Rumors have been spreading that Apple has something unique in mind for the upcoming holiday season for quite some time. And that something is the so called Apple Touch Tablet. Although everybody was dead wrong in predicting the September announcement of the mystery device by Apple (never happened) and already nearing end of October without any news on the gadget, it is unlikely that any such device will make it to the Christmas wish list.

Tech community does agree that Apple’s touch technology is expanding into a larger spectrum of devices - particularly tablets - and some sources even claim they’ve seen the damn thing, but no hard evidence is available, at least for now.

So what is it that drives the industry wild in guesswork and uncertainty? Well it’s the fact that market is now getting flooded with touch sensitive laptops and desktops (Read about HP TouchSmart PC’s) and a wide range of touch phones, mp3 players, and digital cameras is already available. Other than a $300 price reduction on iMacs and cheaper iPhone models, Apple has not really impressed us since a few years ago. Latest news were iPhone 3GS and great revenues in the third quarter, but other than that, public is biting on nails of what is to come! With that in mind, let’s see what the fuss is all about.

Rumor has it Apple is coming out with a Touch Tablet. It is about 10″ wide with already well known home button at the bottom - basically a large iPhone but without calling capabilities. Price is probably another well rumored part of this equation - $699 to $799. It is hard to imagine what such device will do, considering an entire line of HP TouchSmart computers is coming out at exactly $799 range. We are talking about 10″ Apple Tablet vs 20″ fully functional touchscreen desktop HP (Which is coming out at the end of October - 22nd to be exact). So what is it that justifies the price?

It seems that Apple can go a few ways with this device. One way is to allow the device to serve a secondary screen for iMacs and MacBooks, however useless that may seem. Or go another way and create a hybrid small enough to carry in a bag, and big enough to comfortably browse web, watch videos, read e-books or digital newspapers, and enjoy fully integrative musical assortment. It is also possible for the tablet to run either Snow Leopard OS or iPhone OS. Rumors lean towards the latter. One version will have a camera and one will not. It seems like Apple is positioning the new device right in the middle between the iPhone and the MacBook. It will also feature 3G and Wifi capabilities.

This doesn’t sound like anything ground breaking. iTouch already does all of these wonderful things for a quarter of the price. Larger screen simply does not add up. It does however make sense in terms of increased functionality and accessibility - larger keyboard, better resolution, and most importantly a longer lasting battery underneath a bigger screen to accommodate even most demanding users. Apple always wanted to get into the netbook business and this market is currently far behind quickly growing smartphone industry.

Its been established that Apple has been working hard on the gadget for a rather long time, continuously changing and redesigning the device to keep up with current standards and demands. New release date has now shifted towards beginning of 2010. The only thing for sure is that “time will tell” and it is still to early to judge, considering the fact that this project might even flop. Let’s brace ourselves for the upcoming months and welcome Apple’s Touch Tablet with open minds!

Read more at Gadget World News

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Tags: Gadget, Review, Tablet, Upcoming