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Apple has always often been the innovator. The company that sets the trends. We’ve seen it time and time again with the iMac, the iPod, the iPhone. And not just full products but also ideas and technology, like adopting firewire early or dropping floppy discs early, or integrating touch so well. Think about how the touch capabilities on the iPhone has influenced a plethora of copy cat products.

Some might believe that Apple innovated the GUI and the mouse. But they DIDN’T, they stole plagiarized those technologies during a visit to PARC, Xerox’s Palo Alto Research Center. Some of Apple’s best innovations have been things that they’ve RE-invented. But Apple hasn’t really innovated anything since the iPhone – and that was years ago. Every MacWorld and WWDC since then has been mostly disappointing.

It’s time for Apple to “innovate” again. There are 4 products I saw at CES that Apple needs to look at, reverse engineer, license, or plagiarize.

1. HP’s Touch Computers:

HP’s line of touch computers feel like the future. Why is Apple so far behind in touch when it seems like their iPhone started the trend. The HP TouchSmart tx2z series is a laptop with flip around monitor that turns it into a tablet – and it starts around $1000. The problem is that it’s Vista, and it’s a bit thick. But the idea is great and it makes me wonder if I could figure out how to install Leopard on it.

What Apple should take from it…

Touch IS the future! If you doubt it just look at an episode of Star Trek. My 3 year old already tries to touch computer screens now to move things around. She knows how an iPhone works and expects all computers to work that way. And while currently these computers run Vista – which sucks, Apple should be shaking in their boots about Windows 7. I fear that they’ll be the one’s playing catch up. What is Apple working on now? Snow Leopard? We need a full touch version of OS X in 2009 or Apple might completely lose the OS war and turn into just an appliance manufacturer.

2. The Sony Vaio P-Series:

Probably one of the most talked about products this CES has been Sony’s new wide-screen Vaio P-Series. It is an interesting size and I love the extra wide aspect ratio. It provides enough width for a real feeling keyboard, but is still small enough to fit in a purse or suit jacket pocket.  It’s lightweight, runs cool, and has a 60 gig hard drive.

But there are problems with this product. The main problem is the stupid joystick instead of a trackpad. Obviously with the keyboard taking up the full space there’s no room for a trackpad. But I got my hands on one of these yesterday and that joystick totally sucks. If it had touch and if the screen flipped around like the HP’s touchsmart, it would be unstoppable.

The other problem is the extremely short battery life. It’s rated at only 2 hours to 4 hours and if it’s like other products we know that really means about 2 hours, not enough time to watch a movie on a flight.

What Apple should take from it…

I would love to see a MacBook with this form factor – but it would also need to have an Apple spin on it. What would Apple do to improve this kind of design?

I think the main thing for Apple to learn is that people DO want and are going to be buying these smaller sized computers – in droves. I also think Sony has the right marketing approach to this product. At CES they’re showing it right along with the purses and handbags it fits in. This product will be heavily marketed to women.
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3. Toshiba’s Internet Viewer Prototype:

In a small plexiglass cube in the middle of the Toshiba booth is this prototype of a Wide LCD/DMFC Internet Viewer. There was no REAL information available about it. The stewardess claimed it has a touch screen and an optional wireless keyboard. And you can assume from the name that it’s powered by a direct methanol fuel cell.

What Apple should take from it…

Again, I think the lesson is that the market is going to be flooded with PMP’s and netbooks – all with multi-touch. People like small gadgets. This product idea has the looks of the Apple tablet that I’ve been wanting for while. Bigger than the iPhone but still small enough to fit in a pocket. On the go it’s you just use the touch screen but when you need it get the keyboard in proximity and it wirelessly connects. The iPhone has been great. It felt like the future the moment I got it. But now I want something more.

The other thing to look at is the battery. DMFC and other new battery technologies are also the future. From the side angle you can see that this unit is very thin. It’s hard to see scale in these photos, but they are planning 4″ and 7″ models. This is the 7 inch version.

4. Toshiba’s SCiB

While not a new announcement, Toshiba was showing a SCiB powered laptop that could charge 90% in 10 minutes. As I said above, new battery technologies are going to be huge selling points in the near future. I can’t wait for the time when I can plug a device in for 10 min and be good for a while, or fuel up a DMFC and have it last a week.

What Apple should take from it…

Be the first to put one of these power sources in your product.  With Toshiba building SCiB manufacturing plants, they’ll be cranking this stuff out this year and will need products to put them in.

To Apple:

Stop resting on the laurels of the iPhone and get back to thinking about the future! The future is touch, it’s mid to small sized devices that are powerful and do many many tasks, it complete wireless connectivity – including charging, and it’s power supplies that charge quick and last a very long time. Where is the touch iMac?  Where is the tablet mac? It’s time to get out there and plagiarize some ideas and sell them as your own. It’s time to get back to the business of creative innovative products that will blow people away.