Since the iPhone exists, it's quite clear that a similar device with a bigger screen would be really helpful (sometimes). Before the iPhone, it was also quite obvious, that it would be a good idea to marry the iPod with a cellular phone.
So they will simply built just that: An iPad.
Of course it will be named "iPad" - not "iSlate" and surely not "iTablet"!
Apple has the "iPod" and the "iPhone" - so "iPad" naturally fits.
And of course they will not present a new hardware without a new software. So if you have an "iPad" - what kind of software do you need? Well, that's also obvious:
When "iPad" is the only existing proper name, the analogous counterpart of the "iPad" is a "pad". Not a single sheet of "paper", a "tablet" or a "slate". So you only have to think about a pad. On a pad you can:
- draw
- paint
- sketch
- scribble
And of course you can use it for the same purpose as a "slate". So there are the already some names for the software you can build:
- iDraw
- iPaint
- iSketch
- iScribble
- iSlate!
So if the name iSlate is used, it has to be the name of a software (Apple, please do not bungle this)! When we know the name of a software - we can imagine what the software will be useful for: In business you will use the iPad in meetings to make notes, scribbles, mindmaps etc. As a designer or a painter you will use the iPad as a sheet of paper to draw or sketch or paint. And that's all there is to say about it.
But let's go a little bit further:
Because the design of the product has to meet the needs of the software, the rest falls into place:
- It has to be as light and thin as possible!
- Will it have a stencil? Of course - and not only one: It has to support muliple tools: A pen, a pencil, a rubber, a brush, a text-marker etc. If they figure out how to do all those things with fingers only - that would be truly amazing!
- What about a built-in keyboard? Well why should it? Remember it's a pad after all! So there will be no built-in keybord (but support for external bluetooth-devices may not harm).
Keeping that all in mind, you can easily imagine how it will look like!
It's all so simple - so please: Stop speculuating, enjoy the show (and let them surprise you, where the iPad-Stencils are stored)!
Regards
Steve
