Maworld 2009 - iPad Tablet Device Rumoured for the Autumn?

 

Concept image from: Gizmodo

The annual Macworld Conference and exhibition starts tomorrow (5^th January) and lasts until the 9^th January. The first day of the conference has always been when traditionally Apple has made its revolutionary new product announcements. In the past products have included the imac, macbook and iphone. Steve Jobs (Apple CEO) has traditionally done the key note product announcements and you can see the best bits of his keynotes over on the Industry Standard website.

 

The 2009 conference is likely to be a little different as Steve Jobs will not be doing this year’s keynote address. Apple has also announced that this will be the last year they will be exhibiting at the Macworld Conference. Apple pulling out of the conference makes some sense to me – they don’t run or own Macworld. They now have a really successful line of retail store to sell their products in and it doesn’t make a lot of sense to introducing new products in January which is the slowest retail time of the year.

 

So what will we expect to see at this years Macworld? Analysts are predicting evolutionary products rather than revolutionary products. An example of evolutionary product might include a new iMac. I think it’s unlikely that we will see a new type of iPod or an Apple netbook at tomorrow’s conference.

 

One product that is filling the rumour mills at the moment is the prospect of an Apple Tablet – although this particular rumour has been doing the rounds for years. I don’t think we will see it launched tomorrow but according to Techcrunch by the autumn 2009 we can, ‘expect a large screen iPod touch device to be released with a 7 or 9 inch screen’.

 

A recent Apple patent request also seem to back this rumour up:

 

According to MacRumours.com, ‘Apple also details the use of swipe and scrolling to manipulate on screen lists as well as the implementation of a full screen multi-touch keyboard’.

 

Another piece of supporting evidence was another patent request from Apple for a pair of gloves. The US Patent Office application notes that capacitive touchscreens like those on the iPhone and iPod touch are problematic in colder weather.

 

I just guess we will have to wait and see!