Apple Tablet?
I have read all the rumors about the Apple tablet device that *may* or *may not* be on the horizon. I am a bit skeptical that it would succeed. You may ask, “James.. What would you know about tablets?”. I may know something 
There was a time, circa 1993, when I was working with Dauphin tablets. That’s right, running Windows 3.1 for Pen. I found a YouTube video of one if you care to see it in action. At the time, I was working for a medical software company that was trying to sell a solution to bed-side nurses to use the Pen technology to write things down on patients’ charts. I guess you can see that it didn’t take off. Every time I go to a hospital now, it seems that they have a laptop secured to a roller stand. That seems to be the solution that made the most sense for nurses.
Also, I have had the luxury to work for a company that has a vested interest in the tablet PC. Even at the company, many tablets were purchased for employees, but the tablet piece was rarely if ever used. You would be hard pressed to find a tablet in use now. Why is that?
I think it comes down to the idea that writing on a computer screen of any type (with a stylus) is not the same as paper. There is not enough resistance, and the feedback to the user is poor. Think of how good your signature is on all the credit card machines that retailers have you sign. That would be an example of poor feedback. When the pen does not write properly, you have the same feeling as when it is. If you have a pen writing on paper, there is subtle feedback when it runs out of ink and doesn’t write. There is resistance from the dry ball on the paper.
Back to Apple. Have they mastered something? Was Microsoft and the partner manufacturers ahead of their time? Was the technology just not good enough back then? Only time will tell. Reading over a blog post on this, I don’t think I agree with the authors logic. The reason I don’t agree is that before the iPhone, I could never picture myself using a PDA/Phone device to browse the web and generate content. I was a resolution snob and would scoff at the tiny screens. However, somehow Apple struck the right balance with their interface that made me a believer. It is not out of the realm of possibility for Apple to achieve that with a tablet device. Regardless of the size or OS it runs, if the end result is magical (on the order of the iPhone) then they may succeed. But if it is really more of a glorified iPhone, I doubt people would find a way to integrate that into their lives.
However, find a way to pair my Apple bluetooth keyboard to my iPhone and I would be quite happy!