Publishers made 2009 the year of the concept newspaper and magazine. Time Inc. teamed up with a design company, the Wonder Factory, to create a fun concept video of the Sports Illustrated of the future. Then there was another concept video from the Bonnier Group, a Swedish media company, which went a step further and moved the words and images off a screen and onto a table, allowing you to flick, drag and scroll in thin air. There is, however, one problem with all of these wonderful and creative mock-ups: After you watch the videos and imagine what a device like this might offer, you are left with nothing more than a memory of a fancy concept. Yes, they are beautifully presented, but they are mostly pie-in-the-sky ideas. Until someone actually creates the hardware to run these experiences, concepts like that in the Bonnier Group video are about as realistic as those in a video about time travel or flying cars. It's important to understand how difficult these devices will be to produce, especially if done right. You can read an earlier Bits post that outlined five reasons why tablets have flopped. There are major hardware limitations with a real tablet. E-readers like the Kindle from Amazon and the Reader from Sony use E Ink for longer battery life and ease of reading. To make similar devices with a fully immersive color screen, you face problems with battery power, operating systems, price and a grab bag of other technical challenges. An affordable 10-inch screen capable of streaming video, with full interaction and a constant Web connection is going to require a power outlet every two hours. The Apple tablet A lot of the concept videos and mock-ups floating around the Web can be likened to publishers sounding a mating call to Apple. They want a device. And although laptop and mobile manufacturers like Dell, Sony and Hewlett-Packard have long known about the consumer yearnings for such a product, they seem to be waiting for Apple to innovate and change the way we read magazines, newspapers, blogs and books. Like almost all the people covering technology, I have no doubt that Apple will release a tabletlike device in 2010; there are too many signs that point in this direction. Let's put all the rumors aside for a moment and look at the facts. There's the endless chain of patents, as Brad Stone reported in The New York Times in late September on the rehiring of Michael Tchao, who worked on the Apple Newton. I've had many discussions with publishers and content creators that sustain my suspicions. But the icing on the cake comes from a current senior employee inside Apple. When one of my colleagues here asked if the rumors of the Apple tablet were true, and when we could expect such a device, the response from his source was, “I can't really say anything, but, let's just say Steve is extremely happy with the new tablet.” Yet another recently departed Apple employee tipped me: “You will be very surprised how you interact with the new tablet.” A former Apple employee, whose name appears on numerous Apple patents, worked on an Apple tablet five years ago and recently told me when the first version of the tablet was shelved by Steve Jobs, a lot of the technology made it into other devices. He explained that components of these early stage concepts are already out in the marketplace. If you have an iPhone, for example, you're carrying around a mini version of an early Apple tablet. He also says that one of the barriers to producing the early tablets was the lack of software. The success of the App Store and the eagerness of the publishers show that this won't be a problem for any new devices. Other contenders Microsoft is another company to watch through 2010 as a potential contender in the tablet marketplace. Senior Microsoft executives have been talking to publishing companies over the past few months, showing off mock-ups of the dual-screened Courier tablet device, first reported by Gizmodo in late September. The JooJoo, formerly the Crunchpad, had the most promise for an inexpensive consumer tablet. The original price of the JooJoo was going to be $200, but it is now being offered for $500. When Wired's Gadget Lab got a hands-on session with the JooJoo it had this to say: “Though it seems to have the hardware design and form factor right, the list of what it can't do, for now, outweighs what it can.” The JooJoo was a prime example of the difficulty that device manufacturers face trying to make a new tabletlike experience. It's clear from the public excitement and positive feedback to these videos, prototypes and concepts that people really want a tablet. I know I do.
