Has the 'iSlate' Finally Moved Off the Drawing Board?

Talk of an Apple tablet has been floating around for years, with the bits and pieces of rumor and conjecture coalescing into a somewhat less-vague image of a potentially real product in the last six months or so. The latest excitement is over the purported device’s name, which could be "iSlate," its display, which could be a tough 10-inch glass panel, and its announcement date, which could be next month.

Apple could be gearing up to release a new tablet device known as the "iSlate" as early as next month, according to the latest batch of rumors circulating in the tech press.

It turns out Apple owns the domain islate.com, MacRumors reported last week, citing a historic record that briefly exposed the Cupertino company as the registrant for the site.

The company has also placed an order for 10-inch touch panels with Foxconn subsidiary Innolux after delaying the tablet’s launch in order to find stronger glass, according to Taiwanese rumor site DigiTimes.

January Announcement

Glass strengthening will come from G-Tech Optoelectronics -- another Foxconn subsidiary -- and Foxconn Electronics itself will do the manufacturing, DigiTimes reported.

Taiwanese optical filmmaker Wah Hong Industrial will also supply components for the device, the site said.

Based on the shipping schedules of Apple’s upstream component partners, the company will announce the new tablet next month, DigiTimes predicted, with mass shipments to begin in March or April.

A Big Event

Then, too, there’s the news that Apple has booked the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco in late January, creating speculation that a major announcement is planned for Jan. 26.

Indeed, application developers have been asked by Apple to prepare applications for demonstration next month, according to Silicon Alley Insider.

There’s also a possibility that a tablet with a 7-inch screen will be on the way as well, Boy Genius Report predicted.

Put it all together, and it seems likely something like an oversized iPhone or iPod touch is coming down the pike.

Apple’s stock reached a 52-week high of US$213.95 in early Monday trading.

The company did not respond by press time to MacNewsWorld’s requests for comment.

Death of 'iPad'

After MadTV’s parody of the iPod, the "iPad" name would not have been a good choice for Apple’s tablet because of the resulting humorous connection with feminine hygiene products, Rob Enderle, president and principal analyst with the Enderle Group, told MacNewsWorld.

That spoof "made it clear that the ’iPad’ name would be dead," he said.

iTablet, on the other hand, would have been "too heavily connected to comments Steve Jobs made about tablets being stupid," Enderle asserted.

iSlate -- if it turns out to be the device’s real name -- would be a "wise choice," Enderle opined.

'An Interesting CES'

Apple is likely planning to show off the device early, in anticipation of the FCC testing it will still need to undergo, added Enderle.

The upcoming International CES show early next month will be "awash with devices in this class," he noted, most of them running Google’s competing Android platform.

A smartbook, a smart tablet and Google’s Nexus One phone will be among those Android-based competitors, he said.

"It will be an interesting CES," he remarked, with both Google and Apple trying to "steal the show." Apple’s announcement, then, will be "an attempt to stall the market and keep people from buying Android-based competitors."

The device will most likely become available sometime between April and June, Enderle predicted.

Potential Fragmentation?

Of course, what the device will look like and how consumers will react remains to be seen.

"One of the things I struggle with is the use of the tablet," Kurt Scherf, vice president and principal analyst with Parks Associates, told MacNewsWorld.

It is "well defined that tablets work well in vertical markets like hospitals and warehouses," Scherf noted, "but for consumers, my question is, what are they bringing to the table that notebooks or netbooks can’t do?"

If such a device were to have superior handwriting recognition, for example -- long a problem for tablets in the past -- that "might make it a push for the educational market and college students, for example," he said. "That might give it a kick."

Nevertheless, "it seems like a lot of what Apple is doing is pushing the iPhone as a be-all device," Scherf concluded, "so this would almost seem to potentially fragment their market."