I’m curious about what Apple will do overseas, here in Europe. I don’t think we have the Treo 600 (yet) around here, but I may be mistaken on that. However, the real issue would be the different approach needed for each country in Europe. Any theories on that part, Mike? :)

Anyway I have no doubt they have several prototypes knocking about.

I would like to see an Apple e-book reader. It’s an industry that’s plagued with low-quality devices trying to sell as cheaply as possible. That’s the same thing that was going on in the MP3 player world before Apple stepped in.

An e-book needs better screens than laptops, not old Palm V-style screens. Two paperback-sized 200 DPI displays, hinged in the middle. Apple is the kind of company to throw quality at e-books.

The one problem I see is that there’s no real “MP3 of the e-book world”. The best bet is probably the PDF format, which Apple has been ruling in Preview. But, there are plenty of others out there, ranging from crappy plain text to crappy proprietary.

As for Apple – I agree that I’d rather see them make a decent eBook reading device than a phone. There are so many phones already; maybe by the time you predict, there will have been a bit of a shakeout in the market, creating room for a new introduction.

Really though, an eBook reader with associated “iRead Book Store” wouldn’t be bad. It’d also be nice though if they offered some free (RSS? Atom?) news feeds to be loaded onto the book (and let us add our own).

Fred: Wi-Fi and VOIP would be nice and it’s possible Apple is waiting for this to be viable, but right now, the reach of Wi-Fi simply isn’t good enough to provide for a wide calling area. I was able to make phone calls and use the internet from a remote Hawaii beach thanks to T-Mobile’s GSM network, and I just doubt we’ll see that sort of Wi-Fi reach for awhile. Eventually yes, but the GSM/CDMA stuff is viable right now.

Blake: Ahhh, but the iPhone (and the Treo) IS a PDA! That’s the beauty of it. I didn’t even own a PDA until I got my Treo. It’s a PDA/phone/music player/etc all in one.

Greg and Johnathan: Yes, the iPod succeeded because it did one thing very well, but that doesn’t logically lead to the conclusion that if it did two, three, or four things equally as well, it wouldn’t be an even bigger success. Concentrating on getting the music part perfect was a smart move, but now that they’ve gotten that down, why not expand? eBooks are a nice idea and I agree with both of you that we’ll eventually see some nice ones, but the market for that sort of device clearly has not proven to exist quite yet. Millions of people have cell phones which they routinely replace every few years. Barely anyone has an eBook reader yet. Besides, the technology to do the iPhone right exists today, whereas eBooks need a lot more maturing in the display and DRM space before they hit it big.

As for Apple products not requiring European success, this is true, but it’s more fun when they ship their stuff here as well – the various iPods are becoming quite a big hit here, I think.