Paper Comic DeathWatch: iTablets and ABCNews

Yes, I am late today, but I have a good reason. I've spent all day lettering yet another Zuda proposal.

As it stands now, I have 3 Zuda proposals I'm working on, but none are quite ready to submit yet. I told you about the one Pierre and I are working on. This other one is VERY different, and I'll have more information about it next week.

In the meantime, let's rundown something that are helping push the minute hand up to Midnight on the Atomic Comic DeathClock.

There is this little item from our good friends at ABCNews. Apparently ABCNews went and asked Joe Q Public what they thought about the possible release of an iTablet and then MacRumors followed up with a long article outlining their long standing speculation on such a rumor.

Now some of you may remember my prediction that such a device would be announced at the Mac Developers conference. Alas, all we got was cheaper iPhones with 3G capability. (And even though you CAN view Flashback Universe comics on your iPhone, the iPhone is not a Paper Comic Killer App.)

So, when my iRider of the Paper Comic Apocalypse didn't appear at the Apple World Wide Developer Conference I was pretty disappointed. Not because I *hate* paper comics, but because all the signs (and Apple Patents ) were pointing to such a device. I also feel like once Apple show everyone how to *correctly* make such a device, the floodgates will be broken, and a horde of cheaper models will flood in from China.

And yet, by the time Apple finally gets such a device ready, it *might* be too late. Witness how quickly Mobile Internet Devices, Netbooks and UMPCs are taking off in Asia...

The latest sweetheart of the technorati is the Asus R50 UMPC

And while this isn't a UMPC, the sleek and cheap Dell Inspiron 13 is definitely going to fall into the hands of a LOT of students this year...starting at $349 for some models!

So, I kind of feel like Apple needs to hurry up and get whatever it is they are working on out to us quickly, because the longer they wait, the more they'll have to play catch up when they finally do unveil there MacTouch laptop or whatever it is they are sitting on. There word on the street is September is set for the drop of this new device. Let's see how that shakes out.

PCDW Points: Zero for now - let's see what happens in September. ;)