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Why Apple's iTouch Tablet Will Become Its Flagship Product

I'm hoping for something a bit different: an iWallet . Here's three ingredients for the next game changing Apple CE gizmo:

* Pocketability: Yes, just like a wallet. What else do we all carry around with us everywhere? Purse? Briefcase? Forget it. As they say with cameras, the best computer is the one we have with us.

* App Store access: What with a billion apps out there, maybe 100K "consumer" apps available over the next couple years, this is the great driver for Apple growth over the next five years. What Adobe did for the first Macs, a legion of third party developers will do for Apple in the future.

* Killer feature set: When the day arrives that we don't need a wallet 'cuz the iPod has all our dox on it, the front jeans pocket will become the new back jeans pocket.

Why Apple's iTouch Tablet Will Become Its Flagship Product

Minor comments:

* Any new Apple device for the burgeoning consumer electronics market will include access to the App Store, which even now is locking millions of users into Apple products. Even Google is scared.

* The communications piece is right on. Apple will resurrect its iChat technology to take on Skype. Or maybe it just purchases Skype. Hmm. That's been done.

Apple: Creating the Device the Netbook Wants to Be

Isn't this the inevitable end game for laptops? Laptop design vectors always have included smaller, lighter, thinner. And cheaper. If Apple doesn't do this, eventually it will leave too much room for a competitor to fill the category with something great.

No law restricts great to Apple. Apple's job is to find a way to maintain acceptable margins and sell a ton of the tablet. And, looking at iPod and iPhone sales, Apple knows how.

Microsoft vs. Apple: Monopolist vs. Innovator

@ "leaving the nest" Where have you been the last five years? Apple is succeeding the the great wide world of consumer electronics, an arena that MSFT has failed at miserably.

It's MSFT that hasn't learned to leave its monopolistic nest. It can't fly so all it's doing these days is "messing" where it lives.

Microsoft vs. Apple: Monopolist vs. Innovator

Apple succeeds because it looks at products through the correct end of the telescope. Call it the user's viewpoint. Or the marketing viewpoint. Or the designer's viewpoint. All of which viewpoints most companies, including MSFT, hardly seem to know exist.

Of the four (Aristotelian) causes for every object, most companies recognize the material cause (what the object make of) and the efficient cause (how is it make) but not the formal cause (design) or final cause (what's its purpose and place in society). Additionally telling the story of why users as individuals might want or need its products (marketing) is Apple's forte.

Microsoft's Mobile Misfortune

Not only can Apple harvest money off its hardware/software symbosis, it can attack the netbook market using its professional Mac OS or its consumer iPhone OS. Yes, I know they are versions of OS X; it's the user interface that distinguishes the market sectors. Or Apple can deploy (don't think for a moment it isn't already developed) an intermediate version of OS X, making the most of both their OSes.

Game over: Jobs 2; Balmer 0.

Apple Netbook Will Fill Newspaper Void

What Apple REALLY needs to do ... is differentiate the eye lines: the iPhone will become smaller, lighter, thinner along all the Apple design vectors. And voice driven.

The iPod will get bigger and become MacCloud. The computer for the rest of us. Actually that would be MacTROU. And indeed, it should still fit in a front jeans pocket. See features above.

All the rest of the eye line, shuffles, nanos, touches, can continue on. But the MacCloud and the itty bitty iPhone are the dreadnoughts of the line.

Apple Netbook Will Fill Newspaper Void

I'll go with a split, foldable, and pocketable 5 inch device over a 10 inch. Wouldn't it be loverly, with all the MacCloud features noted above.

Apple Netbook Will Fill Newspaper Void

Right on. But Apple's netbook will be aimed at the Kindle, not newspapers. A larger iPod can be the next big thing—a Mac that we keep with us anywhere, anytime. The so called MacCloud can be untethered, like the Kindle, providing 24/7 web access via 3G. But a hundred times better than the Kindle, this Mac can connect to ALL our files online.
... Anywhere, anytime access to our content via the web at MobileMe.

Apple can charge whatever it wants for the MacCloud, for the connectivity, and for a subscription to MobileMe. And it can collect for purchases of software, books, audio, video, whatever, which can then reside online, always available to the MacCloud user. All of these revenues can flow directly to Apple.
... Money is the ultimate content stream.

How the iPhone and Poor Management Contribute to Apple's Downfall

Now that's a good idea. Shape your policies to play to Wall Street's worst habits.

Is Apple Getting SaaSy?

A larger yet pocketable iPod Touch can be the next big cloud event. A Mac that we keep with us anywhere, anytime. Just like a wallet.

... The front jeans pocket is the new rear jeans pocket.

The “MacTROU” (for The Rest of Us) can be untethered, like the Kindle providing web access via EVDO. But a hundred times better than the Kindle, this Mac can connect to ALL our files online.

... It's all about selling solutions, not just gizmos.

Apple can charge whatever it wants for the MacTROU, for the connectivity, and for a subscription to MobileMe. And it can collect for purchases of software, books, audio, video, whatever, which can then reside online, always available to the MacTROU user. All of these revenues can flow directly to Apple.

... Money is the ultimate content stream.

Apple's Mysterious New Portable Device?

An Apple ultra would be keyed to content: music, video, for sure. And videoconferencing, I hope. An ultra with isight and ichat for under $1000 is a market shaker, imo.

Why Does Everyone Love Apple?

Added to the reasons for the mainstream media's fascination with Apple, I wonder if it isn't partly gratitude. Back in the eighties, when the Mac arrived, it transformed the jobs and maybe careers of journalists and editors by offering them professional tools that not only increased their productivity but also their perceived value as something more than pencil pushers.

Apple Instant-on Computers? Not Likely, But Here's Another Idea (AAPL)

I think your intuition is right on: Apple will want to imitate its iPod success with an appliance-like laptop. I am typing on an iBook right now, and my iMac looks suspiciously like a dishwasher from the rear. But I am guessing this purchase is meant to secure Apple's competitive grip on the chip supply. Chip supply, as much as design, has contributed to the iPod's success.