Apple's tablet to come

I am hardly known as someone who likes apple products, but with all the excitement that has been going on recently, I HAVE to speculate about what Apple is up to right now with their "Tablet."

There has been lots of speculation about this being some sort of beefed up iPod Touch with a bit more of a computer behind it. That it might even run the same OS as the iPhone. But this is really quite unlikely. I think it is entirely possible that iPhone apps will be compatible with this device through an iPhone emulator of some type, but I do not think it's primary purpose is to become some sort of larger iPhone.

I think that this device has much, much broader aims. In fact they are so broad and far flung that it may become the next must have device even though it will cost 3X what an iPod Touch costs today. Apple is gunning for every ounce of your multimedia life. They want everything from the Sopranos to Better Homes and Gardens to Youtube, and they may well have the hardware an operating system to do it.

First and most obviously, it will be a device which can surf the web with the best of them. Some tweaked version of Safari which renders pages quickly, perfectly, and sizes them for the device. It will support flash video and include as much hardware acceleration as possible. It should be joy to use the web on as this is a must for any piece of electronics, over $200 today. But more than that, it will introduce RSS to the masses. It will have a feed style listing available that will simplify even further the reading and finding of online material. Also it will create a great system of ranking webpages by popularity and reviews. Essentially, it will become what google has not. Google has a very machine learning approach to the web. Apple's will be very personal and will have similar impact as other social networking sites.

Second, is it will finally monetize the internet. The internet is super convenient way of getting information, but is still a challenge for some and is dominated by advertizing. By simplifying and speeding up the web, they will allow people to charge a very, very small amount (think $1-$5 per year) to be able to read a blog newspaper or magazine in order to read full pages without any adds popups or having to click on multiple pages to get to full articles. Expect all your magazines, blogs, newspapers and everything to come to this device within two years.

Third it will do video, and it will do it with your TV. This seems kinda obvious to me. Apple TV tried to do this and failed to generate any sort of foothold. Apple has learned it's lesson though. Everything from this device will be available to stream at a moment's notice, and it will be in high definition. It's all about convenience for this part, and I expect there will be some wireless streaming here or possibly a dock which will connect via HDMI to a majority of modern TV's.

People will be able for the first time to subscribe to individual shows for a fraction of what they are paying now for cable. Think $10 for a season or about $0.25 an hour. If you watch 5 hours of TV per day, then it will cost about $45 a month to get that level of TV which most people are paying about $100 a month for right now. You will subscribe to your shows you want to watch and see them commercial free whenever you want.

This will spawn the new Video store that will go alongside iTunes and the App Store.

It will do movies like this too. Watch out Netflix!

Fourth, it will do music. Again, the dock will be key, but I expect the music listening prowess of the iPod will be present on this device as well as the ability to connect to existing apple docking devices.

All of that in sleek 10 inch touch screen package that you can easily take on the road (possibly with a slide in keyboard to turn it into a laptop for real road warriors) and I think they will sell like nobody's business. Apple may become part of my house this year...