Disclosure: I write this article as an Apple iPhone developer, but not as somebody privileged enough to receive advance information on the impending tablet device which we believe will be officially announced this month according to a Wall Street Journal report. I don’t have any other information aside from what most other tech bloggers and prognosticators have, it’s all speculation on my part.

I was pretty on the fence about Apple’s iPhone, when it was first announced. Truth be told I was pretty on the fence about smartphones in general. I had an iPod, I had a PDA, I had a cell phone. I liked using all of those devices, but thought that convergence was going to be a problem – why would I listen to music all day and then prevent myself from making phone calls? It just didn’t jive for me. Even when I finally did wind up with a smartphone for necessity’s sake – an HTC Wizard (Cingular 8125 for the locals) – it just wasn’t as good as I’d hoped. It was slow, the web browser never worked, it was bulky, it had a terrible OS and its software support was abysmal.

During the time I used this phone, I had come to use an Apple laptop at the urging of one of my programmers and good friend. Boot Camp had come out and he insisted that Apple machines would be just as viable of a development platform as any otherwise-built pure Windows machine and then some. I’d discovered that OS X and its associated programs (iCal, Mail.app, et al) fit my workflow so much more perfectly that I made that switch, and bought a Mac Pro as soon as it was feasible.

And then the iPhone came out – as a recent Apple convert I was interested, but it was a smartphone. I’d had a terrible experience with a smartphone – my 8125 refused to synchronize well with my Macs, even with a copy of The Missing Sync helping it out. But by this point I could see the promise.

I bought the iPhone almost on a whim. I hadn’t planned on buying one, but I was in the local Apple store on launch day and there was one left. With a “what the hell” and a swipe of the credit card, I was on my way.

I’ve never looked back.

I can honestly say, unflinchingly, that the iPhone absolutely changed my digital life. Everything works the way it should, it’s accessible, it’s extensible, and quite frankly it’s everything I could want in a phone.

Recently on a trip to Asia, I bought a netbook for some easy portable computing. I had a deal on a Dell, I didn’t spend a lot and I didn’t want to, I do believe I got what I paid for. Netbooks however, were another bit of tech that I was on the fence on. Less so than smartphones, I ‘got’ the netbook’s utility a lot sooner, but never took the plunge until I really needed one, as opposed to my usual stance as an early adopter.

I hesitated, though, because I’d heard the rumor of Apple planning on releasing a netbook of its own – except not quite a netbook, but a tablet! Like an iPhone, only bigger! My mind whirled with the potential of such a device.

And it was my iPhone that sold me on the product: What the iPhone does for me in mobile connectivity and computing, I believe the iSlate will do on a larger scale.

It won’t be as powerful as a MacBook, but it won’t have to be. Certainly we will expect ports of existing iPhone apps – just shifting them over to the new device will cause the 480×320 pixel applications to look pretty darn ugly.

But much like how applications made the iPhone successful, the same model will apply here. When we find out precisely what hardware it’s working with later this month, we’ll know precisely how it’ll affect our lives, but after the iPhone, I’m convinced that it’ll be for the better.

You’ll find me in line on launch day.