Jobs: There Will be No MacTabletPC or MoviePod


Apple CEO Steve Jobs reportedly canned the idea of a video iPod, according to a story at MacWorld UK.

The comments were attributed to Jobs in a report on a speech he made last week at the All Things Digital conference.

" "I'm not convinced people want to watch movies on a tiny little screen," Jobs allegedly said at the conference. The CEO also ruled out an Apple-designed Tablet PC.

In remarks attributed to him, Jobs is reported to have said, "Tablets appeal to rich guys with plenty of other devices already, and people accuse us of niche markets."

Instead, Jobs focussed on applications, such as QuickTime and iSync and their role in the cell phone space. Apple yesterday released QuickTime 6.3, which adds extra support and features for cell phones on 3G networks.

The MacWorld UK article notes that the comments come from a blogger who attended the event, and that the comments recorded are "paraphrased and incomplete".

Analysis: The sneer sounds authentic enough. Maybe there's some cred in the story that Apple is really carving itself up into hardware and software companies, as standards-based software - like QuickTime - are really lending themselves to be all things to all users: streaming video; DVD movie-making video; MPEG-1; AAC audio; MP3 decoding; photos; and now 3G.

And, what's more, Jobs is probably right: Apple doesn't need to be messing about with peripheral products like TabletPCs or video phones.

What's more I can't recall the last time Jobs actually lied about a product he said wouldn't appear, and then it has. Unless you count saying CRTs were dead and then intro'ing the eMac. But we're not sure that counts...