Over here in Europe these devices like the Kindle, iRex, iLiad and Sony are “must haves” so the time is right.

And about major players? There were also major players on the MP3 market when the iPod came out.

Hey man – I missed that. Sorry

I would love, love, LOVE, and Apple ebook reader – but I don’t think it’ll happen just yet.

Right now its another one of those extremely niche markets that already has two major players in it. I’m not convinced that Apple will jump in there just yet.

There’s nothing illegal in buying a product, rearranging it, adding on some stuff and then reselling it. It’s done all the time in the car industry. Nothing in the license stops you either. Remember, every ModBook starts as a MacBook – that’s one reason they’re so expensive.

It’s not like they’re building a Mac from scratch.

I wrote an article about all the various laptop rumors for Macworld (UMPC, tablet/touch, sub-notebook). A relevant quote from that article to this post is:

“I believe Apple needs to make those kinds of day to day apps [email, etc.] practical for use on a touch device before any tablet PC has a shot at general success outside of a small niche, and I don’t think Apple wants to reside in niches.”

(3) It is irrelevant. It’s a hack and the general public won’t trust a hack. It isn’t competition. As soon as Apple releases its much thinner, sexier, and innovative Macbook Touch, we’ll all forget about the Modbook, if we haven’t already.

The Modbook is for people who simply can’t wait for the Macbook Touch, for people who can’t imagine life without being about to manipulate Leopard with their finger stylus.

Here’s my response to your responses.

1) If anything like the MacTouch is released at Macworld 08, it would almost certainly have to have a mini HD in it. I think that the new, slimmer, Macbook that people had been saying will be SSD, will actually have a mini HD in it.

2) I disagree that the iPod Touch is that much more niche for one reason – the iPod Touch is designed not only for people that don’t need the phone functionality of the iPhone – but also for those that simply don’t have AT&T service in their area in the US, or who can’t get out of their current contracts…but mainly, I think it’s for countries that flat out don’t have iPhones and aren’t going to have them anytime soon.

I think the market is bigger than it seems – for example, the entire countries of Canada, China, and Japan are currently without the ability to have a legal iPhone. The iPod touch is a great alternative.

3) Irrelevant or not, I simply do not believe that Steve Jobs would allow its creation and release with his hardware if he was going to be releasing a competing product.

I do agree that it would be nice – I just don’t see it happening…yet.

1) Apple has shown a willingness to release products with a mini HD (iPod for example) knowing that in the near future a solid state version would be released. Maybe… Maybe not?

2) The iPod Touch is an even more niche player the a “MacTouch” would be. It’s only for people that don’t need the functionality of an iPhone but want the video and WiFi aspects of the iPhone. This is a very small market compared to the MacTouch, depending on the dimensions. I have an iPod touch and really like it! I did not need the iPhone because I get a great deal on cell service from my nephew who works for sprint! I would love the iPod touch even more if it was about 100% bigger, i.e. a MacTouch?

3) The Modbook would be irrelevant! Its still a laptop size and would not compete much with a small MacTouch…

I really don’t have any idea if there will be a MacTouch or not, but it sure would be nice!

Just My $.02

TBM

How about Apple’s version of the Kindle? Much more slick and really user friendly. Distribution would be very simple. Itunes!

And if it was up to me, I would use the famous old name again.
The iBook!