Apple touchscreen tablet: technology’s worst-kept secret

Apparently, in two days’ time (on Wednesday the 27th of January 2010), at a press event at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater in San Francisco, Apple is going to launch a brand new touchscreen tablet. Last week the company sent out a broad and vague — “come see our latest creation” invitation to the press. According to Steve Jobs, Chief Executive of Apple, the tablet is going to reshape books, newspapers and television businesses much the way the iPod revamped the music industry.

Although no concrete facts about the existence of Apple tablet (quite possibly ‘iTablet’ or ‘iSlate’) have been leaked to the press, at least apart from what is reported by The Wall Street Journal, all sorts of rumours have been spread all over the Internet. For example, Wired speculates that the tablet will serve as an e-reader for magazines, newspapers and books, but it will also offer the general-purpose functions seen in the iPhone, such as gaming, viewing photos, web surfing and using apps. Its appearance is described as a 10- to 11-inch iPhone or iPod Touch, it will run a substantially expanded version of the iPhone OS, it will have a new non-QWERTY interface and it will support Wi-Fi and and 3G data connections just as do the iPhone, iPod Touch and all Macs. Also, the presumption is that Apple will sell access to book, newspaper and magazine content via iTunes.

The cost of Apple’s new creation is evaluated to range from as low as £300 to as high as £1250, with most speculation focusing on the £500 to £600 range. The tablet is supposed to fill in the price gap between the iPod Touch (£250) and the lowest-priced MacBook (£650).

At least in the US, prognosticators believe the tablet will be supported by AT&T and Verizon networks. It is presumed that there may be two devices, one with the HSPA+ processor designed for AT&T and the other one with EVDO processor designed for Verizon, or quite possibly the tablet will be equipped with the Qualcomm processor which allows to connect with any network.

Following the release pattern of the iPhone, which was unveiled by Steve Jobs in January 2007 but not sold until June that year, the tablet could also be sold around June time 2010 or maybe even earlier. But that is not the only thing the company is likely to announce. Updates to the MacBook line and the iPhone OS are also likely to be on the ticket. So, watch this space!