Now might be a good time to start reducing your stock of AAPL stock. The hype for the soon-to-be-released Apple iTablet, iSlate, iPad device has hit feverish levels. Now it’s called The Jesus Tablet. When? Soon, faithful masses. Soon. Ben Kunz in BusinessWeek:
The iPhone is three years old, the U.S. economy is rebounding, and gadget demand is pent up among Americans who held off on toy upgrades during the recession. By spring we’ll no doubt be past the holiday sales of the black-and-white e-readers that still look vaguely like medical prostate screening devices.
What will make Apple’s device different than all the similar devices before it? Timing? Or, technology? Or, opportunity?
The world is recovering from its Wall Street hangover, and it’s looking for a new tech party invitation. An Apple tablet would be the guest of honor… So yes, the Jesus Tablet will appear. And yes, you’ll buy one with an artificially high price of, say, $800 as penance for being an early adopter. Within two years the price will fall to $199 until everyone including your 6-year-old has a gleaming, do-anything, interactive pane of glass on his or her desk.
$199? Dream on, dude. That’s the price of the entry level iPod touch. How much of a game changer will Apple’s iDevice become? Kunz says it will change the world in at least five ways:
- Magazine and newspaper publishing will bounce back as consumers rediscover paid subscriptions.
- Television and radio ratings will continue to fall. Unlike print, TV and radio won’t fit easily into the Apple tablet’s format… Rather than being a device to watch television, the Apple tablet is more likely to be an interactive distraction when real TV ads come on your basement set.
- Augmented-reality views of the world will increase… With a larger tablet, such video overlays on reality will become even more compelling. Expect app makers to leap ahead by… providing consumers with product reviews that float over items on sale at the mall, or serving daters a visual display of the job history, FICO score, and criminal record of that cute guy or gal they meet at a bar.
- Two-way video on tablets will push communication costs even lower. Yes, technically you can do portable video today, if you’re willing to walk around town with a laptop flipped open near a Wi-Fi zone… Add a tablet with built-in Webcam, and suddenly video calls are as easy as holding up a mirror. You better believe AT&T (T) and Verizon Wireless (VZ) are sweating about the advent of Skype video in subway trains or on Hawaiian beaches.
- Telecommuting may finally take off. If you hate your commute and care remotely about the environment, then why do you still sit in traffic for two hours each day? Because society has decreed face time is better than phone time. But when Apple tablets make portable video truly accessible, plane tickets and poor coffee in cars may become things of the past.
Truly, the Jesus Tablet has expectations that cannot be met. What will the device do for mankind?
Perhaps it’s too much to hope for: a world where Apple provides low-cost, two-way video anywhere that saves print journalism while reducing phone costs, augments reality while cutting your commute, heck, even brings humanity closer together while stopping traffic jams and pollution.
Yeeesh. Then again, look what Apple’s highly criticized iPhone did to the world of telecommunications and people’s perception of what a smart phone should do.
It could happen.