A while back (in fact almost exactly a year ago) I made a pre-iPad argument for an Apple tablet as a OS X-powered business machine.
Now, it seems to finally be in their deck. Kind of. It looks like Apple is going for an iMac overhaul that includes touch screen technology based on iOS.
What’s really interesting to me is that Apple appears to be behind the curve on this one. A direct parallel is the Lenovo U1, a hybrid touch screen Windows-based laptop that switches to Android OS when in tablet mode. In the all-in-one desktop market, HP has the Touchsmart, Gateway has the One and Sony’s Vaio L Series- all Windows 7-powered machines with touch interface… albeit with an OS that’s not efficiently designed for touch technology.
At first, it seemed odd to me that Apple has presumably made the decision to adopt an existing technology by baby-stepping into an intermediate market by simply mashing up two products we’ve already seen. Then I realized I overlooked a fundamental principle in Apple’s business history: advancement of the concept over the device itself.
If we take a glance back at the digital music boom, we remember that Apple wasn’t the first to the MP3 player market- and that the initial iPod was a decent competitor at best at it’s launch. Apple reinvented (or rather, invented) the MP3 marketplace with iTunes, not the iPod.
For Apple, it might be less about the device itself than the user’s relationship with that technology. Anyone can build a prototype, but Apple specializes in making a technology feasible and forward-thinking beyond it’s current form. Anything with the Apple logo on it seems like the first step in a new direction. In fact, their knack for alluding to a product’s potential has bred a whole sector of Apple fans who never buy a first generation product.
That said, I’m looking forward to their version of the high-end, touch interface machine. Not because it seems like a practical tool for us Mac users, but also because it will likely make user interface beyond the mouse and keyboard compelling in a more profound way.
And here I am once again giving Apple a lot of credit for something they haven’t done.
