TMO SCOOP - Apple Granted Patent for Tablet Mac (w/Illustrations) [UPDATE]
by , 5:10 PM EDT, May 10th, 2005
Apple Computer was granted a patent for an enigmatically titled "Electronic device" Tuesday, May 10th, 2005. Illustrations for the device clearly indicate it to be a tablet-style Macintosh, and patent filings specifically compare it to the "HP Compaq Tablet PC" and several other tablet machines.
The patent was filed on March 17th, 2004 (first broken by The Register in August, 2004 as noted in the comments), and granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) as US Design Patent No. D504,899 on May 10, 2005.
New in the issued patent is an illustration (see Figure 9 below) that demonstrates and confirms that the device is a handheld device with a touch screen.
Figure 9
Images from Apple's patent application
(Click the thumbnails for larger images)
The patent application noted that, "FIG. 9 is an exemplary diagram of the use of the electronic device thereof; [the] broken lines being shown [are] for illustrative [purposes] only, and form no part of the claimed design"
It's important to note that being granted a design patent does not necessarily mean that Apple has any intention of releasing a particular product, and Apple has filed for many design patents in recent years for products that did not make it to market.
Actually, it's not old news, but the article as originally written didn't make that at all clear.
What's new is that Apple has been granted the patent, and some illustrations that demonstrate the product. The illustrations, in particular, are important in that they definitely show the product as a handheld device with a touch screen. This was not shown in the original patent application.
The article has been updated accordingly, and I appreciate the note!
CloseViewName:Guest Tue May 10, 2005 6:02 pmSubject:
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Guest wrote: If they were granted a patent there must be something about it that is clearly different from and innovative over and above other "Tablet PCs".
Any hint?
Think not tablet, but video iPod, with wifi, bluetooth, built-in microphone & iSight, and with iChat for the pod! With the last over wifi broadband, Steve's revenge on the carriers locking out Moto's iTunes cell.
No more blind dates. Just gotta stay home on Saturday nights, pop those zits, and watch some streaming videos of your favorite band<s>.
It will probably be a while before we see tablet Macintosh, if at all, these things take time. However, I am anxious to see what Apple is going to do with the patent.
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Guest wrote: If they were granted a patent there must be something about it that is clearly different from and innovative over and above other "Tablet PCs".
Think about it, people put a mac mini in their cars because of size and cost. Now with this (along as cost is ok) you can have a touchscreen and the computer for one price!
As far as the pictures are concerned the device is far too thick to be handable like the pic with the person shows. It would be too heavy to be handled like that. Just imagine to hold a Sony Vaio for quite some time and write something onto it.
It's a Design patent which is really just a way of registering the way something looks, not how it functions. There does not have to be any functional improvement over existing similar products.
Tablets are great tools but they're not the same tool as a normal PC. The market is still largely trying to sell them as an alternative to a notebook or even a full PC and they really aren't the same. Likewise they are not a replacement for the PDA. They are great for touch screen or pen applications and applications that are mostly viewing. They are great for mobile applications that require wireless networking and portability (ever try carrying a notebook while using it?). Once we start seeing tablets combined with voice command we'll see more of their possibilities reached I think.
They're perfect for lots of vertical apps for things that might replace old hand held charts and similar applications. They're also perfect for things like removable dash-mounted computing for cars, wheelchairs, etc. Personally I love them as personal communications devices. You can lounge with them and do online chats, web browsing, and media playback more comfortably than you can with a notebook.
Overall I like tablets better than notebooks but I don't think we've seen any really good tablets yet or really good tablet apps. Maybe Apple has some ideas on those problems.
CloseViewName:Guest Tue May 10, 2005 9:05 pmSubject:
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like, it's a tablet... hasn't the market shown that they're not all that great anyway???
the PC market has, because you have to run crappy WinXP Tablet Edition. While it's not *that* bad it's still XP. XP's GUI doesn't lend itself well to pen-input, however OSX is ideal (and has handwriting recog built in as part of the OS instead of some weird mutant extention like in Tablet Edition) I was planning on buying a Powerbook within a couple of weeks, but i may wait a little while (til the end of June or so) to see what i can hear about how fast this puppy can and will be brought to market. I just hope it's convertable...the sketches dont' show that, but i hope it is. all they need to do is put a swivel hinge on a 15" PB and integrate a pen-input screen
I want one for my tv room, hopefully it has a huge HD for music, what a great combo, Needs functionality to control tv, and components. Nice to check the net during commercials as well. Or to set in a stand in the kitchen for an online recipe.
