GearWERKZ TechBlog

I am even starting to doubt that Apple will announce anything remotely resembling a Tablet Computing device next week. I far more so expect to see a touchpanel equipped iMac. But if they do let loose with what half of the tech/gadget community has been talking about for the last three months, I highly doubt that will be called the iTablet or iSlate. The reason is because these labels have been used before.

Follow up:

While the rest of the world continues to act as if the reference to a computing device without a physical keyboard as a "slate" is something new, I spend my time pondering what will it support, and how hard it will be to actually be productive on it. I do not spend a lot of time worrying about what they are actually going to call it. TabletPCs, which are based on a spec ratified by a consortium of technology companies, have been around since the early 2000's. I have used several of them. TabletPCs generally come in one of two form-factors. The first and most popular today are convertibles. These are laptops that have displays that rotate and then swivel down into a flat position and cover the keyboard. The other form-factor is, you guessed it, the slate form-factor. These are TabletPCs that are not fitted out with a keyboard at all. They are just flat pieces of hardware running a Windows OS.

And we have been calling them slates for nearly half a decade. Before anyone even heard of Apple's golden fleece. By "we" I mean those of us who have been staunch supporters of the TabletPC and UMPC platforms. In some of the forums I participate in, the sticky post for the "What TabletPC should I buy" thread has the choice between Convertible and Slate as the third question.

Luckily, Apple knows this stuff as well. So they will likely not saddle their device with a name that in any way connotes a relationship to, or perhaps worse for them, a design inspired by TabletPCs and/or UMPCs. They will name it something that has an average, everyday suffix to the "i", but one that is ubiquitous so that everyone identifies with it. MacRumors feels strongly that "iPad" is a likely name, and I am inclined to side with them. I have no idea what it might be, but I have the reasons above that lead me to believe that there will be a tablet from Apple, but it won't bear a name similar to devices previously championed by Microsoft.

Only a few more days until we finally find out for sure.
- Vr/Zeux..>>