The Apple Tablet: Which OS? It’s A Big Deal

August 28th, 2009

So there has been a lot of brouhaha about the iPhone being too “closed” — how developers continually hit bottlenecks with the Apple review process, Apple’s decision to not approve Google Voice, etc.

And then there’s this rumored Apple tablet constantly on the edge of reality, so important that Steve has supposedly taken it on as a pet project in order to make it insanely great.

And there is, in my mind, a huge choice to be made regarding this tablet, so big it almost places Apple at a crossroads.

Which OS will the tablet run?

Will it be, or more similar to the iPhone OS? In other words, just “a big iPod Touch?” If so, Apple will surely leverage the existing iTunes App Store and control all the apps that get installed on it.

Or will the tablet run Snow Leopard, OS X proper, where we as consumers get to install our software through more traditional means?

I have voiced my wish many times before, that Apple goes with the latter. I dream of a reinvention of the MacBook, a tablet more similar to a Mac than an iPhone. I want to install Photoshop on this puppy, run VLC to watch movies, use Acrobat Reader or Preview as an eBook reader / Kindle killer, use iTunes proper, etc.

But deep down, I see several Apple-esque reasons why they might go with a “big iPod Touch”: The runaway success that is the iPhone app model and the iTunes App Store — there’s a crap load of money to be made through control, as Apple would get their cut from every app sale. There’s also Apple’s constant desire for control over the whole user experience, and maybe some Jobsian desire to create a locked-down personal computer that is as brain-dead simple to use as an iPhone.

Only time will tell, but anybody griping about the closed nature of the iPhone better start prepping some gripes for the Apple Tablet. They may come in handy.

Additional Reading: The iPhone Spot, Mac Blorge