Not many products inspired so many blog posts with wishful thinking as the Apple Tablet iSlate. Judging from the interest in the early adopter niche, this product will be even revolutionarier (this word is actually reserved for Apple products) than the iPhone.

Paul Buchheit:

“I have no idea what Apple is planning to release, but to me the revolutionary product need is in bridging the virtual and physical worlds. If you spend your entire day in front of the computer, this need may not seem real, but if you move between the two worlds you may notice that they are strangely disconnected. For example, imagine that I’m looking at a picture on my computer and want to give you a copy. In the physical world, I would simply hand you the print (I would have gotten double-prints), but with computers it’s nearly impossible. Yes, there may be some complicated 10-step process that I can use to share the image, or maybe I can download and install some obscure software, but I’m not going to do that and neither are most other people. Imagine if I instead had a simple (built-in) gesture for passing the photo off to person standing next to me, and it were just as easy as handing them a real photo.”

John Gruber:

“The Tablet, I say, is going to be Apple’s new answer to what you use for personal portable general computing.

Put another way, let’s say instead of a MacBook and an iPhone, you’ve got an iMac and an iPhone, but you also want a portable secondary computer. Today, that portable from Apple (portable as opposed to the iPhone’s mobile) is a MacBook. With The Tablet, you’ll have the option of a device that will more closely resemble the iPhone than the iMac in terms of concept and the degree of technical abstraction.”

And dissenting, Joe Wilcox:

“Tablet is a nowhere category. For all the hype about an Apple tablet , it is at best a niche product. The world doesn’t need an Apple tablet, no matter what the hype about rumored features or regardless of what actually releases (if anything).”

The rumours about Apple creating a tablet computer have been going on since the release of the iPhone. However, in December 2009 they found new popularity when the Financial Times reported that Apple had booked the Yerba Buena Center for Arts in San Franscisco for a significant product announcement on January 26, 2010. Only a couple of days later,  Google China’s ex-chief Kaifu Lee wrote on his blog that an informed friend told him that an Apple Tablet appearance was likely. The details he gave were: 10.1-inch screen with awesome UI. Of course

Earlier, MacRumors stated that the Apple Tablet would most likely be called iSlate, because the domain iSlate.com was acquired by Apple.

Expect additional rumors until the upcoming launch of the iSlate or whatever it will be called. Always secretive and tight-lipped, Apple is playing silent observer at the moment and will – hopefully – speak on January 26, 2010.