It would be Apple’s up-market retort to the netbook
Having looked into his crystal ball, Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster predicts that Apple will field a $500-$700 seven- to 10-inch touchscreen tablet based on a proprietary chip cooked up by its semiconductor acquisition PA Semi and running a Mac OS X variant that "could bear close resemblance to Apple's iPhone OS" in the first half of next year. It would be Apple's up-market retort to the netbook. Munster imagines the OS would be more robust than iPhone, optimized for multi-touch, and run App Store apps. Apple CEO Steve Jobs of course scotched the idea that he knew "how to build a sub-$500 computer that isn't a piece of junk."