Apple plots course for middle of mobile

Is the world finally ready for the mobile minitablet?

It’s become quite clear over the last several months that Apple is ready to bridge the mobile computing gap, with plans to develop a device that fits somewhere in between the iPhone and the MacBook. A recent Wall Street Journal article proclaimed that during his medical leave, CEO Steve Jobs has been working on that midsized mobile device, bigger than an iPhone but smaller than a MacBook.

And just this week, BusinessWeek reported that Apple is developing a “media pad” that would let users watch videos on a larger screen than an iPod Touch or Amazon Kindle, but on a device that’s more portable than notebooks and lacks a keyboard.

The personal computer industry has long tried to make such a device a reality, but apart from some early success for the Kindle, no one has managed to convince the public that the attempts released to date–such as the Ultra Mobile PC–are worth buying. Instead, PC companies looking for increased mobility are finding ways to shrink the notebook PC as opposed to a finding a new way to use computers.

Read more: news.cnet.com