Apple Tablet? Really?

If this is what the rumored Apple tablet is going to be — basically a bigger version of the iPod Touch — then I'll pass. I mean, really, what's the point of a device like this? It's too big to be an iPod or an extremely mobile computing device like the iPhone, and I already have an iPhone anyway. Yet it's too small and underpowered to be useful in the ways a laptop is useful, as a real computer that just happens to be portable. In fact, the only niche I see a device like this filling is the netbook niche, which Apple has already eschewed, and which I agree will prove to be a flash in the pan, a fad. I guess it's possible they could be going for gamers, but that seems unlikely to me. The Apple tablet that I'm hearing about sounds like a netbook with a touchscreen, which, frankly, just isn't compelling in the least.

Apple Tablet? No Thanks! (image: AppleInsider)

Besides, I thought the advantage of tablet computers was that you could draw on them. I thought they were for artists. This thing doesn't look like you're meant to use it that way at all. And isn't the whole reason Apple went with a virtual keyboard on the iPhone because of the small size of the device, to conserve space? What would be the purpose on a larger device?

I realize all is speculation at this point, and maybe I'm missing something about this thing that isn't obvious because the device hasn't even been announced. I mean, who knows, maybe it's something completely revolutionary, like nothing we've ever seen before, with fabulous, new untold uses and capabilities. Or, hell, maybe you can draw on it. That would be great.

But if this thing's for real and it's anything like the rumors say it is, I'm amazed anyone's excited about it at all. It sounds like a computer without a purpose.

Oh, and one more thing: when it comes out they should call it the Ablet. Right? Don't you think?

Totally.