Apple's UI has long had the makings of a good tablet or slate computer, with its fixed menu, large friendly icons, and InkWell built into the OS. They've just been holding off for one reason or another ... most likely because tablet PCs are still very much a niche market.
Doesn't stop me from wanting one badly, though
Where tablet PCs would really make a mark, is in education. The trick will be to keep the price point low enough to make it appealing to the education market. Economies of scale, though, are still keeping the unit cost of the input/display quite high. That's been the hurdle with Windows based tablet computers: too expensive for their most effective markets.
If you have ever seen a Tablet PC, it has a screen that can rotate 180 degrees and slip over the keyboard and then you can rotate the screen 90 degress.
This concept looks like it is all screen, and significantly thinner than a Tablet PC. No keyboard at all. Looks like those pads that everyone carry's around on Star Trek.
CloseViewName:Guest Tue May 10, 2005 9:57 pmSubject:
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metavurt wrote: like, it's a tablet... hasn't the market shown that they're not all that great anyway???
Sure. Like the market has shown that HD based mp3 players really don't sell all that great, that flash based mp3 players don't sell all that great, that online music stores really don't do all that great. This is Apple we are talking about, so what's your point....?
CloseViewName:Guest Tue May 10, 2005 10:09 pmSubject:
This "article" is a waste of time. What is the patent actually for? Is the author totally ignorant of the fact that patents are for technology?
If you could patent "Apple makes a tablet PC", nobody could violate that, because it would be "somebody other than Apple makes a tablet PC". The only way to violate a patent on "Apple makes a tablet PC" would be to be Apple, and make a tablet PC. Since they're Apple already, and Apple owns the patent, there'd be NO POSSIBILITY OF VIOLATION, and thus nothing to protect.
To completely deviate on a tangent, if Apple sold the "Apple makes a tablet PC" patent to someone else, then they (and only they) could violate this patent, as then Apple would be making a tablet PC, in violation of the patent.
I think I like this tard's idea of patent law -- I'm gonna go patent "Microsoft makes an operating system" and "Ford makes a car" and make a bunch of money.
Guest wrote: If you have ever seen a Tablet PC, it has a screen that can rotate 180 degrees and slip over the keyboard and then you can rotate the screen 90 degress.
Hello! You are confused. There are many current tablet PCs that do not have a keyboard. I have a compaq at work for example! Many of them come with stands you and put them in where they sit on edge like a lcd monitor and you use a normal keyboard and mouse with them. This is not new.
There is nothing new here... (but then again we don't have all the details.)
I don't get this! Tablets are incredibly useful devices!
The problem is that most people have not even been exposed to them yet! I am constantly amazed when I tell people and show them what a tablet pc is and they say they did not know these things existed. And this should not be a surprise--I believe I have only seen a Tablet PC in a store once.
Almost everyone thinks these things are great once they become familiar with them. As far as I am concerned, this is just a case where the companies making the things haven't done a good enough job educating the average computer/laptop buyer.
As a guy said before, you wont see this untill you get a 3 GHz PowerMac and a G5 PowerBook. This is all bogus. Also, then you will see a new iBook before this comes out (taking into consideration they dont discontinue the iBook line )
Then... you get to the problem of portablity... I could see if you beefed the iPods screen to like a 3.5 inch widescreen display... but i dont belive that this could possibly be apples culprit to an "iPod Video"
It is assumed that Apple will release an iPod Video soon anyway, because of the new Quicktime compatability feature in iTunes 4.8.
I dont doubt that this is a real patent, but when it comes down to it. when will apple do it? they dont really have a market for it.... their market is not really buissiness people, but people in the entertainment industry! (iLife... and no more AppleWorks?!)
Its a Windows thing, and even they cant do their OWN thing right!
The 180 degree rotating screen type of Tablet PCs are refered to as convertibles, as they can be uased it either tablet or laptop mode.
There are already Tablet PCs that resemble Apple's design, refered to as slates. I haven't seen any slates in person, but I know there are sites out there lisitng dimmensions and other specifications for Tablet PCs already on hte market.
The other, somewhat up in the air, point is that it appears Apple's design is completely touch sensitive. Sometimes the term is overused for any direct display input, but taken literally it would become hard to write since you typically rest your hand on the "page." I'm certain Apple will change that, if not already, to a digitizer "pen-based" system, or possibly integrate both, the latter overriding the former when active. Tablet PCs moved to digitizers, and away from resistave touch input, quickly after the first commercial generation because of input problems.
It always takes Apple to define a market. PC Tablets have had a luke warm reception. Watch it take off when Apple releases this pruduct. iPod was not the first MP3 player. It was the first decent one.
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