“Apple may be planning to add 3G wireless broadband capabilities to all or part of its laptop line – including possibly the oft-rumored tablet Mac.”

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/05/05/3g_job_posting/

I hope the Touchbook people get there first.

the next big thing will be a revolutionary CAR built by apple!!!
something the USA really need!!!

the

iCar or iDrive or perhaps iDoNotWalk… ;-)

The early phone catches the worm.

Apple does not want to compete with global companies like Nokia. Apple produces high end products with high end look and feel and high end marketing for high end people.
How and why should Apple produce an iPhone NANO? Sorry, this does not work and would be completly nuts because there is no reason for it.
A phone without webbrowing and so on just for those people who want an apple phone, too?
Come on…with an iPod this is no problem at all. iPod is just for listening to music. But a brand new APPLE phone which is made for calling someone else??? hmmm… not a really huge inventory.

sorry for my bad english.

http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2009/02/16/nvidia_touts_tegra/

Cnet is telling us Nvidia is aiming for Android also:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13924_3-10165037-64.html?tag=mncol;posts

While I’m sure AAPL would like to have the same lock on their hardware base they kept for so long with their computers (keeping them a boutique-computing item) it looks like Nvidia is aiming for the standard hardware base market.

Anyway, just heard the rumor that Apple is coming out with a cheap phone by the summer. And it is a smart move for them to delay products right now, and release updates when consumer spending does pick up, while destroying their competition in a price war. Also given Apple has 25 bl cash war-chest and their competitors don’t, the result might be obvious.

The iPhone makes a lot more sense if you think of it as a small computer which can get data via the cell network, and happens to make calls too. If you’re cellphone-centric it will never make sense. Most analysts focus on volume, Apple focuses on quality. Fewer people care about quality over price, but those that do will pay a premium.

Which is kind of like their computers. The conventional wisdom has been wrong on Apple for, what, decades now? Somehow they seem to do okay.

Verec, why do you think I understand INTC and MFST any better? I spend less time thinking about them. Wait, maybe that’s your point.

Andrew, I agree quite a lot, and yours is similar to the point made by Monsieur de Chaos. But Apple doesn’t make a lot of money from the apps, I fear, just like it doesn’t make much off iTunes. I think they would prefer to sell hardware, and think about GMs and how to make more people buy the phone.

Cash and Chris, I can only agree with everything you say.

While most of what you say is true, it is mostly IRRELEVANT.

Apple customers do not buy a product, they buy a dream. And “classical” economic thinking falls of the cliff, again, as usual.

Poor Barruck, please, stick to the companies that you do understand, the like of MFST, INTC and other bores

Thanks!

Spinoza

The last thing the iPhone needs to do is follow the standard phone model of releasing model after model of slightly different phones to push up sales.

There is no brand loyalty because the experience and features are so fragmented. Your user experience was wasted once you picked up a new model.

The reason the iPhone works is that the 3G isn’t much different from the 1st Generation iPhone, and that is where it’s strength is.

You are missing the most important part of the iPhone, which isn’t Gross Margins or cool case colors or anything else.

Like the iPod, it isn’t about the device, it’s all about the library. iPhone (or iPod) isn’t about getting someone to upgrade their old phone for a new one, but getting them to buy application after application and song after song.

If your device is well made, you don’t need to produce one radical design or gimmick after another. Your radical design and gimmick are in the applications store or the content library.

At one time there we dozens of different computer platforms, and they shook down to 2-3 major platforms and hundreds of makers. That shake-out is now happening in the phone space as well.

The era of the handset is dead. Now its all about the applications those handsets run.

If you disagree, look at the average iPhone users applications sitting on their phone. The iPhone is where programmers know they can make a million dollars in a month if their app is good enough. No other phone product has that ability. When all the best are producing apps for one platform, they sell your platform for you.

As long as iTunes and the Application Store remain THE place to produce mobile apps, Apple doesn’t have to produce endless versions to appeal to the masses.