Random thought...

[ffutures]

Why are there no tablet-format Macs? Unless you count the iPhone, of course. You'd think it was an obvious gap in the market.

Comments

[nearside.livejournal.com]

Every time there's a new major product announcement from Apple these days, people are hoping for a tablet. Something larger than the iPhone yet doing most of the iPhone things would be great, but I'd settle for cut and paste and a bluetooth keyboard for the iPhone.

[nojay.livejournal.com]

Apple's hardware is sold on the back of the software it runs; now the Switch to x86 technology is complete they are nearly-conventional hardware designs internally similar to everything else on the PC market. The 50% price premium for Apple kit is justified by buyers and users for the OS and especially its interface.

Building a tablet Apple would be easy as all the components are available from the manufacturer catalogues, it's just a question of glueing them together on the production line in Shanghai. Rewriting OS/X to use a tablet interface is the hard part, and after they've written it they'd have to support it in future releases. They'd also have to make it work as smoothly as they have made the OS/X user interface work, which is even harder than the coding effort required.

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

I would have thought that MacOS was a lot easier to convert than Windows. It's all click and swoop and mostly graphic.

[ckd]

There's at least one third-party solution out there; I think they gut a MacBook (IIRC) and turn it into a tablet.

[heliograph.livejournal.com]

http://www.axiotron.com/index.php?id=modbook

[murphys-lawyer.livejournal.com]

Steve doesn't like them. What Steve doesn't like, doesn't get built.

[darransims.livejournal.com]

They could also use a 7 inch screen version of the Macbook as well.