Not really copy cat - if they position a new tablet line as the 'ultimate digital sketchpad/canvas', then it's a different take altogether... Microsoft and the other TabletPC manufacturers are positioning their products as portable digital notepads - business tools rather than creative tools... good luck even trying to find out how many levels of pressure-sensitivity they have in the specs anywhere. Besides, Apple wasn't the first to produce an MP3 player, but they did produce the best ever. Wacom played a substantial role in the Inkwell technology, Apple has had some of the best handwriting recognotion in the industry for some time, plus a substantial portion of their already installed base would jump on a product like this I only use my Powerbook for working/surfing on the deck, really... and there isn't a single creative (I know) who didn't drool when they first saw the Cintiq LCD tablet. The many many thousands of Mac input-tablet users have had to adapt to the unnatural sensation of drawing in your lap while looking at the screen - I bet every single one has imagined how cool it would be to actually be able to draw directly on the screen itself. I also imagine this device would link up to an existing Powermac as a 'second monitor' in some sort of slave mode as well. I guess we'll see on Tuesday...

It would be really interesting to see what kind of impact this might have on theming/pirate UI development as well. Suddenly a button-driven desktop makes much more sense... I'm looking forward to creating tablet-specific scripts and such as well. Very cool!