What Apple has in mind for iSlate

MacBook Air is more than one of the thinnest notebooks...

When Apple introduced MacBook Air in 2008 (at the end of January in fact), most saw it as Apple's "netbook", a term they have refused to use, and rightfully so. MacBook Air is not a netbook, nor is it truly a laptop. It is a portable computing device, which Apple wanted to become the thing you take everywhere with you. Not just when you need a computer, but everywhere.

Now, of course, MacBook Air is far too expensive for most people, as well as underpowered by laptop standards. And while it's a great product for a small niche of people, it could otherwise be seen as one of Apple's few "failures", although by no means nowhere near to the extent of the Apple TV.

However, MacBook Air was definitely not a failure. Apple used MacBook Air to test ideas, which would later appear in the MacBook Pro line. Features, such as the multi-touch trackpad, and the unibody design first appeared in MacBook Air, and later appeared in the MacBook Pro models. So it doesn't surprise me to think that, while Apple may also have intended for the Air to be an "everywhere" computer, it hasn't happened, so what to try next?

Well, you take the success of iPhone, that's what you do.

For some time now, it has become evident that Apple is investing in multi-touch as the future (or at least, a future) of computing. From iPhone, to multi-touch trackpads, to the Magic Mouse, Apple is pushing the technology into every line of their products. It would not surprise me to see my idea of the Magic Slate become a reality, nor for Apple Remote to become a touch-based device (assuming it is not discontinued).

iSlate, will of course be multi-touch, with no physical keyboard. That much should be readily obvious now. However, the idea that Apple wants to see iSlate become the take-everywhere do-everything device for people, is not so immediate. Where the MacBook Air failed (in price and specs), iSlate will excel. The price will be less than $999, with estimates placing it at as low as $599, and the specs will be enough for what it should do.

By that, I mean that, do you expect your iPhone to be as fast and smooth as your MacBook Pro? Of course not. The expectations are different. And the same will apply to iSlate. The expectation will be a device that is fast, but not as fast as a laptop. And with that expectation, and the lower price, it can easily become the device Apple wants it to become.

No, not just the device Steve Jobs wants even (although it could be his last major product at Apple), but the device Apple wants. The device Apple needs to have in place for the future. A device, in between mobile phones, and laptop computers. Something that people will take with them everywhere, because it can do everything.