Is an iPhone Air Hybrid in the Works? 16 comments
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Apple (AAPL)-related rumors always add spice to your day. As we all anticipate the 3G iPhone’s release any day now, we are seeing a steadily increasing spate of news, rumors and ‘leaks’. ZDnet.de recently reported this iPhone story:
As part of an Intel (INTC) event for the 40th birthday of the semiconductor company at Munich’s BMW World, Germany managing director Hannes Schwaderer confirmed today what has long been a rumor on the Internet: namely, that there is an iPhone with Intel’s new Atom chip. The device is slightly larger than the current version, Schwaderer said. That is not, however, because of the Intel chip, but because of the larger display used in the new iPhone.
Apple 2.0 blog published an anatomy of this rumor, in which it points out that Intel specifically disclaimed the ZDnet report. Intel’s PR stresses that the Intel Germany CEO mentioned the iPhone of the future as an example of mobile internet devices [MIDs].
My Take:It was mostly the case of an over-enthusiastic journalist picking up phrases out of context to present a sensationalistic news generator. But irrespective of the truth behind this story, Intel and Apple may well come together for a hybrid of the iPhone and the Air. It will be the sort of convergence device that will be a single stop shop for all your mobile communications and computing needs.
After all the frenzy and speculation around Apple’s acquisition of PA Semi, we now hear that Intel after all has a place in the Cupertino-based company’s immediate convergence plans. When Intel and Apple made a big deal about the packaging effort that went into miniaturizing Intel’s Core Duo 2 processor for Air, it sounded as if something ‘more mobile’ was brewing.
Intel’s Atom processor would be the obvious choice to take this relationship further and into the convergence space. Intel has been promoting the Atom processor along with the so-called Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs). The Apple device may be its best MID yet.
We all hope to see the 3G iPhone soon. Also watch out for this convergence device that will follow. It is now a question of when and not if this device will come out.
By the way, what should Apple call this device? iCon? Or is it iCom?
[All thoughts expressed here are those of the author's and do not necessarily reflect those of either Atheros Communications or TensorComm Inc.]
Disclosure: None
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This article has 16 comments:
thanks
First of all, my iPhone would be a lot more fun to use if the screen were twice as big. Ever notice how much easier it is to type quickly and accurately on that touch screen keyboard when the iPhone is turned sideways in landscape mode? The bigger keys help a lot. A bigger screen would also make web browsing even better.
Secondly, I love having wide area web and email access without having to seek out a WiFi hotspot. I'd like to have that on my laptop as well but don't want to pay for two AT&T data plans. They either need to enable the iPhone to serve as a modem for laptop tethering or they need to come out with a convergence device that would enable me to run the software I run on my laptop (especially 4th Dimension in my case).
Third, a battery operated tablet would be very convenient to use in certain situations as when moving from room to room at home or office. My 17" MacBook Pro is hard to use in one of those airline coach seats especially when the passenger in front decides to recline her seat.
I don't care if the convergence device is 2 or 3 times as big as the iPhone. I'll gladly trade size for functionality.
I also enjoy trading Apple options. It's a lot more fun that Quake III Arena and a whole lot more dangerous :-)
Vijay Nagarajan = media Apple pimp
Apple has a good racket. Release existing tech with an Apple logo and be hailed as making a market. Because so many people buy into it, its a self fulfilling prophecy. There are a number of subnotebooks with cellular radios built in already and all of them are more interesting than the Air, but web pundits seem not to care.
There's a ton of $$$$ to be made on being long (long term) with Apple. You ought to take a clear look at what makes this stock tick (assuming you really are an investor).
If you're in it for the $$$$ take good note of Apple's:
- world leading retail, customer support, and brand
- dominance of downloaded music and mp3 players
- exploding uptake of notebooks, desktops, and mobiles
- growing consumer and business movement from WIndows to Mac OSX
- wheezing, near death, Vista
- Google and open source distracting msft from targeting only Apple
- Msft declawed by legal concerns
- iPhone going viral in 53 (and counting) countries w/ 600M subscribers
This list is not exhaustive. Why don't you take another look and consider betting on the long side?
