Apple mini palmtop?

Posted on March 9, 2005 by Ian Betteridge

Link: Rumor: Apple brewing ‘mini pocketop’

A stripped down OS X, Inkwell technology, the size of an engorged mobile phone

I can’t see it. Not only is the market for PDAs getting hit very hard by smartphones, but smaller products tend to be niches, rather than mainstream – larger laptops have traditionally sold better than smaller ones, not least because of the price.

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  • John

    Since I’m here at your site, let me just say, don’t think PDA. The iPod is not a PDA altho it has some PDA functions. Any such “palmtop” will not be primarily a PDA. There are two likely possibilities for this device: Think remote for home media streaming. OR Think iPod with a flip-up-4″-screen for mobile video.

    People will say Jobs said people don’t want to watch video on small screens. But in one instance, he was referring to the home scenario where watching on a big TV is much more preferable than a computer monitor. In the other instance, he was noting that people can’t watch and do something else (walking, driving) at the same time. At no time did he say people wouldn’t watch on small screens in the backseat of autos, trains, buses, airplanes, etc.

    Jobs’ other point was that there is no demand for this technology since there is no content. The important part is the content. When Apple figures out how to provide desired content (think H.264 Video over IP) while dodging or working with studios/TV networks and telephone/cable/satellite companies, then Apple will need a pocket-sized video player and a home-streaming-device.

    By the way, all of the above was speculative and involves no information from anyone under NDA.

  • John

    If it is a remote, it will change the way we think of remotes. Remotes need to have some buttons for common functions and this will have a click-wheel with the requisite five buttons. But have you ever navigated through a DVD menu with a remote? Why can’t the DVD menu appear on the remote so I can just touch what I want instead of looking at the TV and then at the remote? Similar to the touch-screen controls on the LCDs of digital camcorders and cameras.

    Project this further as a remote for iTunes/iPhoto/iFlix running on a Rendezvous-ed Mac/PC streaming to the TV/stereo, and there are all sorts of wonderful possibilities.