Can’t say I’m a Daring Fireball fan. Gruber’s a decent writer but the Apple loveslave beat isn’t my thing.
But this piece about the tablet rumors, it’s more than that:
Do I think The Tablet is an e-reader? A video player? A web browser? A document viewer? It’s not a matter of or but rather and. I say it is all of these things. It’s a computer.
And so in answer to my central question, regarding why buy The Tablet if you already have an iPhone and a MacBook, my best guess is that ultimately, The Tablet is something you’ll buy instead of a MacBook.
I say they’re swinging big — redefining the experience of personal computing.
When Apple did the iPhone they reconceived what the OS means. The concept of files no longer exists at the user level, it is now submerged into the operating system, like a kernel API. Programs that you can install are strictly controlled by your operating system vendor. Some of these touches are radical but completely plausible for a desktop machine, like no keyboard, no external monitor, no phalanx of ports.
It’s natural to apply this to full scale desktops. There’s no way that nobody’s going to do that. But doing it requires a device very similar to the iPhone. Why wouldn’t that be Apple?
Is it a *good* approach to desktops? We’re about to find out.