Articles, Industrial Design, Mobile Design, Technology

The mystery surrounding Apple’s next big announcement appears to be up, at least if you follow (and believe) the rumors that are rampant on the internet. Apple will likely be unleashing a tablet product to the legions of Mac faithful. In my mind, this will act as a bridge of sorts, to try to entice those who are willing to buy iPod Touch and iPhones, but have yet to take the plunge on a Macbook or Mac desktop. It seems as though Apple will try to leverage the popularity of the iPhone to get new users to become acclimated to the OS X software. This would be an incredibly smart move from a

Levarging the Success of the iPhone to help a new iTablet?

business standpoint, as the more familiar consumers are with the native Mac OS the more Apple increases their chances of consumer’s purchasing a Mac instead of a PC at the next buying opportunity. Macs are generally known for their ease of use, but it can still be rather jarring to someone who has used a PC for the entirety of their life to jump into a Mac, and the tablet will act as a primer in a sense.

Apple is likely to offer a few variations on the model, likely to accommodate different user needs with different size displays and likely storage capacity as well. It would not be surprising to see 2-3 different models (9″, 11″, 13″ displays) to begin with at launch. One of the main differences between this and existing tablet competition will be the software and the resolution of the screen. I feel as though Apple will go with a HD ready display (for High Def video playback), capable of 1080p for their 13″ model, and 720p for their 9″ and 11″ models. This in conjunction with the capacitive touch software that the iPhone is known for, will be the key to their success. The user interface will make extensive use of the high resolution with the easy zooming that the iPod Touch and iPhone have pioneered.

Given that the screen display is such high resolution, there is the ability to have many different programs / tasks on the go at once. However, given that the screen size itself is rather limited, seeing the entirety of the ‘desktop’ would require a zooming out. This would allow the user to organize their windows, zooming in and out between them, or using the rocket dock below. In a sense, it would be like zooming in on a map to do something specific, but then zooming back out, to get the big picture.

The Mac iTablet would function by touch, but also with a pen that is stored inside the main body of the tablet, so that it avoids being easily lost or left behind. The pen would offer sensitivity and precision that finger usage can not duplicate, and would largely serve for creative purposes (sketching, quick notes, etc). Since the Mac OS Leopard has built in hand writing recogition, that function would obviously help play a key role in making ‘on the fly’ note writing into full fledged text documents with minimal effort.

There are reports that an Apple commercial for an upcoming product was shot in a retro 50′s diner, and that many believe it to be either a new iPod or the iTablet.   It is highly unlikely that there will be any momentous changes with regards to the iPod Touch and iPhone as Apple does not want to break compatibility with all the Apps, which is a big part of what sets them apart from the other companies.

So if the setting of a retro 50′s diner was used for a new product, and it was unlikely to be an iPod, then how would the iTablet fit in to this setting? What if upon entering the diner (or even before), a user’s iTablet was asked (via built in wi-fi) whether they wished to view the menu? So now the users are able to view the menus on their own personal tablet, potentially view detailed pictures of what certain foods are, etc.. What if the waiter / waitress isn’t writing down your order as you say it to them, but rather selecting from the list on their own iTablet? Furthermore they could be scribbling any custom handwritten notes that are necessary with the iTablet’s pen. If the customers are waiting for their meals, they could peruse the digital jukebox’s song list and submit their own choices to enter the song queue to play next over the loud speakers at the diner.

While these are all very small examples of potential functions of the iTablet in the diner setting, it becomes easier to see that such a device has very real potential in all different environments. Think of the person maintaining inventory at retail stores getting live updates on what is being sold and the quantities remaining, or the construction worker building a skyscraper who needs to inform his boss of a problem on the ground. He simply takes a picture or uses the video conferencing to show his/her boss the problem in real time. Such devices usually take some time for people to really sort out the frivolous from the legitimate uses, but once designers and consumers begin to discover the uses that can make a real impact in people’s lives, the power of the device grows exponentially. What potential uses do you see for such a device?