A long time ago, in a land far away, I had a Creative Jukebox MP3 player. It was bulky, heavy, difficult to operate and had limited storage. I thought it was the coolest thing ever but obviously it was a device of limited interest. After all, not many people were interested in carrying around some of their music in a substantial box. It was a niche product for music-loving geeks like me.

Then, in 2001, Steve Jobs stood up and introduced the first iPod. Two hundred and twenty million iPods later, clearly there was a latent market for a small, high capacity, personal music player; it just needed a company to supply a well-designed product. Once I had an iPod, I didn’t know how I had lived without it.

And so we carried around our mobile phones and our iPod players, and accepted that personal computing came in no smaller form than a laptop. There was no obvious gap in the market for something different.

Then, in 2007, Steve Jobs stood up and introduced the first iPhone. Thirty five million iPhones and more than one billion application downloads later, clearly there was a latent market for a small personal computing device which would allow you to access the web from almost anywhere, play games, watch movies and, almost as an aside, make phone calls. While waiting for my lunch today I checked my mail, read the news and played a bit of Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars. On the way home I plugged the iPhone into my car and listened to music. Now I have an iPhone, I don’t know how I lived without it.

Today (early tomorrow in Thailand), Steve jobs will stand up and introduce the Apple tablet computer. Tech media sources have been speculating madly about this for months. Not only does nobody know exactly what form the device will take; more importantly, nobody really knows why it needs to exist. As with the iPod and the iPhone (and to an extent with the original Apple computer), Mr. Jobs and his gang think there is a gap in the market that needs filling (or rather, creating), and the tablet is going to do it.

With an anticipated ten inch screen, this will not be something you can fit in your pocket. Almost certainly the operating system will look more like an iPhone than a laptop; providing a restricted but hassle-free computing environment. A better gaming experience, more impressive movies, and no doubt it will play your music. You will be able to read e-books on it too, if such a thing appeals. So far, not much of a product.

How about other media? When is the last time you bought a newspaper? The print media world is hurting; why buy paper when you can get it for free on the internet? But what if my favourite photography magazine, for example, was available to download in full colour and included videos of photo processing techniques and camera reviews? I would pay something for that. A car magazine with videos of car tests, sports magazine with video coverage of events. This is increasingly how web information is presented, why not magazines?

Assuming they have cracked the problems associated with providing a usable keyboard on a flat screen, then there may also be input intensive applications such as a word processor available. Perhaps photo processing software in a slimmed down version of iPhoto.

Then it all starts to make sense. A small, light, portable computer with a gorgeous screen (this is a given). Content downloadable from iTunes, including movies, games, music, books and magazines. An operating system which, like the iPhone, is kept robust by being limited to updates and applications from a central provider. Keep the price point around $500 and you maybe have something which will redefine what a personal computer in the home should be for a substantial proportion of the population (that have $500 to spend on a computer). Maybe, finally “a computer for the rest of us” as the original Macintsosh 1984 advert rather optimistically declared.

Of course, all these predictions are probably total bollocks and we will just have to see what they have come up with. Of course only a fool would stay up till the early hours of tomorrow morning to watch the launch….