OK, we've all read rumours about what's going to be in the iSlate and what isn't. So, just in case someone like Steve Jobs is listening, here's my wish list of stuff I haven't seen reported but would like.
1. An FM radio. I want the iSlate to reduce the amount of gadgets I need or keep them constant, not multiply them.
2. A stand of some sort. Like you get on a digital picture frame. If I'm going to spend hundreds on this, I really don't want to have to spend another couple of hundred upgrading (for example) my bedroom TV when it eventually dies. I want to take the iSlate upstairs, use an Internet TV channel and forget about the device I'm watching.
3. A2DP and AVRCP Bluetooth. Yes thanks, I know it's not a phone, but I might want to use wireless headphones and listen to something while it's still in my case when I'm on a train or something. And no I don't want to have to buy an iPod as well - I want to choose whether I do this or not. Actually AVRCP on the iPhone would be kind of good in an 'everybody else has got it but I can't skip tracks from wireless kit' kind of way.
4. A better name. If iSlate is official, and I hope it's not, then someone hasn't told you that at least in British English, 'slate' can mean 'criticise damningly'. The press will have a field day.
5. A sensible price. This is going to be the most difficult thing to achieve, and of course you're going to be used to people paying a premium because things have Apple written on them. But I'm concerned that this gadget will price itself out of the market. The installed base of laptops is huge. This might do as a replacement for some people but not all. The market for e-readers is only just beginning but people are not going to start, quite suddenly, spending almost $1000 instead of less than half that on a Kindle.
And that's where your market is ultimately going to lie. The gadgeteers, the fun-lovers, the wealthy (those who're left) will no doubt buy these things anyway; once they've spent their money the rest of us will be scrutinising the benefits of this new wondermachine very carefully indeed before buying and the price point will have to compare to something we might otherwise be buying.
P. S. Everyone can feel free to laugh at me if the iSlate doesn't actually materialise next week!