Have you noticed that the rumored feature sets for upcoming Apple products always seem to shrink as the ship date gets closer? Take, for example, the P1-- the first product expected to fill in the missing "consumer portable" quadrant of Apple's product strategy when it finally surfaces sometime within the next few months. Rumors about the P1 have been running wild ever since Apple first announced that they were working on a consumer-level laptop that would combine low cost with high style and killer performance. Remember how the P1 was supposed to include wireless Internet access? We admit, we're still really skeptical about that one, though we'd love to see it happen. Over time, we've seen expectations about the P1 slowly morph from a wirelessly-networked all-day-battery handwriting-recognizing floor-wax-and-dessert-topping still-costs-$999 ÜberPortable to essentially an iMac-styled smaller PowerBook.

The long-standing rumor that the P1 would include Newton-style handwriting recognition and touch-screen/tablet capabilities has really been downplayed in recent months; in fact, just last week Apple Insider's Future Apple Hardware page listed the "Color Touch Screen and Stylus" feature as an "advanced feature that apparently will not make the cut." However, that just changed, following Apple Insider's latest report which indicates that the whole handwriting/touch screen deal still hasn't been officially axed from Apple's P1 features list. According to Insider's sources, Apple continues to work on including these capabilities in the P1, though of course we're never going to know for sure what's going on until Apple finally unveils the product.

Here at AtAT, we would rather wait for a delayed introduction than see Apple introduce a P1 that was little more than an overhyped translucent curvy PowerBook. A feature like stylus input could make all the difference when it comes to the product's success; imagine being able to take notes with a stylus on a P1 in tablet mode. Student sales alone would make the iMac's sales figures look like the first month's numbers for Microsoft Bob. There's a tricky balance here, because Apple has to keep the price low, the feature set compelling, and the ship date well before the back-to-school buying rush for the P1 to be a smash hit. So while we're not holding our breath for handwriting recognition and stylus input, we'll keep our fingers crossed.