Head for the Hills, the Apple Tablet is Coming

I'm astonished that writers for (somewhat) respectable publications have decried the rumoured Apple Tablet as a certain failure, what with zero official information, or even acknowledgement from Apple as to the existence of such a device.

It's absurd. Each article repeats a laundry list of criticisms inherent to the slate form-factor Tablet PC, and to their own imaginary idea of an Apple Tablet—imaginary, of course, because no one knows anything about it. But since we actually all know with absolute certainty that this Apple Tablet will just be a big iPod Touch with a stupid flat on-screen keyboard, sell your Apple stock now 'cause it's going down in flames. These writers have built themselves a nice straw tablet, and summarily knocked it down.

Apple is a design firm. Their track record for releasing new products (and entering new markets) suggests that their engineers won't simply look at the snarl of potential problems and say, "well, too bad, let's just release a big iPod Touch and maybe it will be okay." It's far more likely that they'll sit down, look at each problem, and at least try to come up with a creative, effective solution to each. After all, Apple tends to introduce new products only when they can demonstrate some distinct advantage.

Speculation is fine—and there's only speculation at this point—but it's foolish to use language like "The Many Problems With Apple's Tablet" and "Apple Tablet is a Train Wreck" to summarize your completely baseless claims for a product that doesn't even exist.

P.S. Although I guess it is better than this.