1. Microsoft hasn’t shown much ability to put anything of Apple’s to bed lately. Microsoft have been trying to put the iPod to bed for a decade, and they’ve failed so massively that iPod has become a massive brand – they’re to portable media what Coke is to fizzy drinks. Apple’s even been going on the offensive – gaining market share from Microsoft and entering the mobile space with massive products. Apple’s pushing in to Microsoft’s markets are working; Microsoft’s pushing hasn’t produced anything yet (although the Zune HD seems to be generating excitement, so watch this space).

2. The tablet market has failed. It was Bill Gates’ pet project, and if it weren’t for him, Microsoft would have given up on it ages ago. Sales have been poor and the OS utterly fails to make the most of the form factor. Apple doesn’t want to snatch the market, because there isn’t really a market. If Apple are entering this space, you can bet they’re working on something that will broaden the appeal of tablets so that there can actually be a market. How they do that is a mystery, but it’s the same thing they did with the iPhone – smartphones were niche until Apple created a phone you didn’t need a manual to operate and could browse the real web. That’s when the appeal broadened, and the smartphone market really showed its potential. Microsoft created the category, but their product was so poorly designed and stagnant that the appeal was limited and the market refused to bloom. The same thing’s been happening in the tablet pc world.

3. Contrary to your opinion, not all Apple users consider being “hip” important

4. If Apple enter the market, they’ll bring something new. It’s not going to be a device with no purpose. Apple very rarely release something like that. They always enter a market by bringing something new to it. Almost every device adds some feature to make some task easier, faster, or in some other way just better.

5. I doubt businesses would be upset by anything Apple create. They support open standards like CalDAV, PDF and OpenGL and contribute actively to standards such as OpenCL and HTML5. Microsoft lock businesses in to their products using draconian proprietary protocols which they refuse to share with 3rd parties. I’m also sure business users would be happy to pick up a Mac running Snow Leopard and find that it supports Microsoft’s proprietary Exchange protocols out of the box (whereas Windows does not), and supports Microsoft’s proprietary office formats out of the box (whereas Windows does not as of Vista, I don’t know if 7’s new Wordpad app does). I’m sure these customers would also be happy to find that whilst their iPod or iPhone works just as well on Windows as it does on a Mac, Microsoft’s Zune doesn’t work on Macs at all, and WinMo is limited to the basics provided by iSync unless you want to buy a 3rd party app. Microsoft has also attempted several times to hijack web standards and lock all internet users in to Windows, and I’m sure all web developers here will have been affected by that. Basically – don’t start saying Apple is trying to lock people in or screw consumers and imply that Microsoft is in any way better. Apple are comparatively liberal.

Considering how that sounds like utter nonsense, I don’t think anyone knows what this thing might be. How is it nonsense? Well, think about the amount of work that Apple would have to put in to port Mobile OS X to x86 and the ARM to x86 emulation layer needed to make all those thousands of Apps in the Store run, all for a single device that the user could then put 10.6 on without complaint. Seems like a lot of money to spend on something that isn’t even likely to matter; not something the control freaks at Apple would bother to do. No, if this tablet is real, it will either be ARM based running Mobile OS X or it will be x86 based running regular OS X.

If it is some kind of iPod Touch Extra Large Edition, it’s going to flop pretty badly; what makes for a good small device won’t work out anywhere near as nicely on a large, more expensive device. The entire interface and application style of the iPhone is centered firmly around a hand-held item with limited battery power. While the idea of app icons the size of your fist (or a monstrous wall of tiny ones) is amusing, it wouldn’t really lend itself well to the larger format screen. And lacking true multitasking (no background apps) on a larger, netbook-ish device would be pretty killer.

If it’s an actual, honest to god, runs real OS X device, then something good might come of it. But not if it’s a slate tablet. Aside from some specialized niches, those flopped pretty hard in the market. And if Apple doesn’t include pen support, then they will kill the chance to even compete in that little niche. No amount of Apple hipness will make them sell (remember the Apple TV? Yeah, all the hipness in the world didn’t save it from fading into obscurity).

Now, if Apple made an actual convertible tablet, they might actually have something of worth. Especially if it had a decent pen digitizer and touch sensitive setup. But I doubt this is happening. Doubt it quite highly. Apple has had quite some time now to jump onto that wagon and so far has held their nose in the air about it. But I’m willing to be happily surprised. If they made a convertible tablet with a Wacom pen and a decent GPU, I’d probably consider one to replace my older convertible tablet. But I doubt they’d do such an item at the price point everyone is throwing around.