![\"4045509491_e88eccdbf7_o\"](\"http:\/\/www.stoth.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/wp-o-matic\/cache\/8738a_4045509491_e88eccdbf7_o1.jpg\")
<\/a>Representatives from Apple have visited executives for Los Angeles’ Cedars-Sinai Medical Center<\/a> “three or four times” to talk about the Apple tablet’s potential for\u00a0\u00a0medical professionals at Cedars-Sinai, according to entrepreneur Jason Wilk.<\/p>\nWilk, the founder of a startup company backed by the Y-Combinator incubator group, wrote on his blog<\/a> that “My Dad plays golf with Cedas-Sanai hospital execs, who say they have been getting frequent visits from Apple about a new device in the last 6 weeks.”<\/p>\n In a phone call, Wilk said the number of visits was “three or four” and that his second-hand information suggested Apple wasn’t yet trying to close a sale, but rather probing for possible uses for the new device, which is almost certainly the tablet computer<\/a> Apple plans to debut on January 27th.<\/p>\n It would be oversimplification to interpret the visits as proof that Apple plans to focus on medical professionals, rather than home consumers, as the tablet’s primary market.<\/p>\n Instead, the question is: Can Apple succeed where PC makers have failed?<\/p>\n <\/a>We’ve been told for years that medical professionals were the guaranteed-to-succeed market for tablets. Bill Gates raved about his<\/a> in 2006. But tablets like the\u00a0Dell Latitude XT2 XFR<\/a>, pictured above, have stiffed again and again, in part because of their ungainly laptop-with-a-backwards-facing-display design.<\/p>\n [Photo: AllPosters.com<\/a>]<\/p>\n![\"motion-computing-c5\"](\"http:\/\/www.stoth.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/wp-o-matic\/cache\/9ffde_motion-computing-c5.jpg\")
<\/a>Wilk notes that the $2,000 Motion Computing C5<\/a> is one of the few successful devices on the clinician market, thanks to its one-piece, easily-carried form and lab-smock-white casing. A new generation of slimmer, cheaper tablets — analysts estimate Apple’s will list for $1,000 — might finally make sense for doctors and nurses to carry instead of a clipboard.<\/p>\n