Both Google's Nexus 7 and Amazon's Kindle Fire HD take the former approach – Google even renamed its store "Play" to remind users it sold books, films and TV for them to watch on their tablets. Amazon's Kindle Fire HD emphasises its excellent screen and its stereo sound. It's not that these aren't devices more than able to cope with advanced functions; it's merely that Steve Jobs' assessment was right: screens may get smaller but the size of our hands makes it harder to simply scale down a bigger canvas – proportionally, a lot less of it is visible as the diagonal length decreases.
So on Tuesday evening, Apple has another – maybe final – chance to show that it can offer a new computing paradigm once again. It did it with the iPhone, with the iPad and, in a different way – with the iPod before that. It needs more than ever to confound its critics. Amazon and Google have both produced devices that, by their manufacturers' admission, strive to disappear.
You should no more notice you're reading a book on a tablet than realise you are holding a paperback. Content is king – but that means tablet computers risk becoming commoditised. If anyone can make one that is, instead, surprising and delightful, it's Apple. Users will find out on Tuesday if it has done it again.
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