Sounds like the future.

I can imagine quite a few companies that would sell such a device for $200. It would just be coupled with a $100/month mobile data plan running for at least 24 months.
Don’t say people wouldn’t buy it like that … do I really have to mention the iP…?
If it would be really Apple coming up with such a device, you’d have at least a million or so people turning off their brains immediately just because it is the newest and greatest from said company.
And then there would be the 1000 or so who would really have a use for such a device and would be willing to have all their data “in the cloud”.

In general, the specs basically describe a PDA with a larger than usual screen (and in theory you could also call the iPhone a PDA phone – just not running WinMo).

I see completely deferent benefits from this kind of web tablets.

What if you go to a restaurant and waitress gives you the tablet which not only has list of menu you can order online but also lets you browse full multi media stuff such as video and audio explanation of each menu? If I were a owner of that restaurant, I will setup a small server and use it to update lunch/dinner menu on the fly.

IMHO this kind of device is more useful in closed environment like hospital or school and more applicable for B2B type of usage rather than C2C. Do I want to use it at home? Probably, no.

Maybe the company that will offer it for $200 is the one that hinted about a large “product transition” that would hurt their profit margins for a few quarters – Apple.

specs are easy, but who in their right minds wants to sell it for $200?

You see, I do this everyday with the N800 (upgraded to Diablo). Its not at all impossible. What it is though is a sign that things do need to get simpler.

FYI, the browser is more than good enough for these tasks. Both FF3 adn Opera 9.5 work fine for web apps in both online and offline facilities. IE8 and Safari 4 will be pushing that further.

Frankly, most people would only need a browser if they were comfortable in apps living in SQLite and servers; you just have to show them a compelling reason why this will save them headaches in the long run.

I forgot to say that there must be an easy way to perform host based ad blocking on such a device as my N800 with ad blocking is far nicer to use than the out of the box settings – It goes from unusable to very usable.

I think an N800 with a 7″ screen and slightly more CPU power (such as one of the new ARM chips – Qualcomm Snapdragon, TI Omap3, Nvidia Tegra) and RAM would do the trick, add two SDHC slots for OS/Storage.

Have that run the new mobile Mozilla browser and you’re almost there.

Getting it down to $200 would might be difficult though.

Go grab James’ Nokia N800 or get yourself the N810.