Campbell: Mac Tablet—not out of the question

Trendy computer users everywhere flock to use the sleek and sophisticated looking MacBook and… Trendy computer users everywhere flock to use the sleek and sophisticated looking MacBook and MacBook Pro laptops.

Despite attacks from Dell, Hewlett-Packard and Microsoft against Apple’s pricing structure, consumers appear smitten with the Macintosh operating system environment, and are eager to see it applied in more non-traditional settings.

Apple branched out a little bit with its iPhone and iPod Touch, providing a cut-down version of the OS X environment for embedded devices. The public, ever desiring an excuse to purchase new technology, demands more.

Apple’s competitors, namely Toshiba, Hewlett-Packard and Dell, all produce Tablet PCs, in addition to their traditional every-day-computing laptop ranges. Apple, however, does not appear to be interested in the Tablet.

Is this lack of overall interest a result of some quirk of Apple’s business model? Or is it because the Mac OS X platform is ill-suited for a Tablet environment where the user is given the power to draw on the screen with a pen, in addition to simple clicking and highlighting.

Axiotron, a company described in a recent article in AppleInsider magazine believes that the OS X environment would work just fine as a Tablet.

To prove this concept, Axiotron created the ModBook, by taking the thinking innards of a MacBook Pro – including all the clever circuitry Apple developed to allow its machines to run OS X — and put them in a new skin, complete with a touch-enabled screen and stylus.

The result, an unofficial Macintosh Tablet, capable of computing as quickly as Apple’s most up-to-date laptops, but with the added flourish of Tablet capability.

Woopdy-doo, you may think. Apple will simply ignore it and push a new model iPhone, claiming simply that a Tablet is unwarranted when your fingers can interact with your cellular telephone just fine.

The crowd at the Macworld Expo, however, may make Apple rethink its strategy. AppleInsider reported that the display of the ModBook “drew hundreds” of spectators, showing to Apple just how popular an official Macintosh Tablet would be, if it were put into production.

Apple works in mysterious ways, however.

Rumors in computer engineering circles claim that Apple is actually taking heed of the public’s shouts, and may be attempting to develop a Tablet for release at the beginning of 2010.

Computerworld published a blog about it, so there is probably some truth to it.

Perhaps the more rumors that circulate, the better chance that Apple might actually be working silently somewhere, producing a Tablet.

According to Computerworld, however, an eventual Apple Tablet PC may not be released in the form that many people are thinking. The blog reporting the early 2010 release of a Tablet went on to describe a 10-inch touch screen design, rumored to be circling around the engineering dungeons of Apple.

Seth Weintraub, the author of the blog, appeared to think that the device would be similar to an iPod Touch on steroids, or, when made analogous to the PC world, would be a touch-screen netbook. The predicted cost: around $500 to $700.

Take all of these predictions with a grain of salt, however. Macintosh has said repeatedly before that it has no interest in producing a netbook or a tablet, let a lone a tablet netbook.

So the final net result of this discussion is mostly wishful thinking. Many people would love to see Apple producing their OS X system in a package that would allow stylus interaction.

Apple would love to force everyone to buy iPhones for communication while driving or note taking during meetings and MacBooks for connection when you are standing still.