Why I think Apple is ready to make a TouchBook

by Smoking Apples
Tuesday March 17, 2009

Why I think Apple is ready to make a TouchBook

by Smoking Apples on March 17, 2009

Guest writer Shane a.k.a TrackNod thinks that Apple has shown all the signs of making a Netbook/Touchscreen Mac. There might be some truth to his digging around.

With the recent “rumor” of Apple purchasing a large sum of 10” touchscreens, I started to think. I had remembered seeing an Apple patent a few years ago showing what at the time I thought was extremely cool… a Touchscreen iPod, but I had never paid much attention to it. Then the iPhone and the Touch came out looking pretty damn near identicle to the patents I had remembered. So tonight, while I am drunk and bored, I have been perusing through AppleInsider’s posts on patents that Apple has submitted in the last couple of years and you can draw some interesting conclusions from looking at their patents applied for as a whole. Here’s the original patent for the iPhone.

iphone-patent

The filing, made June 23, 2006 obviously shows what is now the iPhone, which came to light about 7 months later. If you look through more patents on devices you see that roughly about 6-12 months from patent filing with crappy sketches the actual device quite similar comes to market. This happened with the iMac, other iPods, and even the mini. Now with this in mind… take a look at this 52 page patent filed on April 15 2008 which shows what will be a touchscreen MacBook.

apple-netbook

From the rudimentary sketches it looks like E.T. found a Touchscreen Mac that is about 10”. Based on this factual patent application, and the rumor of 10” touchscreens being purchased, I will bet with almost 95% certainty that the iScreen, iTablet, or Macbook Touch (not to be confused with the iPod Touch) will come to market in the third or fourth quarter.

I also believe the reason that this hasn’t been released in the 7-12 months like everything else (there are a lot more instances) is software issues. Snow Leopard is touted as having much more multi-touch capability. Why do you think CoverFlow is invading EVERYTHING? It is a pretty useless eyecandy, unless your using it on a touchscreen à la iPhone where it shines.

What do you think? If anything… I will bring this post back when Apple releases just to say I called it. If it does come true, we’ll all send Shane a bottle of whatever he was drunk on so he can make more of these rumours come true!

Tagged as: macbook touch, Opinion, patents, Rumours

Reader Comments

Jonas March 17, 2009 at 2:46 am: “ET found a touchscreen”. LOL!

I do think that Apple is working on a touchscreen notebook. It won’t be anything like a netbook (will definitely not have that crap cramped keyboard) and will be priced somewhere between $599 to $999. I pulled those figures out of thin air!
TrackNod March 17, 2009 at 3:00 am: A second sign that this will be a reality is the release of the small imac/mini keyboard a few weeks ago. An onscreen 10” keyboard would be very usable for on the go ala the iPhone, but put this new keyboard in a pocket of a padded case and you have wireless keyboard for heavier typing that is very similar in size to a 10” Screen with a black bezel. Plus now, apple will make you purchase that said keyboard as an extra peripheral, as we all know they love to do.
Greg March 17, 2009 at 3:12 am: Good analysis. I’m hoping for a netbook from Apple. I sooo want an Apple touchbook!
Donv March 17, 2009 at 4:28 am: we’re definitely looking at a macbook touch down the line. Don’t think it will be any sooner than wwdc or maybe an August special event.
Dave K March 17, 2009 at 4:54 am: The problem here is that if it’s not x86 based or Apple doesn’t introduce ARM/ACORN universal binaries it’s not going to be a big hit.

People accept that App Store apps are not the same as other apps because they are on a dramaticaly different device. However if this is not an iPhone or iPod and it’s not a Mac then what apps will it run? Instant flop. People can’t be bothered to develop for desktop and “Mac Touch” and iPhone. The web apps for iPhone are all based on the idea of a fixed sized screen and now you throw an intermediary size in there, that’s a lot more work too.

If it has a x86 processor and runs OS X then Apple has to deal with the price issue. The MacBook Air was supposed to be ultra portable but it was expensive, and more or less flopped (I work at large institution and we let users use their own devices and almost nobody has MacBook Airs, lots and lots of MacBooks, MacBook Pros and NetBooks but squat in the pricey portable range).

An Apple Netbook that runs OS X basically slots in where the MacBook Air does because it can’t compete on price, and if it isn’t x86 it competes with the iPhone in too many ways. And as a computer, the iPhone blows walrus chunks. It’s just a freaking PDA
Podhead March 17, 2009 at 5:57 am: I believe Apple will name it iBook or possibly iBook Touch. OS (iPhone OS 3.0) feature set will be a subset of OS X (Snow Leopard) and will support OpenCL. Graphics will be far superior to any “netbook”. With a 10” (25 cm) screen, over-all dimension will be approximately 9”x6” (22 cm x 15 cm). I would also guess it to be about one half inch (1 - 1.5 cm) thick (thin) and perhaps two pounds (1 Kg). Of course it will not be available until the second half of 2009 but may possibly be announced tomorrow. If announced, they may or may not give any specs, but my guess is it will be a single model (possibly 2) with 64 or/and 128 Gb flash memory, 10+ hours of battery life, and priced at $799 +/- $100. This is what I believe makes the most business sense (not what I am hoping).
kz March 17, 2009 at 12:09 pm: i hope we can see ir tomorrow. But I am afraid we have to wait at leasr three more months. If it exists, who do you think would be the best person to introduce it to the world other than Steve Jobs? Why steve took such a long leave? All for this amazing product! can’t wait to see, but need to be patient, that is part of the fun.
Bikalpa Paudel March 17, 2009 at 10:06 pm twitter.com/bikalpapaudel: @Jonas
599$-999$ .. You gave an almost useless range. :p

@Dave K
Good one..

If this one is based on a competent x86 processor, it wont be lesser than ~1,000$.
If this one’s based on Atom, I think it will cost a bit lesser. But then it would still have the touchscreen, the Mac and the only-device-like-it factor which will keep its price still high.

MacBook Air has been so wrongly made. I would love to have it. But its too expensive to be a netbook, and stupidly tries to look like one with its low-expandability.

I think there should be this Atom based MacTouch and an Atom variant of MacBook Air at a cheaper price. With Snow Leopard, Atom’s not gonna be a SlowPoke. It isnt.
David B April 19, 2009 at 9:14 pm emenow@Twitter.com: It would be cool if a future version could fold in half so it could be put in a big pocket. Possible names; Apple Mac iBook Touch, Apple Mac iTouch, Apple MacTouchBook, Apple Mac iTouchBook? What do you think?
Adiguzel September 22, 2009 at 1:41 am: 1. Name - Macbook Touch or, most likely Touchbook (product line bridge, continuity);
2. Hybrid form factor: Macbook Air/iPhone - =/< .5"/ 1.2cm thin; innovative folding cover (bottom/left hinge w/ thin peg to stand for touch, cradled USB keyboard), 1-2 USBs, no firewire;
3. Higher CPU power - probably dual+ atom for speed and multitasking vs. low power;
4. Hybrid Mac/Touch "desktop" screen - critical interface evolution will DECIDE future products.