With Apple expected to announce their much hyped Apple Tablet today at 6PM GMT; I thought I’d take the time to make some predictions. Firstly, as pretty much universally accepted at this point, I think Apple with definitely be showing off a tablet. So what do I think this tablet will be like?
iPhone 4.0
I think the mythical Apple Tablet will be running a modified version of iPhone 4.0 which adds support for multiple screen resolutions. This will also mean, the next iPhone will have a higher resolution screen, more on par with the Nexus One and other high end Android devices.
I’d love to see some major revisions in iPhone 4.0, such as a unified notification system [as seen on android, winmo and webOS], multitasking, and a homepage where I can actually set a wallpaper. Though whether any of these are likely is unknown. It makes sense for a new homepage as the tablet isn’t going to just have hundreds of app icons displayed; but whether this will make it over to the iPhone or not, I’m not sure.
Appearance
It has been quite widely rumoured that the Apple Tablet will look very similar to the iPhone. While I think this is highly likely, I find it slightly disappointing, and I hope Apple continue moving forward with their design. Whilst the iPhone is definitely a beautiful device, it hasn’t really changed for 3 years and I’d like to see an updated design language. I think the Apple Tablet may offer some design clues to what may be changed in the next iteration of the iPhone.
Functionality
The majority of rumours regarding the functionality have been referring to mostly the consumption of media and information – browsing the web, reading e-books etc. I think this will be the main use for the Tablet, though I’m hoping, that there will be some kind of killer app to really sell the Tablet. The Apple Tablet will almost certainly run apps from the app store just at a larger resolution.
Overall
It should be a really exciting event, and I really can’t wait for what Apple will announce. I’m hoping they’ll really come out with something innovative that’ll create a new market [with the tablet], and offer huge boosts of functionality for the iPhone.
Though we’ll have to wait and see at the event, you can read a live blog at Engadget for all the latest happenings.
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