Gizmodo (link in title bar) is re-reporting the rumor that we will see an Apple tablet this fall, specifically in October. They are pulling info from The China Times and MacRumors and although it’s still just a rumor it seems pretty credible.
The question is, what sort of OS would this tablet run. I have long speculated that we would see something powered by a variant of the iPhone OS. But If Apple were to do that you’sd have thought they would have previewed such a device at WWDC so that the developer community would be ready to take advantage of a larger display size, better peripheral support, etc. But we did not see that. So if this is going to be a suprise launch I would think it would have to be something based on their proven Tried and true OS X software capable of running any OS X Application.
Which makes sense with the rumored $800 price tag. At that price, The tablet compares to a decently equipped notebook computer, so to put out a fully functional touch screen tablet does make a lot of sense.
The only problem I see with this rumor is that an October launch of tablet computer running OS X will miss the back to school market. And that’s where the cheapest real Apple Computer would certainly sell well.
Perhaps we will see an August announcement of this for Back to School pre-orders? Or perhaps Apple will just skip the Back to School season and announcing in October with planned availability for the Holidays.
Either way I’d put my money on a touch screen tablet from Apple this fall. All the pieces are falling into place.
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