Apple's Dilemma - Netbook, Tablet or Bigger iPod Touch?

by Idris Mootee

Apple has a dilemma, should they put out products to push Apple towards the mass to appeal to Window users or pushing the innovating envelope on products that their loyal followers really want, or need? Netbook sales is growing fast particularly in Asia and prices have dropped to US$150 to $250. Meanwhile, Microsoft has said that it would rather not use the Netbook name any more, choosing "low-cost small notebook PC" instead. It is easy to see why.

How many years since Apple fans have been begging for a mid-sized, mid-priced upgradeable Mac Pro? How long have Apple fans have been asking for a small footprint $650 range entry Macbook? How long Apple fans have been asking for a $1600 range tablet that works like a big iPod touch? All these things will not likely to happen, at least not too soon.


Apple will continue to exercise its brand power and design as a tax for those loyal customers. The only time they might attempt at a low cost strategy is probably at the education market. Apple will continue to test the upward limits on how much we can tolerate the Apple premium. I think this strategy is working for them.

It is unlikely that Apple will release a Netbook and instead they might enter with something different. Netbook is a really a low cost pursuit of a mini laptop. On the other hand with the massive popularity of Netbooks particularly in the high school segment, do they want to lose out to these very important customers of the future? 5-6 years from now many of these young adults will become part of Apple's core customer segment. Wouldn't it be a good idea for Apple to offer a Netbook killer at this critical junction so they get as many people using Apple products as possible?

This is Apple's dilemma. But they are covering future options. The US Patent and Trademark Office has just officially published a series of nine newly granted patents for Apple. The most interesting one is the one that covers an Ink Phase Termination Engine that supports Apple's Inkwell technology and a future Tablet device supporting handwriting applications. The evidence for Apple's interest for an Apple based Smartbook-Tablet hybrid device is apparent.

Apple's granted patent generally relates to an ink manager for acquiring and organizing pen-based ink information for use by pen-aware and other applications. Although the current iPhone is dependent upon using your finger as the input stylus, a future larger tablet could in fact accommodate a stylus or pen-based input system as well so as to address both handwriting and drawing applications. Such a system would be able to tap into Apple's Inkwell application that is noted a as a key technology under OS X Snow Leopard. The illustration filed shows us that the tablet could provide a series of horizontal lines to assist users align their handwriting. Various control buttons could provide commands for scrolling purposes or to call up any apps.

Apple's working concept of a Smartbook-Tablet Hybrid was illustrated in a series of three patents covering gestures, scrolling and Synchronization. When you combine Apple's granted patent 7,564,995 published this week with a more current 2008 patent revealing a tablet-smartbook hybrid, it becomes clear that Apple is seriously contemplating a move into the smartbook market.

The key question with the tablet device is that what does it replace (if it replaces anything at all)? We have the iPhone or iTouch or Blackberry for email and we usually have a laptop, why do we need a tablet? You're still going to need a real computer and a cell phone to get things done or for lounging-around-consuming-junk-media. And real laptops are only going to get lighter and thinner, why do we need a tablet? There are now multiple rspeculation that an Apple tablet would be essentially an oversize iPod Touch, and will cost somewhere between a $299 iPhone/iPod Touch and the $999 MacBook. We'll find out very soon.


See also: "Apple Tablet or iPhone Accessory?"

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Idris Mootee is the CEO of idea couture, a strategic innovation and experience design firm. He is the author of four books, tens of published articles, and a frequent speaker at business conferences and executive retreats.

Clearwire/Sprint Followup

I came across an article today about Sprint offering a 3G/4G USB Modem for $149 with a $79.99 per month contract. This USB modem will automatically switch between Sprint's 3G network and Clearwire's 4G WiMax network when it is available (which is currently only in parts of Baltimore).

It is a great step forward for Sprint/Clearwire that will make the service more attractive, but will people really pay an extra $20 a month for such a big external device?

If they really want Clearwire to be a runaway success, they need to find a way to embed this kind of technology into the phone and allow tethering of the phone to any computer (especially laptops). If they did that and threw in 1000 minutes and unlimited texts and unlimited data for $60 per month. I'm in.

What do you think?

@innovate

A Laptop Innovation We All Need

Intel and AMD are making processors faster, ATI and nVidia continue to accelerate graphics and video, while faster memory and buses underpin both. Meanwhile, hard disks are spinning a bit faster, but getting bigger at the same time. Maybe I am wrong, but it seems like hard disk access speed continues to be the bottleneck. So can our laptops really get much faster?

The answer is hopefully yes, and here is an idea that hopefully will make them faster and more reliable at the same time. Some of you may have heard of SSD (Solid State Disk), but probably only a handful of you have ever had your hands on a machine with one built-in. For those who don't know what an SSD is, it is a small capacity "disk" made of flash memory chips that retain information without power. By small capacity I mean that most current implementations are 32gb in size (small when compared to 250gb laptop hard drives). An SSD is useful for the following reasons:

1. Uses less power than a hard disk
2. Faster access than a hard disk
3. Can be used together with a hard disk

Because of these advantages, and SSD is an ideal place to store an operating system to speed boot time, improve responsiveness, and extend laptop battery life.

These features and benefits make an SSD very useful, but not necessarily very valuable (the price might be too high for many). Now I haven't seen how people are implementing SSD's in laptops, but I wanted to make my case for the solution that would make such a laptop very valuable to the mass market (thus creating a true innovation). It works like this:

1. SSD is upgradeable as memory prices per gigabyte drop
2. Laptop comes with the operating system installed on the SSD
3. Laptop comes with the operating system installed on the hard disk
4. Laptop comes with an application that allows you to choose which to boot from on startup
5. Laptop comes with a one-click application that does the following:
   
• Reformat and optimize the SSD
• Does a fresh install of the operating system onto the SSD
• Re-installs operating system level components of compliant applications
• Gives you a list of non-compliant applications and the option to remove them
  (these applications would have to be reinstalled manually to work properly)

Why would this be so much better than what we have now?

Well, one way to fix some of the worst computer problem is to do a low level format of the hard disk and re-install your operating system and applications. This would make it almost painless to do this, and would allow users to keep their computer in peak performance at all times instead of limping along until they have time to do a full backup and restore. I'm limping along waiting for that moment as we speak. This all seems perfectly doable, but I wonder whether laptop manufacturers will deliver dumb SSD's or something more intelligent, to move from useful to valuable, and reap the rewards from the true innovation.

What do you think?