It's hard not to get caught up in the speculation around tomorrow's Apple announcement. While Steve Job's reason for calling the press together could still turn out to be that he wants to discuss his theory for how the last season of "Lost" will end, there seems to be little doubt at this point that Apple will indeed unveil its tablet computer tomorrow.
So without further ado, here are my predictions of what we will see tomorrow:
Hardware
- my overriding theory is that the iTablet will be, at its core, a large iPod - probably with a faster processor, more RAM, and hopefully an OLED screen, but recent rumors seem to point towards a conventional screen
- the iTablet will run the iPhone OS. That just makes sense, given that there is already a huge ecosystem of apps that could be adopted to the tablet with relatively little work.
- if Apple releases more than one model, I think the differentiator will be memory size, not different screens or processor speeds
- I don't think it'll have a camera, but it would be neat if it did (for making Skype calls, etc.)
- there won't be a lot of ports (just two standard iPod-style connectors - one on the bottom and one on the side)
- networking: 3G - potentially provided by somebody else than AT&T. I'd love to see Apple follow the Kindle model so that you could download newspaper subscriptions, books, music, video (?) and apps for free, with the price of the download incorporated in the price of the app. Surfing the web on 3G will be bound to a subscription, though.
- the big deal here isn't going to be the hardware, though - it's all about the interface. If Apple has shown to be able to exceed at one thing, it's user-interface design. My best guess is that they have adapted the iPhone OS for a larger screen, but I'm at a loss to think of how they did this.
Content:
- it's pretty obvious by now that Apple is trying to court book publishers to launch either a bookstore in iTunes or to develop their own e-reader apps. I'm guessing we will see announcement from at least one or two publishers tomorrow (HarperCollins seems like a likely candidate).
- Apple will likely highlight the tablet as a device for students as well and maybe announce something with McGraw-Hill, whose CEO already said too much about the tablet on CNBC today. Apple has always courted the educational market and this would also be a nice opportunity to poke some fun at Amazon, which hasn't had a lot of success in the educational market with the Kindle.
- the NYTimes seems to know quite a bit about the tablet already, so I wouldn't be surprised if we saw the NYTimes as a featured presenter tomorrow
- I'm not buying the rumors about bundled TV subscriptions - if the Leno/Conan issue over the last few weeks has shown anything, it's that the TV industry is even more conservative than the music and movie industry.
- nobody has really talked about music and movies on the tablet lately, but I'm guessing we will see at least support from Disney. The iTunes LP format was basically made for a tablet-like device, so chances are that will become the default mechanism to create iTablet albums, too.
I don't expect any announcement about iLife, but there is a chance that we will hear something about iPhone 4.0 (the software, not the hardware), especially if the iTablet will really run the iPhone OS.
Availability: I expect it will be a month or two before the tablet goes on sale. That'll give developers a chance to adapt their apps and create new ones, and Apple can get its regulatory approval for the hardware if it really incorporates wireless hardware.
Price: $699 and $899
