DerekMartin.ca

• The invites are spray-paint themed.
• The caption reads “come see our latest creation”.
• The event is scheduled to be 2 hours long.

Insights:- “Our latest creation” seems to focus on a single product. - Steve Jobs can cover a LOT of ground in 2 hours, so expect something huge - a whole new Operating System or interaction paradigm. - The colour goes “outside the lines” of the border, like “thinking outside the box”. Makes me think new paradigm. - The colours of paint are the same as the iPod Nano. Will the tablet be available in these same colours? This would appeal to artsy people, and those who wish the Kindle were a bit more stylish. - Spray paint at all suggests art / creativity, as does the word “creation” on the invite. - Spray paint could indicate the presence of a stylus (i.e. not finger painting) - Drips of paint could indicate that the tablet can be used in a vertical or tilted orientation, like a canvas - Drips of paint could indicate a kind of gravity/physics/liquid model, like paint dripping on a canvas sitting on a tilted easel - Use of paint could indicate a new drawing/painting app. Apple has long catered to “creative people”, but has so far ignored that particular demographic. I think they avoided it because to get it right, you need to be able to work directly ON the canvas, not on something that represents the canvas (i.e. mousepad/trackpad). This would be “pen-on-screen” technology, similar to what’s used in the Wacom Cintiq. The Apple Tablet will be Cintiq for Everyone, plus a web tablet, plus document editor, plus eBook. As I mentioned in my other tablet predictions post, I think use of a stylus will be optional, but particularly useful for art and annotation. - The paint app could debut as part of a new version of iLife, or as a free (killer) app that comes with every Tablet - This device/app will be to artists as Final Cut Pro is to video editors - The new device could be called, the “Apple Canvas”, or “Apple Tableau” (french for Dramatic Scene - bonus for being hoity toity, plus people will call’em Ta-blows if they suck). It’s now obvious that my “MacBook” re-branding idea was totally wrong, since Apple is clearly focusing on Art, with eBook reading as a bonus, not eBooks with Art as a bonus.

In other words, I think this Tablet is going to be just as important to Apple as the iPhone has been. It is going to take them into new markets, and it will be the best (or only) device in the category. I’ll be watching Leo Laporte’s live coverage over at http://live.twit.tv, and I bet he maxes out his bandwidth pretty quickly. See my formal list of Apple Tablet predictions.

Comments from my old blog:

Richard said: In a way I am getting tired of all the predictions. The hype is so high that my gut is telling me it’s going to disappoint a lot of people. We’ll see. Only 1 week till we know what it is. at 2010-01-19 15:07:06

Ian said: I think I’m with you on most of that analysis. It takes a lot of demo to fill two hours. I think the UI for the OS will be largely new. There is just a lot of complexity on a large screen that doesn’t really exist on a small screen that they need to discuss. For example, can you run two apps side by side? Can you layer them? Do we have control of window sizes? How can we quit apps versus switch apps (the difference is barely noticeable on the iPhone)? How do apps communicate between each other? Can you drag between? I think a new paradigm is necessary to deal with this.

-on going outside the lines: I hadn’t thought about that. It’s a simple metaphor, but that might have been what they had in mind. I would agree that there could very well be some kind of paint app like the old MacPaint which ships free.

I’m still not convinced it will be pen based though. Surely it will be possible to buy an extra stylus from somebody. But I just don’t know if they’ll encourage it. They always think prescriptively instead of what people “want”, which I love. Turns out people will start using things stupidly if you give them a choice. at 2010-01-19 00:51:41

u.c. said: You dont happen to know what time Leos live.twit broadcast is going to be in you time do you. If Im awake Id like to hear that….. I hope the Tablet is really really light. Enjoying your posts on this:)) at 2010-01-19 17:15:18

(Derek)[http://www.derekmartin.ca] said: I think the event is at 10am PST (1pm EST, 6pm GMT?), and Leo will begin broadcasting from 9am PST (12pm EST, 5pm GMT?) at 2010-01-19 17:59:52