First, I never said Apple would replace the iPhone with the tablet. I was making the point that everyone was wrong about the iPhone, and, as Gartenberg says, will most likely be wrong about this device as well.

People carried around laptops and giant phones (that only made calls). Neither ever fit into anyone's pocket. When the first cell phones came out, they were three times bigger that a home phone. Go bigger? Why would anyone want that? Because they could follow you everywhere — they offered "more".

So, a larger phone (a small fraction of the size of what people once carried around) but which functions like a small computer, and eliminates other devices, is impossible? Why? Just because Icebike still holds his phone up to his ear?

If a 10" tablet (which isn't all that big) can run iLife, iWork, MS Office, support stylus use for artist, communicate as a phone, etc.... people most certainly would cary them (again!), and other companies would copy it (again!).

Perhaps you thought Apple would shoot themselves in the foot making an iPod with no clickwheel or slideout keyboard four years ago.

A larger iPod touch or a small MacBook with a touch screen is simply not the next big thing for Apple.

Exactly.

MarcBee suggested the tablet could possibly be the new iPhone. I agreed that, knowing Apple, you can never be sure.

Sure. Apple is going to take what is in every pocket and make a 10 inch version that is so big nobody will carry it. Makes sense to me. Fits right in with Apple's tendency to shoot themselves in the foot and kill off their most lucrative market segment.

What ARE you guys smoking?

because, as the article suggests, new devices could be something nobody has even considered, just as the iPhone turned out to be something nobody had ever considered.

Ah, sorry but we have ALL considered another iPhone. Some here were even asking how you would place a call holding a 10 inch display up to your head.

So, no. Not an iPhone. Might have a phone bolted on, but its primary function will not be that of a phone and Marcbee's guess is "retarded" to use Mr. Audacity's term.

Retarded in the sense that he has not kept up with all the news on this subject.

The news of a large camera purchase that surfaced a few days ago might cause me to add video calling to all my prior predictions of usurping the print media and totally changing the newspaper/magazine delivery paradigm for the first time in 200 years.

But it still would not make this device just an 'iPhone.

MarcBee suggested the tablet could possibly be the new iPhone. I agreed that, knowing Apple, you can never be sure.

BBYM somehow twisted that into the iPhone changing names. Who knows why.

If a new device replaced the iPhone, it would most definitely have a different name. If the iPhone remains in the product line, along with an additional tablet device, then of course the iPhone name would remain.

You misunderstood my original point based on another's confused and misconstrued reply.

Because it's not just a phone.

They changed the name of iBooks, they changed the name of PowerBooks, they changed the name of .Mac, they changed the name of Mighty Mouse...

Shall I continue?

We've all read the comments that the new device couldn't be a phone because it would be too big to hold up to one's ear. But remember the giant phones people LOVED holding up to their ears in the eighties? Nobody complained... in fact, they showed them off and bragged about having them — and they could only make calls. Now that phones have became small enough to include cameras, web browsers, calculators, memo pads, address books, calendars, media stores, and all of the other things we see today, what's next?

Well, what's next won't really fit into a modern compact handset. Although technology speeds along with miniaturization... our hands and fingers remain the same size, and our vision doesn't improve. So, we need a bigger device to create documents from scratch, print them, and be able to store much larger files. We need a bigger device to include e-readers and enjoy movies better.

What if Apple foresees people not holding phones up to their faces anymore — but sees everyone using Bluetooth headsets and earplugs? Maybe they foresee that business people (and everyone else) want to use their devices to do many things at once... like flip through a magazine while speaking to someone at the same time, as they'd now do at home with a paper magazine.

Maybe there won't be another iPhone next June. Maybe while the other jokers are playing catch up, Apple is making a small all-in-one (but larger) device that people will once again be happy to carry around as they once were happy to carry around laptops, and giant cell phones that did FAR less than this device will now do.

Business men still carry brief cases, pens, notepads, books, large documents that can't be created from scratch on small handsets... and they still carry their phones too. Why should they if they have a device twice the size of an iPhone that can do all that, do much more, and do it better?

This article shows that assumptions can be way off (especially with Apple). To assume there will be another iPhone next June (or be phased out soon), and that this won't be the replacement... could again, be way off.

@The67beast I think you're officially my favorite.

I second that emotion.

That might be the worst/dumbest response I've read. Apple didn't announce anything. And your right, they come out with an IPHONE each year. Not an islate.

"i think this is going to be an iphone because they take an iphone out each year… so why not start anouncing it now?" ..... So because they release a new iPhone each year you guess the islate will be an iPhone??? Wouldn't it just be another Iphone?

i think this is going to be an iphone because they take an iphone out each year... so why not start anouncing it now?