Klink258 said 10:28PM on 12-24-2007
Can't you just patch the Leopard image and install OS X on a PC tablet?
Although laptops are where apple really accels hardware-wise, and I suppose Axiotron got it right too... I really want to consider this.
Reply
Tim said 1:30PM on 12-25-2007
You could do that, but good luck selling it without being sued by Apple. Leopard is meant to be installed on Mac hardware. This is a product that will ship soon, so they have to modify Apple laptops to keep in line with Apple's licenses.
G said 10:40PM on 12-24-2007
We saw this at the last Macworld. Didn't realize that it wasn't shipping yet. I'm growing tired of companies who do this, whether they charge before shipping or not. Looking at you too, Griffin.
Reply
Petre said 12:11AM on 12-25-2007
What's really sad is it won the 2007 Best of Show award, and it will barely ship before the 2008 BoS is awarded.
Reply
LD said 10:43AM on 12-25-2007
Simon Arch, when Apple doesn't, then what? This product is already dead in the water. It's a year later and it hasn't shipped. DOA
That's what I said in my first post.
Also, an ultraportable or even tablet is hardly niche if done correctly. The problem is you are making your comparison to Windows tablets, which are complete crap. Ultraportables are very popular simply for their size. TabletPCs, on the other hand, have continuously failed. This is not the fault of the concept but the execution.
If you'd like a real world example of something similar look no further than WinCE/Windows Mobile. 10 years it's been out there and failed miserably. Lost money the entire time and is still a pile of crap to use. Apple introduces a smartphone into a market everyone said was niche, over saturated, etc, etc. What happens? They outsell Windows Mobile practically overnight.
AppleTV. How is that niche? No more niche than iPod was when they introduced it. Though I think they somehwat have botched the rollout of the product and supporting media/software. It's hardly niche though. It's a strong, relatively new and untapped market. The only thing there is a bunch of crap based on Windows. I predict a mirror of what happened with the iPhone.
As for the ModBook. It's too little too late for too much. It's DOA. That doesn't mean it's bad, it's just the wrong product at the wrong time. Maybe a year ago people would have bought. But not now.
Reply
{} said 2:00PM on 12-26-2007
Just want to agree. This thing is DOA. The only way for this to be mildly successful is to go back in time and launch it a year ago.
steve said 10:49AM on 12-25-2007
It's too bad that this wasn't released earlier. OWC really dropped the ball for funding of these units from Axiontech. Don't expect the build quality of these to even be good, the components used in it weren't meant to last more than 2 years tops before they start failing.
I consider this vapor until word comes from OWC that they are shipping...
Reply
john said 1:41PM on 12-25-2007
It's sensitive, not sensative.
Sorry for being a spelling wonk.
Reply
ball said 5:57PM on 12-25-2007
i was going to point out the same error, thanks
djarch said 2:29PM on 12-25-2007
Yeah, Windows Mobile isn't failing, and isn't crap to use, either. WM6 is a vast improvement over 5, and the WM platform practically killed Palm. It pretty much owns the handheld OS market. Iphone didn't outsell it overnight, just owns a small percentage of the market now... just like Apple does of the personal computer market. Besides, it's apples and oranges here, the iphone is a device. Windows Mobile is a platform. Microsoft doesn't build phones, or computers for that matter.
One last thing, @5- smartphones were not "dorky" pre-iphone. Apple just has really good timing. Smartphones had already taken off in popularity when the iphone was released. This was completely different from their iPod, which systematically started the MP3 "revolution." I mean, does anyone remember the original Mp3 players from Diamond, Iriver, and the like? No.
Reply
LD said 1:07AM on 12-26-2007
You need to check your facts and your history, my man. Windows Mobile is and has been doing terribly. It has lost Microsoft over half a billion dollars over the last 4 years. Though it's getting more difficult to track precisely how much they are losing as MS has recently rolled WinCE in with their XBOX and Zune failures, totally 1.3 billlion in loses in 2006.
Windows Mobile doesn't even have the largest smartphone market share. They aren't even second. Symbian is by far in the lead with roughly 75% of the market wordlwide. Linux is second. MS is third. Or, was third.
iPhone outsold Windows Mobile in its first quarter on the market in the US. So, no, Windows doesn't "pretty much own" the market. Reality is far from that. Hell, Windows wasn't even in first in the US before the iPhone. That was Blackberry/RIM.
Yes, the iPhone is a device. It's also a platform. Windows Mobile is WinCE, an OS built for handheld computers, shoved into a phone. And it fails miserably at both. Facts prove this. But don't be bothered by those.
Chris said 4:38PM on 12-25-2007
The goal for the Axiotron was to bring tablet like functionality to the Mac OS. Which they are still supposedly doing, but in a relatively archaic form with the use of a stylus. Apple will not release a competing product with a stylus, nor are they ready to release one using a multi-touch approach... at least not in a fully capable computer, I could see something like a bigger iPod Touch or new Newton though. The Mac OS isn't designed to accept multiple points of input, nor is any software really designed to work in such a fashion. There was that piece of software that was essentially a giant track pad that could understand multiple input points, but it was used for gestural recognition... which was nothing more than a much more complicated (and harder to remember) implementation of keyboard shortcuts.
A Multi-touch Mac is not happening, nor is a tablet or anything other full fledged machine with touch sensitivity... an alternate device, like an uber PDA, perhaps.
Reply