Quote:
Originally Posted by HansTWN
Perhaps Apple didn't get it? Such an OSX tablet would have been a greater hit than the iPad will ever be, is my guess.
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Like Microsofts Tablet PCs have been such a great success.
Quote:
Originally Posted by HansTWN
My money is on "we don't want to spend that much time on revamping OSX to make it touch friendly" as to the reason why they took the easy way out and simply created a bigger iPod.
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Funnily enough, this is
exactly what Apple did. iPhone OS is based on Mac OS X, thus shares the same core, many APIs and the same development suite. So in many ways Apple can explore the world of touch based computing on a casual handheld before migrating its (more conservatively marketed) productivity products (e.g. Macs) to it. The iPad is the first device that extends iPhone OS to a bigger device with more power and versatility, showcasing its fantastic scalability as well as marking the second step into a touch computing future. I believe the last step will be Mac OS 11, which will feature iPhone OS's multitouch interface while maintaining classic computer stuff such as multitasking, multi-windowing, open software sources, plugins, peripherals (Light Peak?) and so on.
The problem is that conventional operating systems and computing conventions are largely incompatible with this new art of input device and interface. Microsoft's Windows 7 expresses that beautifully by laying multitouch controls on top of a conventional operating system, hence leading to an inconsistent, unpleasing user experience. It's better than nothing for multimedia applications, but it's merely a start. We have to let go of most of our understanding about how an operation system is supposed to be and should rather begin from scratch.