How Will You Interact with the Apple Tablet?

If you were following Apple back in the days leading up to the switch to Intel, you may remember that by the time WWDC rolled around it seemed all but certain Apple was switching to Intel, but there was still plenty of uncertainty about how the switch would be made and how Apple would pitch it.

The switch is history but the persistent rumors about an Apple branded tablet have reached the same level of the Intel rumors immediately before the announcement: Everyone knows it is coming but no one is quite sure how Apple is going to pull this off. Will it be a giant iPhone? A stripped down MacBook? Just what can you do with a ten-inch screen-and-touch input?

Look around the web and you'll find any number of great mockups designed with image software. The problem with the mockups is that while they look beautiful and drool-worthy it is hard to wrap your mind around just how you'd interact with something physical that until now has existed only in digital form.

To get around this I started with the assumption that whatever Apple cranks out will look pretty good and, so I built a physical mockup. The thing I built is ugly, just cardboard glued to wood,  but still conforms to the supposed size of Apple's rumored device. Holding a physical representation of what everyone is sure Apple is coming out with taught me a few things.

The Tablet in Portrait Mode:

See, I told you it was ugly. But it is size and weight appropriate. Handling this, er, prototype for a few days, it became apparent that the closest an Apple tablet was going to come to an iPhone was in Portrait mode. The arcs my thumbs made on the screen met (as shown in the pic) leaving plenty of room for a qwerty keyboard. There's a subtle difference here. With the iPhone you can span the entire keyboard with a single thumb. Unless you're Shaquille O'Neal that won't be the case with the tablet. I doubt this will be much of an impediment.

The Slate in Landscape Mode:

When you see the artist renderings in landscape mode they always have a big qwerty keyboard stretched across the bottom of the screen. Seems nice, but unworkable using only thumbs. Take a look:

Here again you see the arcs made by my thumbs, but there is a big gap in between. Unless Apple has something clever up the corporate sleeve you won't be doing any double thumb typing in landscape mode. Certainly Apple could put an entire keyboard under each thumb or use some clever chording system but the standard dream of a huge keyboard navigatable only with thumbs should be summarily buried.

Which brings up the idea of typing with both hands while in landscape mode. That seems like a solution, after all a lot of people still have to look at the keys when they type, but when I tested ir on my "device", dual-hand typing didn't seem like a very good solution. Having my neck bent over to look at the keys wasn't a big deal, but it was impossible to keep the tablet from sliding around while I tried to type.

There are obvious alternatives, none of which seem very Apple-like. One handed typing while holding the device with the off hand is an option but it requires people to learn to type one handed. Many companies have attacked the problem by including a stylus for tablet style products but if an engineer suggested a stylus to Steve Jobs they'd be yelled at loud enough for it to be heard in Knoxville TN. I haven't heard any Steve Jobs yells out here so the stylus thing is doubtful. Perhaps some sort of surface on the bottom could keep the tablet from sliding, but it would have to have some serious holding power.

However, it is Apple we are talking about, so expect the tablet to have some clever programming and design traits that blow my little cardboard prototype clear to Cupertino and than on to Timbuktu.

Portability

Carrying the monstrosity of mockup-ery around for a few days reveals that this isn't a go-anywhere device. You have to make a conscious decision to carry it around because it isn't going to fit in your pocket unless your pocket is that big one up front on a pair of overalls. Maybe if there is a moonshiner app that would've worked okay for Popcorn Sutton, but for the rest of us this won't be a go-everywhere device unless it has some very compelling feature that makes you want to have it with you at all times. I can't imagine what that would be. Can you?

How unportable is the device? Here are some size comparisons:

You've got to think Apple has something special in mind with this device, but you also have to be a little worried that the company is over reaching. The idea that this device will supplant netbooks seems farfetched. Half of the allure of netbooks is that they are dirt cheap and the other half of the appeal is that you've already got another computer.

So why is the  tablet coming? The simplest answer is that Apple thinks it will be a successful product. The harder question is: What will the tablet offer you that the iPhone and a MacBook don't? That is a tricky problem. It can't be a go-everywhere device, it can't be as powerful as a MacBook so just what will the tablet be? Apple has some marketing, and explaining, to do.