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Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) may or may not be planning to announce a Macintosh tablet computer at the Macworld Conference & Expo later this month, but in the meantime hardware vendor Axiotron announced Monday it has begun shipping its own Apple-authorized Mac tablet.
Originally announced at Macworld a year ago, Axiotron's Modbook integrates a state-of-the-art Wacom digitized pen-sensitive LCD (liquid crystal display) slate-style display with Apple's MacBook computer, giving users enhanced on-screen writing and drawing functionality, the company said. With 512 levels of pressure sensitivity, it offers twice the pen sensitivity and control of any tablet PC on the market, said El Segundo, Calif.-based Axiotron.
The device, which was named "Best of Show" at Macworld 2007, is currently the only Mac tablet on the market. Priced at US$2,290, the Modbook is available in the United States and Canada exclusively through Axiotron authorized resellers.
Mobility in Mind
The Modbook comes preinstalled with Mac OS X Leopard, Inkwell handwriting recognition technology, a 2.0 GHz or 2.2 GHz Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) Core 2 Duo processor, a built-in iSight camera and an integrated 24x DVD Combo drive or 8x DVD SuperDrive.
With mobile users in mind, the device also includes a built-in global positioning system (GPS). Its top shell and interior display frame are built from aircraft-quality magnesium alloy, while a triple layer of metal plating, with chrome over nickel and copper, boosts durability and scratch resistance, Axiotron said.
Artists and design-oriented professionals can create and edit digital art on the device using a variety of specially designed pen tips that are included with each Modbook, the company said. The Modbook's wide-angle 13.3-inch widescreen display, meanwhile, offers wider viewing angles and a higher contrast ratio, resulting in darker blacks and more vivid, saturated colors while maintaining the same resolution and aspect ratio of the original MacBook display, it added.
Axiotron will showcase the new device at Macworld with hands-on mini-seminars conducted by renowned comic book artist Kody Chamberlain, Emmy award-winning animator Shannon Tindle, award-winning photographer Caesar Lima, acclaimed architectural designer Matthew Brewster and California State University at Fullerton design professor Bryan Cantley.
Waiting for Applications
Whereas tablet PCs traditionally have been aimed at the commercial market with industry-specific applications, Axiotron's device seems to be geared at least in part more toward consumers, Doug Bell, a research analyst with IDC, told MacNewsWorld.
Vendors including HP (NYSE: HPQ) and Gateway (NYSE: GTW) also have consumer-oriented tablet PCs, and "it's really a new market," Bell explained.
Volumes in that market are still low, but growth in the consumer arena will be strong, with the potential for dramatic growth if the right applications come out, he added.
"We're waiting for the right value proposition to sway consumers away from regular notebooks and onto tablets," he explained.
An on-screen touch multimedia function, such as the ability to move photos or edit with a stylus or finger, could be one such attractive application, Bell said.
Among commercial users, Axiotron's device is far too large for traditional vertical markets such as medical professionals and warehouse inventory control, Bryan Chaffin, editor in chief of The Mac Observer, told MacNewsWorld, adding that a much likelier target for the Modbook is the graphics niche market.
Apple Tablets Unlikely
Did Axiotron race to ship its device ahead of anything Apple might announce at Macworld?
"This is probably the first they could get it out, and they probably raced like hell to do it," Chaffin said. "If it hadn't been shipped before Macworld, it would have been considered vaporware."
As for rumors that Apple may be readying a tablet of its own, "my opinion is that the biggest markets for tablets are the vertical markets, and Apple really doesn't do them at all," Chaffin added. "It has everything it would need to make one, but I think general consumers just don't want one, and they are the ones Apple sells to."
It also seems unlikely Apple would authorize the Modbook if it were planning a competing device of its own, Chaffin asserted.
"The last thing Apple is known for is helping partners just for the heck of it," he said. "Apple only helps when it helps Apple."
As Macworld approaches, then, it seems unlikely the Modbook will find direct competition from Apple, Chaffin concluded: "Far be it from me to say that I know what Apple's planning, but I would be shocked if we see a tablet from them anytime soon."
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