Here's my few iPad predictions. These are itemized here on a dated post, just so I can gloat later. The predictions I've seen thus far are ridiculous beyond belief. First: It's not going to be called an effing iSlate or iTablet or whatever. Slate sounds idiotic and reminds you of heaviness and while the word tablet could do something similar, the main drawback there is how Tablet PC has been done for a decade now. Aside from how Apple would like you to forget the fact that they're the last tech company on earth to finally wake up to the usefulness of touch-interfaces (I had a PocketPC or some PDA since 8 years ago, marveled at them for over a decade as the wave of the future), it's the Microsoft association that would ultimately kill that idea. So what's left? A short word like "pad" is a natural choice. Not to mention it is the obvious one, since all of this decade's mobile devices from them have strictly followed iP* syntax. iPod, iPod video, iPod nano, iPhone, iPod Touch and then the iPad. So that's what it's going to be called, an iPad. And not the iPad from the old mock-ups when people first remarked about Apple's apparent ergonomic inspiration from feminine hygiene products with the iPod Nano.
Second, it will not just be a small Macbook. I'm kind of tired of hearing that. If anything, a big iPod Touch. It will be marketed to compete with eBook readers (like, duh, Amazon's 1995-esque Kindle). It will also be marketed to artists, competing with the pen digitizer market. I'd bet the first apps they contracted for encourage the ever profitable young, digital artist market to see it as a high-res, multi-touch canvas. So to recap - a focus on reading books (showcasing full gloss magazines), artwork (demonstrating multi-touch finger painting).
802.11n (because really, they have to eventually upgrade to what the rest of the mobile computing industry has been using for many years). 'nuff said here, but I'll elaborate on wireless. I'm guessing this will have built-in WWAN and make use of their enormous billion dollar datacenter shortly. 802.11g isn't really designed for cloud computing, as even their iPods proved. For that matter, 2.4GHz wasn't design for anything but microwaves and in-house hobbyists, but whitespace wireless is another topic.
Probably it will run their iOS crap, and will be the same encumbered App Store deal as their iPod Touches and iPhones. I'm assuming a 10" iPod Touch with built-in WWAN basically. Carrier subsidy will probably make the $900 cost, be $499 + 2-year contract. Wishful thinking would be they finally switch carriers here, but I doubt that very much in the US at least. I suspect they'll be marketing this as competitively priced, will only quote contract prices, and will over-use the word "breakthrough" to conceal lots of same ol' from Apple. They sheepishly talked about price with the iPhone too, but they'll be slightly less ridiculous about the "it's the internet, a phone, and an iPod for only $700!" or whatever they said in '07. Probably a 32GB and 64GB model in addition to some other crazy multi-tiered pricing structure I can't fathom.
Apple will want to sell you another iPad in 2011. They won't help move the industry forward, they'll want to keep you using a useless iPad until 2018 instead of actually innovating. So, just like with their iPhone, we'll have lots of obvious "aw shucks how'd we forget that?" things missing. I'd guess no camera, no SMS / text messaging, no phone calls, no microphone, crippled Bluetooth, no... er*, rumble / vibration function, and some interface eff up. Maybe no volume buttons like the original iPod Touches.
*As an aside, Is there a better way to say, "This phone doesn't have a vibrator?" Unbalanced mass on a motorized driveshaft seems just as wrong...
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