Hasta La Gadget!

Aug 04

Dear Tablet Naysayers: Stop Looking Back When We’re Thinking Ahead

Posted in: Apple, Media Players, rumors, speculation, tablet, Today's Chili

The response we’re seeing to our feature “Why 2010 Will Be the Year of the Tablet” is disappointing, to say the least. Don’t get me wrong — we love starting dialogue here at Wired.com, and when people disagree, it only gets more fun. But in this particular case, the tablet naysayers don’t even appear to be responding to the points raised in our article.

We’re highlighting three posts: Jeremy Toeman’s “The Tablet That Nobody Really Wants“; John Biggs’ “Is 2010 the Year of the Tablet? Nah“; and Matthew Miller’s “Tablet Devices Suck, so Why Does Apple Want to Make One?”

Why, why, why, may I respectfully ask, are you all focusing on the past when we’re discussing the future? Our article rests on the premise that 1.) New technologies are improving touchscreen functionality, as depicted by the iPhone; 2.) New software including touchscreen support (e.g., Windows 7) is in the works, presumably delivering more tablet-friendly user interfaces than in the past; 3.) Several manufacturers, including Dell, Intel, HTC and Nokia are concentrating on efforts to construct new tablets with these new technologies, according to our sources.

Notice how many times the word “new” was used in the above paragraph. We’re focusing on new technologies revitalizing an old, generally unloved gadget. And all three naysayers are, oddly enough, looking backward and dismissing tablets based on their old applications running on old hardware — shortcomings we also touched on in our story.

“Tablet devices suck, so why does Apple want to make one?” asks ZDNet’s Miller. Why else would Apple wish to make one? Steve Jobs felt smartphones sucked as consumer devices, and then Apple delivered the iPhone. And look what happened with the entire smartphone category. Did anyone think a keyboard-less phone was going to appeal to the masses? (I know I didn’t.) Yet 40 million iPhones and iPod Touches have shipped worldwide. Don’t listen to Greg House: People do change.

Why is it inconceivable to theorize the same could potentially happen with tablets? We have more than enough publications citing anonymous sources claiming an Apple tablet is on its way soon. And already, without even possessing full knowledge as to what exactly this fabled Apple tablet is going to do, or even confirming what it looks like or how much it will cost, some people are dismissing the product. I can’t even begin to tell you how absurdly unproductive that is. At Wired our motto is “informed optimism,” and dismissing a not-yet-existing product based on the performance of older renditions is more like uninformed pessimism.

We’re not saying an Apple tablet is going to be successful; we aren’t fortunetellers, either. We’re dreaming up possibilities of what Apple could do with this product category. If Apple again swings a home run, and other companies go at bat, too (it appears they are, according to our sources and several reports), boy is 2010 going to be an interesting year in the technology world. We’re excited to see what happens, aren’t you?

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A mocked-up illustration of an Apple tablet: Photo Giddy/Flickr