Apple Has Filed for a Handheld Computer Design Trademark
August 15, 2004 | Levent OZLER
Apple has filed for a European design trademark which may provide a tantalising glimpse of the company's long-awaited tablet computer.
The filing, made in May this year but only published this week, covers a "handheld computer" and contains sketches of what look like an iBook screen minus the body of the computer.
The paperwork was handled by Leeds, UK-based patent and trademark attorneys Urquhart-Dykes and Lord.
The filing lists Apple CEO Steve Jobs and the company's industrial design chief, Jonathan Ive. It also refers to Daniele De Iuliis, Richard Howarth, Eugene Whang, Matthew Rohrbach, Bart Andre, Calvin Seid and Christopher Stringer all of key members of Apple's industrial design team, with the Power Mac G5, iPod, 17in and 12in PowerBook G4, and others under their belt.
Hints that Apple might be working on such a product emerged in 2003 when a source close to Taiwanese contract manufacturer Quanta claimed that the company had been hired by Apple to build what was dubbed a "wireless display".
Jobs has consistently downplayed claims that Apple is working on a PDA, and given the state of the world PDA market, it wouldn't make much sense for it to do so. Doubly so given how well the iPod works as a portable personal information carrier.
Jobs has similarly poo-poo'd suggestions that the company should offer a
more: theregister.co.uk/2004/08/13/apple_tablet_mac/ (107)
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