"Given the segments Apple focuses upon -- consumer, education and professional graphics/multimedia end users -- the tablet PC usage model doesn't really fit."

Wait... were these guys really that clueless about Tablet PCs back then? Doesn't fit with students and artists??

Anyway, with all the incredible noise about an Apple Tablet before Macworld and the obvious lack of an Apple Tablet now, I'd hope people would just learn thier lesson about rumor mongering.

When one actually exists (ModBook) no one bothers to report anything. "Drool-worthy," and "can't wait to dump Windows" seem just hollow ramblings rumors encourage. All the GBM Apple tablet clamoring didn't sell even one ModBook yet?

Sierra,

Look at this paragraph:
"Jobs had reason to be confident. Apple's hardware engineers had spent about a year working on touchscreen technology for a tablet PC and had convinced him that they could build a similar interface for a phone."

From this article:
http://www.wired.com/gadgets/wireless/magazine/16-02/ff_iphone?currentPage=2

Well, I was one of the first to jump on the Modbook bandwagon and order one at the end of 2006 !!! An entire year went by with constant delays, with the "will start shipping" date sliding almost on a monthly basis throughout 2007.

Eventually, I got an email back about a month ago telling me that my order (over a year old) would need to be reconfigured and that it could be delivered as early as Jan 8 2008. Of course, as Jan 8 approached, the date slid yet ONE MORE TIME, now until Feb 22 (that is next week). This is definitely a joke, and a bad one at that...

I am more than ready to jump on the opportunity to get an Apple (or Apple based) tablet. However, Modbook don't seem to be able to deliver :-(

Apple's time to get into the Tablet market was back right before Tiger was released - before Vista, mainly just so Apple could put in all the awesome handwriting tech that Vista has (one of the few good things about it) and say that they had it first.

The main reason why a ModBook isn't all that revolutionary is because it's the same experience as if you had a a Cintiq hooked up to a Mac Pro - really just for graphic artists and the like, just in this case more mobile. InkWell is total crap and everyone knows it:
http://www.gottabemobile.com/VistaHandwritingRecognitionVsMacOSXInkWellHandwritingRecognition.aspx

Right now my first tablet purchase is lined up to be the next Thinkpad Tablet release, hopefully around this summer with the release of Montevina - but I would drop it in a heartbeat for an Apple tablet that cost more and had worse specs simply because I know Apple can do so much more with the tablet platform, so I'm waiting until after WWDC this year (at least) to make the purchase.