4 posts tagged “ipod”
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Apple is partnering with Cingular to provide phone service for the iPod phone, and that Apple is also going to add Paramount's back catalogue of movies to the iTunes Store.
Unlike rumor sites and even other sites like News.Com, the Journal doesn't publish 'rumors' unless there's real substance behind them. It's called good journalism (no pun intended). So I think you can pretty much put those two tidbits down as 'fact'.
I now expect Apple to announce the iPod phone tonight. But I don't see it being available until later in the quarter. Hopefully, the announcement itself is big enough to outweigh any negative impact from the delayed release.
This is one situation where Jobs' past record of announcing cool stuff that is 'available right now at Apple's online store' can really come back and bite, but it really shouldn't. Launching a phone isn't like launching an iPod, and it would be impossible to maintain secrecy while setting up an immediate rollout of the iPod phone with an outside partner like Cingular, who would have to train staff, prepare marketing materials, etc.
As for the Paramount tie-up, that's good. They've got a strong portfolio of movies, like the Mission: Impossible franchise.
Oh, and if you're staying up for the keynote coverage, check out Macworld keynote bingo.
You should also check out Jon Gruber's predictions at his popular Mac-centric blog, Daring Fireball.
An interesting article by John Markoff for the NY Times, predicting that Apple's big announcement at tomorrow's Macworld keynote will be a handheld Mac - basically Apple's answer to the Ultra-Mobile PC (UMPC) that Microsoft 'launched' unsucessfully last year. The main difference is that, besides the obvious PDA and media-playing functions that a handheld Mac would be useful for, this would also be a phone.
In other words, Apple is relaunching the Newton, but done right. And it's a phone, too.
I like this idea, and suspected that Apple had some kind of PDA device in the works when they unveiled the enhanced scheduling features to be added to Mail and iCal in Leopard. Business-wise, it also takes away some of the pressure of producing a successful iPhone, because a handheld Mac would have appeal to a wider audience and wouldn't stand or fall purely based on how many people wanted an iPhone.
More importantly, it's a lot more Apple's style to create a whole new product category, instead of just trying to make a better phone. Jobs can say, "Well, we think this thing is gonna change your life, and if you want to, you can make calls on it."
We'll see...it's just a little under 30 hours to go till Steve Jobs takes the stage in San Francisco.
Since I've started using the iTunes Store, it's become something of an addiction. However, one really irritating non-feature is the lack of any rebate if you purchase a full album or TV season after having bought individual songs or episodes. In many cases, it's been a deterrent to my buying stuff - either I avoid buying the album or season because I refuse to pay twice for the episodes I've already purchased, or I hold off buying an individual item because I might want to buy the whole package eventually.
Late last year, there were some rumors from the usual sites that Apple was going to do something about this. But it would cause tremendous problems with people who have succumbed to this iTunes 'double-dipping' in the past. Also, while I'm sure they could re-jig their systems to handle the calculations, it might be more trouble than it's worth.
Another really dumb iTS move recently was to price the first season of Star Trek : The Original Series at US$57, more or less the price of buying all 29 episodes individually. Virtually every other series on the store is available at a (slight) discount for season passes. More importantly, all three seasons of TOS can be bought for about US$100 altogether on much-higher-quality DVD. The episodes for sale on iTS aren't even the new remastered 'enhanced' versions!
Dumb. Hope Steve mentions something about the first complaint during his Expo keynote next week.
Man...if he does take a leave of absence and/or Apple doesn't announce some kind of 'iPhone' - or a product so surprising that it eclipses that expectation - my AAPL shares might be in for a serious pounding.
Given Apple's aggressive 'first 30 years was only the beginning' pre-MacWorld campaign, they must have something huge up their sleeves. It can't just be the iTV, because they already announced that, and stuff like dual-quadcore (that's eight cores) Macs aren't mainstream-friendly. More movies on iTunes or a new widescreen iPod are also incremental, rather than earth-shattering. Even an instantaneous Leopard release would be no big deal.
What would be earth-shattering?
(1) iPhone. Actually, given the expectations, this would be more of a relief than a sensation. I'm sure Apple can pull of a great design, but it's the distribution/business model that is really going to determine this. Knowing Apple's style, I'd expect them to take a 'disruptor' approach and do an end-run around the traditional distribution channels.
(2) Unexpected iTV features. Things like recording. At the price that Steve mentioned previously, it would seem pretty difficult. As it stands, the iTV is probably just a video Airport Express. However, one thing I can imagine is a new range of HT-friendly displays (already rumoured) that fit with the iTV, with built-in iSights to allow iChatting through the iTV - but that's niche appeal, at best.
(3) Subnotebook-sized MacBooks or MacBook Pros. New notebooks hardly seems earth-shattering, but every 12" PowerBook or iBook user I know is dying to replace their machines with Intel-based equivalents. The 13" iBooks are still too bulky, and also aren't in sexy aluminium. Tablet functionality would be interesting, but not vital. If Apple were to announce 12" subnotebooks, they'd have a huge hit on their hands.
(4) Something else so cool and unexpected that only Apple could've come up with it.
These aren't predictions, they're wishes.
For the sake of my Mac fetish and the AAPL share price, I hope Steve doesn't disappoint, and I certainly hope he isn't taking any leave of absence...
Yes, I do want one of these...
(OK, maybe not...but they are really cute, no?)
