14 DAY TRIAL // Apple isn’t facing much competition in the tablet front, should rumors of the technologies employed by the device be true. Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer kicked off the CES keynote with a bunch of general stuff to ultimately pick up HP’s tablet prototype and demo it to the attending crowd. We don’t mean to sound like Apple fanboys but, going by how we know Apple - innovating, surprising, and perfection fanatics - these tablet PCs showcased by Ballmer don’t stand a chance.
First of all, just watching the entire keynote address was one of the most boring things I did in the past few months. Microsoft, even when it innovates, fails to get the people to notice. All I could see was Ballmer enumerate things, with nothing whatsoever standing out. Luckily, the HP tablet demo marked the end of his presentation, which was why I could remember something and did this writeup.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t hate Microsoft. I just dislike its sloppy way of doing things. For example, when Ballmer took out the new HTC HD2, all I could see was a smudged screen full of dirt and finger prints, all this while Gary Shapiro, president and CEO, Consumer Electronics Association claims “passion, enthusiasm and emotion” is what drives Microsoft’s CEO.
Steve Ballmer (Microsoft CEO) introducing the latest HTC smartphone with a bit of hand grease to go with it (a screenshot taken from the “Microsoft 2010 CES Keynote Address”)
Credits: Microsoft
Then, he took the HP tablet into his hands and showed everyone how little a clue he had about how to use it, although it was running Windows. Nothing much was demoed really, while the device itself (admittedly a prototype) isn’t exactly mind blowing. Throughout Ballmer’s entire speech, there wasn’t a single well-deserved round of applause. That’s what happens when passion isn’t a factor, and you’re talking about someone else’s products.
But leaving Ballmer and his anemic demonstration aside, I couldn’t not notice that the tablet PC prototyped by HP was pretty much everything Apple fanboys are hoping to see rolled out from Cupertino. “It looks exactly like a big iPod touch!,” I said to myself. The only problem is that these so-called Apple fans would soon get bored of it. This is why Apple believes people don’t even know what they want until they see it. Finally, it all became clear to me: Apple couldn't, under any circumstances, launch something as simple as this, especially with HP gearing up to release its own.
Luckily, there is reason to believe Apple will not only innovate by including a brand-new, media-focused operating system with its tablet, but also mind-blowing hardware - for example: a screen capable of tactile feedback, a transparent AMOLED display, or a built-in projector.
One of the latest attempts at “projecting” how the upcoming Apple tablet may look like (compared to an iPhone)
Credits: nexus404
A recently published Apple patent application entitled “Keystroke tactility arrangement on a smooth touch surface” looks at older technology aiming to provide tactile feedback for a touchscreen device such as a tablet. After skimming through the patent’s summary, one learns that the technology addresses several mechanisms for providing tactile feedback for a keyboard displayed on a smooth touchscreen surface, including the use of protruding bumps to identify keys. This would certainly be Apple’s signature and the key differentiator between the Apple tablet and rival products.
With or without this technology, Apple will not just showcase a device that simply boasts a bigger screen and does everything the iPhone does, only on a bigger scale. Apple’s Steve Jobs is driven by passion. And he’s likely to prove this right on January 27, at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco.
