Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Apple
A Mac tablet? Not just no, but 'heck no'
Since Apple's third quarter conference call, the rumor mill has been grinding its latest batch of corn: or what natives call "the MacBook tablet." The endless list of features, the bad Photoshop: It's already here.
Every time Apple has whetted our appetites for new products, the same people keep predicting a tablet-style device, and, since the Newton, they've yet to be right.
I know tablets are useful to some, but is Apple going to make one? Not just no: Heck no. Picture trying to drive with your hands in front of your face the whole time. If you design with a computer, a tablet of any kind just isn't for you.
Join me for a medium-sized rant about this Mac tablet, why it's a bad for Apple, and why they won't sell it.
Let's do an experiment right now. If you have a laptop or a desktop screen in front of you, hold your hands out so your fingers touch your screen. Now hold that position for eight hours. No? Okay, try this: if you have a keyboard on the desk in front of you, look at it. Now watch that keyboard for eight hours straight. Any ergonomic position that's comfortable for your arms is not comfortable for your neck, and vice versa.
I use a Wacom tablet every day. There are things I can't do with the mouse anymore (like drawing clipping paths) because I've used a tablet for eight years now. Many say that a Mac tablet would be great for graphic designers. I say it's like my dream of driving the San Diego Trolley: it would be fun for about a half-hour, but then I'd get really tired of it. Having your hand-work area in the same place as your visual area would be frustrating to me, as my hands would be constantly in the way of what I'm looking at. Like most input devices, I like that keyboards, mice, and Wacom tablets be used without looking at them: critical for ergonomics.
Robert X. Cringely argues the opposite, saying if you just "give artists a big tablet screen to draw on" then Apple will at least break even on a tablet product. Not only is it insulting, but it's bull-effin'-puckey. Has Cringely even used a tablet to design something? Designers would all be at home in a week with neck-strain and RSI. Moreover, I'd reckon that without a keyboard, designers' ability to precisely control the position of objects (in software like Illustrator or InDesign, for example) would be seriously hamstrung.
I've also used a tablet PC before, which was frustrating. It had a stylus, which was okay, but the display was pressure-sensitive and not touch-sensitive. So precision movements with the stylus were nigh-on impossible. Typing using the stylus on an on-screen keyboard was ridiculous, unless I wanted to type like I was in third grade again.
Moreover, developers can't just "make" a touch version of "desktop" Mac OS X for fingers: objects like hit areas and UI shadows are entirely different, tweets Craig Hockenberry. The UI would have to become much larger, much different, or both. Trying to use something like Final Cut Pro with a tablet makes my brain hurt. The other option is to use a stylus, true: but Apple's current touch technology only works with fingers, toes, knuckles, and elbows so far.
Apple filed a patent last year about a huge, multitouch display area for MacBooks, but what's described in the patent ain't no tablet, but more like an Optimus keyboard. Nifty, I agree, but beside the point.
Steve himself just last year dismissed the idea of an Apple tablet, instead focusing on the soon-to-be-announced iPhone. He reportedly said that tablets appeal to a very limited audience (in the article, for example, the medical field). Technical limitations like screen density and wireless fidelity can be overcome. But without the backing of Apple's critical creative customers, will a tablet succeed?
I understand that for some users, having a computer to carry around in the crook of your arm has appeal. But is that group large enough for Apple to manufacture and sell Mac tablets in quantities that can make it money?
Heck no.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 5)
akatsuki said 12:08PM on 7-23-2008
Thank you for articulating what is wrong with a touchscreen. As an addition on a notebook, it might make sense.
I'd rather see an EyeToy style gesture control for some actions personally.
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fmavolio said 12:18PM on 7-23-2008
I agree with akatsuki. I think, aside from the nurse in my doctor's office, those who think they would sometimes use a tablet or a laptop with tablet option, might really only use it for capturing notes in a meeting, for example. Like me, I think they'd ate to use it all the time as the only data input mechanism.
Isaac said 12:11PM on 7-23-2008
I just bought a macbook. My first apple computer. Watch them refresh it in all aluminum and lower the price by 200 dollars.
Now I know what it feels like to be an apple customer. You buy something only to have apple release a cheaper, better version in 4 months.
Still, I love my macbook and I can't hold a grudge against steve jobs so this wont dissuade me from buying apple products in the future.
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stefan K said 12:22PM on 7-23-2008
Every electronic product gets updated currently within at least have a year's time.
The only difference is - with Apple you know it, and it is easy to track the different models.
Try buying a Sony camera or an Acer computer. There is so many options that it is all a bit of guess work anyway to get the right thing, only to see a better model on sale, when you walk down the street, after your purchase.
All because different vendors have different 'exclusive' deals all over the place.
