Apple Tablet: 10-Inch Display May Be a Myth

CIO - Next week, Apple unveils a tablet about which rumors have been swirling for the past year. Unlike Microsoft's tablet, no images or specs have been leaked. What will it look like?

If you're the betting type, here are some more good odds: the tablet will be called an iSlate, have much more capability than simply an e-reader, boast a 10-inch touchscreen and sell for less than $1,000. That's all well and good-but at least one technologist isn't convinced.

Not about a 10-inch touchscreen, anyway.

Aaron Vronko, CEO of Rapid Repair, an iPod and iPhone repair shop, took a hard look at hardware options for a tablet that would impact system performance, battery design and power capacity. His key conclusion: An Apple tablet won't debut with a 10-inch touchscreen, which has been widely predicted.

It's going to take a lot of juice to light up a 10-inch touchscreen for extended periods, such as when you're reading a book, he says. And poor battery life has been the bane of the iPhone, so it's unlikely Apple will make the same mistake with a tablet.

Other technologists agree that a 10-inch touchscreen would be quite a feat. NextWindow product marketing manager Geoff Walker, who has been involved with mobile computing and touchscreen technology for two decades, says a 10-inch touchscreen costs four times as much as a 3.5-inch iPhone touchscreen, thus it would jack up an Apple tablet's price tag.

If anyone should know about the technical workings of Apple mobile devices, it's Vronko. He literally wrote the book on caring for your iPhone 3GS and even has tips on how to improve battery life. Vronko was one of the first technicians to take apart the iPhone 3GS and author a repair guide.

Vronko talked to CIO.com and offered his predictions on the iSlate.

Aaron Vronko, CEO of Rapid Repair, loves taking apart Apple iPhones.

What do you think the widely rumored Apple tablet will look like?

Vronko: I expect this tablet device will be the next major step in the convergence of mobile technology, combining cell-phone convenience and simplicity with computer-like productivity, multi-tasking and flexibility in usage.

While the iPhone has broad consumer appeal and made major progress toward serving all our mobile and computing needs, it still lacked much of the productivity and multi-tasking of even a MacBook Air. This was due to limitations of form factor, user interface methods and hardware performance.

The Apple tablet, maybe called iSlate, will probably mirror the attractive, simple and easy-to-use iPhone yet have dramatically upgraded hardware and system performance. Hopefully, the tablet will also have a better means of interacting with the device, like an innovative keyboard that's faster than current two-thumbed typing.