Apple 'iSlate" - The Next Cool Thing?

Rumors are building, and Apple share prices have been rising, on the strength of rumors and discussion of a new product unveiling by Apple in January. Nothing, of course, has been officially announced; media, bloggers and others have taken to calling it the iSlate, although other offerings include iTablet, iTab, or MacTab. The consensus seems to be that it will be some sort of tablet, smaller than a netbook, bigger than an iPod, and a possible competitor to ebooks like the Kindle. As a matter of fact, it was a tweet from Dr. Sanjay Gupta on Twitter that alerted me to the iSlate; he wanted to know if he should get a Kindle or wait for iSlate.

Tablets are nothing new, (they've been around since 2002) but seem to have remained mostly in the background. But the last few years have seen so many innovations in the digital media field, availability of WiFi, apps, and gadgets, that a single product combining as many as possible, along with portability, could be the Next Big Thing.

A big selling point for me; most of the sites discussing Apple's new product mention the availability of magazines. I don't care to read books on ereaders, but magazines are a different story. I generally flip through them, reading an article here and then, looking at the pictures, and then into the trash bin they go. A tablet with that capability would be ideal for me; larger size, color, and the ability to browse titles and articles at will, with the added bonus of reducing my weekly trash output.

Is there a market for such a device, since so many people own multiple gadgets now? I believe there is.

I already have a laptop; too big to tote around continually. An iPhone? Don't have one, and glad I put off getting one at this point. Besides, it's too small and chunky, and I'd probably lose it. A device with a 7-inch screen would be just about right for me, especially if it's thin and has no keyboard. I much prefer touch screen technology for everything.

It certainly would have benefited my son when he was in college. Small enough to stash in a backpack, large enough to play games, watch movies, and browse textbooks (wouldn't that be nice; no more lugging 40 pounds of books around) as well as surf the web.

Of course, there will also be a certain amount of people buying it simply because, if it's "cool", then it's a must-have. Apple seems to do very well in that department.

Everything is speculative at this point, even the name. But a combination laptop/phone/ereader/digital multimedia player at the right size and price sounds like just what I've been waiting for. I can hardly wait.