Doug said 12:41PM on 7-23-2008
apple does not refresh product often and the book you have is very durable and a very nice computer that will do a great job. with that said...
you need to learn the apple cycle. my sister wants me to order her a new macbook, but I have made her patiently wait for whatever the upcoming announcement will be. she has been waiting since end of May. Made her wait for WWDC which i thought would be iphone event, but told her then she would have to wait for the sept anouncements or wait for macworld for anything newer. she will be pulling the trigger in september when they refresh the line no matter what they announce. of course, if you keep waiting for the new thing, you will never own anything.
brendan said 12:11PM on 7-23-2008
"If you design with a computer, a tablet of any kind just isn't for you."
Funny... I thought the Wacom Cintiq sold pretty well among designers of all kinds.... What kind of retarded argument are you making about holding your hands out in front of you? Is that what you do with your Wacom? Or are you a normal person and plop it in your lap like a pad of paper?
Im not trying to say that they will/should make a tablet, its just that your arguments as to why they won't/shouldn't are retarded.
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Matt said 12:30PM on 7-23-2008
OMG thank you! This is what I was thinking the ENTIRE time. So the author doesn't like tablets... so what? Other people obviously do or computer/tablet manufacturers would have cut that form factor a LONG time ago.
I understand why tablet PCs would be a difficult market for Apple to break into, but the reason is NOT that tablets are inherently RSI inducing. That's just wrong.
Scott said 12:37PM on 7-23-2008
You are retarded.
An argument that makes just as much sense and adds just as much to this discussion.
theGman said 12:11PM on 7-23-2008
Mr. Palmer,
For months I have enjoyed your submissions to this wonderful blog, but I must contend that you are indeed wrong. Please, email me as I can specify why.
-The Gman
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totoro said 12:15PM on 7-23-2008
I'm pretty sure its coming.
But the "Tablet" guys are kinda like the "headless Mac" guys-they are convinced that just because they want one, that Apple has to make one :p
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Neil said 12:16PM on 7-23-2008
When did a "tweet" become an acceptable form of evidence to use in an argument?
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Robert Palmer said 12:19PM on 7-23-2008
Maybe when the tweet comes from an ADC-award winning software developer?
Neil said 1:09PM on 7-23-2008
And where's the explanation of this?
Brandon Martinez said 1:55PM on 7-23-2008
I base my entire life on tweets ;)
Adam Rice said 12:16PM on 7-23-2008
I think Apple may have already given us their take on the tablet in the form of the iPhone/iPod Touch.
I also think it's possible that Apple will want to get some more mileage out of the IP it's developed for the iPhone and come up with a touch-based device that's too big to stick in your pocket. I could imagine a number of casual-use cases where something like that might make sense. I can see how a tablet as a designer's device might not make sense, but as a lightweight web client/household "spare screen"/book reader, it might.
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Whurm said 1:07PM on 7-23-2008
This is what I think also. Why would they use their touch screen manufacturing to make computers with a lower profit margin than they could make selling iTouches and iPhones?
dexfx.sf said 12:19PM on 7-23-2008
I'd say many fine artists might be drawn to a tablet computer; those who cut their teeth and continue to use paper and pen, brush and canvas. That's where I started, and while I'm much more comfortable using a wacom tablet nowadays, it's still not quite the same.
Now, is the market of "many fine artists who are interested in using computers for art" large enough to tempt Apple to produce a tablet computer? Probably not.
But, to be honest, I hope I'm wrong. If anyone could revolutionize the design of tablet computers to make them functional for folks other than those who like hunkering over their drawing tables, it'll be Apple.
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Mark Fearing said 12:22PM on 7-23-2008
You bring up some good points. i have been a fan of the idea of a tablet, and while your arguments don't diminish my desire for one, you made me think twice. As an illustrator who lives by his Wacom i do like the fact that my hand doesn't block my view and having a keyboard to change items/commands is very helpful. However, having worked on a cintique for some short times, I think I could do that full-time as well.
-Mark
http://mfearing.wordpress.com/
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ProudWiiOwner said 12:23PM on 7-23-2008
are effing kidding me?
look at all those patents and multi touch?!
no else can make a tablet like apple can! so they better.....
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HLeibov said 12:24PM on 7-23-2008
There's already a Mac Tablet. Axitron makes one, licensed by Apple. http://www.axiotron.com/index.php?id=modbook Called a "ModBook." Now, if we're talking about an oversized iPod Touch type device, that's different. This article really talks about a tablet pc as a desktop replacement. But an oversized iPod-Touch-like tablet for Media, e-book reading, email and surfing, is really the Tablet people are thinking about right now, and maybe hoping Apple has in the works. Think of it as an Macbook Air light--not your main machine, but an extension thereof--a super-wifi-enabled carry around hte house iPod. I think you've confused that with a full tablet PC version of a Macbook Pro, which Apple isn't planning on, but is already available right now from an Apple lisenced vendor.
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