So the talk has been up again, coming back like a boomerang: Apple is expected to release a Mac Tablet-PC. Of course, a few fans hoping for this to happen and Apple-focussed magazines dreaming about it, doesn’t make it any more real.

Michael Scalisi from PCWorld believes, the hype about the much rumored Apple Tablet is simply ridiculous and based on unfounded speculation. He calls it a train wreck. John Gruber responded aptly. And I think they’re both partially right.

I won’t quote Apple’s views on the computer tablet market, but in reference to Netbooks, according to The New York Times Bits Blog, Steve Jobs said in October 2008: “We don’t know how to build a sub-$500 computer that is not a piece of junk.”. For people not so familiar with Apple’s history, the translation of this could be read as “We know there’s a market of low-cost crappy computers, but we won’t join it.”.

If you look closer, that doesn’t really mean they will not come up with something awesome, which doesn’t join the low-cost crappy computer market, but will be superior to all existing products in hardware and software quality.

In short, if Apple is going to release something in this market, it will most definitely fulfill the following criteria:

• It will neither be a classic Netbook, nor will Apple call it a Tablet-PC.
• It will be the most awesome piece of hardware this market has seen, but…
• It will be super-slim in terms of hardware connectivity, and…
• It will serve for a very narrow range of usage, say watching movies, listening to music, editing text docs and browsing the web.
• It will be very thin and extremely light.
• In terms of hardware, it’ll be a mixture between a MacBook Air and an iPhone 3GS.

There is no doubt that Apple actually knows very well now how to make a low-cost computer that is not a piece of crap. However, low cost, to Apple, will mean an entry price range between $500 and $800. So it will rival products like the Sony Vaio P series.

However, the question remains: Why would Apple want to enter this market? Isn’t it better off with focussing on the existing (and prosperous) markets of iPhone, MacBook Pro and MacBook Air?

By upgrading the product name from its MacBook range to the Pro line, Apple left the white MacBook line more or less untouched, but it seems clear that this product family is going to see some change in the near future. Either the MacBook Air is going to get siblings, or the white MacBook range is going to be merged into the MacBook Pro line with 15” screens.

So a Mac Tablet wouldn’t really alter the existing MacBook product line. But it could fill the gap between the iPhone 3GS, iPods and the MacBook Air. Being even thinner and lighter than the Air, it could be something like an Apple MacBook Helium. Still a MacBook, but without a physical keyboard. Instead it would introduce the world’s first notebook with haptic touch-screen technology. (You can feel the keys on a virtual keyboard.)

It’d be perfect for students, journalists and anyone who needs to carry around a really lightweight Tablet-style computer, that does just a few things, but it does it extremely well. It’d be that kind of lightweight computer Mr. Jobs would love to carry around to meetings. Now, that would certainly be something Apple could be interested in.