More Touch Tablet Device Madness

Darrell Etherington over at The Apple Blog recently listed some of the rumors that he thinks may pan out in a few days time. In particular, he mentioned that a Large-format Touch Tablet Device “could happen”. While it’s nice to have new stuff (who doesn’t like new stuff), do we really need any more devices?

Here’s my reasoning. It is improbably difficult, no, impossible to implement multitouch using the OS X interface, because the pointing needs to be super precise. Our tender fingers are simply too big and inaccurate, compared to the pixel-perfect accuracy of the mouse. So this so-called Large-format Touch Tablet Device (which I’ll abbreviate to LfTTD) will, in all probability, use an iPhone-esque interface. If I were to guess, it’d be the same interface, albeit at a higher resolution.

The problem with the iPhone interface on an LfTTD, is, well, the iPhone itself. The iPhone makes the LfTTD look like an iPhone that cannot call. So the LfTTD is basically an enlarged iPod touch. Think of it as it’s big brother, or distant cousin, if you will. If an iPod touch can perform all those features and more in a smaller form factor, any sane person would simply op for the smaller and sleeker device.

Perhaps I’m missing something here. Perhaps my decluttered-side of me is shouting to declutter and simplify my life. But perhaps, and just perhaps, Apple has a brilliant idea or two to ignite the LfTTD. The apple-side of me is hoping so. It’s hoping the LfTTD will be the start of a whole new revolution. And a great one indeed.

What do you think? And while we’re on the topic, what are your predictions for WWDC 2009?