You need to buy a clue. If there is any company that constantly adds something real to existing technology, that knows what people want before they seem to know themselves, it's Apple. The other tech companies are mere posers by comparison.
Apple only went to Intel chips when Intel had finally goosed the ancient 8086 architecture so much that it was outperforming the PowerPC. When Apple used the PowerPC, it was far faster than anything Intel had. Apple does most of it's innovation through sofware, but not all of it.
It was Windows that copied Mac, not the other way around, and everyone knows that. Mac innovations are responsible for at least 80% of the personal computer market. There was no IBM PC before the Apple II was sold--IBM had repeatedly told it's shareholders that is was a bad idea. It took Microsoft 15 years to get a usable COPY of the Mac, while PC users derided the Mac until they got a very bad version of Windows and all of a sudden they seemed to thing GUIs had come of age (thought the early Windows versions were horrible.) Microsoft even used the same keystrokes, menu names, etc. Even to this day, Microsoft continues to copy Apple and they can't even come up with an original NAME for the features they copy--Apple's Aqua interface get's copied by Microsoft and they call it 'Luna'. Apple's OS is announced and called OS X, Windows counters by calling theirs 'XP'. It's just ludicrous.
I remember when the PowerBook 100 and PowerBook 170 notebooks came out a log time ago. They were the first notebooks to have trackballs in FRONT of the keyboard. It looked weird, but within a few years, virtually ALL LAPTOPS had this configuration (except for a few really slacker PC companies. Today, you can't find a notebook that isn't set up this way. Now, this is all 'existing' technology, DUH, but Apple is first for practically everything--they were the first to include wireless networking, the first to include a video camera, too. And they know when it's time to toss out crap like floppy drives (though they were ALSO the first to HAVE 3.5" floppies, decades earlier) parallel connections, etc...
It was Apple that invented Firewire, which is by far still the best peripheral interconnect ever invented. You can even use it as an ultra high speed network for supercomputing. But you can't do that in WIndows. Apple published the Firewire specification, to make it a standard in the industry. Intel countered by copying the basics of the technology, in a MUCH slower product, and ended up bringing their vastly inferior and RIP-OFF product, USB to market. Apple responded by puttting USB in the original iMac before PCs by and large even offered it. None of what is USB would have happened without Apple inventing FIrewire first. (You'd still be using a parallel printer most likely without Apple.)
The iPod was not the first MP3 player, but it was the first one that a non-nerd would actually use. This is because only Apple had the foresight to use the new hardrive format that had been invented about a year earlier. Those had a platen the size of a quarter. I remember when this came out, reading articles about the new sized hard drive. The gist from the MORONS in the PC industry was that 'well, it's small, but the HD is already small enough and this is just small for small's sake and, well, it won't even hold quite as much data. Apple thought of a good use for it though! Don't you wish you did? Or is this the reason you are such a whiner?
iPhone. How is that 'existing technology'? Sure, they are using screens and components that already exist, but they sure as HELL put it together in a far more innovative way than any PC company. And, it's the SOFTWARE that is REALLY innovative. Compare this to a PC 'hardware' company that is really only buying generic motherboards and power supplies, etc... and putting them in an innovatively ugly case. They NEVER write any software, they leave that to Microsoft (who only ever copies Apple's ideas, late, poorly, and incompletely. This is the oldest story in technology.
The best thing, to me, about Apple's stunning roll is that it's driving the Apple haters crazy at the same time that it's making me a fortune in the market. That's a win-win...
P.K de C'Ville is right on the money. The only thing I would add is Job's involvement in everything Apple - from concept
to store shelf. There seems to be a whole lot of envy from those who missed out on making a small fortune. Apple is light years ahead of the competition.
When Jobs shoots, I swallow (and I don't cringe). I think of all the people who thought I was
a little meshuga, as I continued to buy Apple, when many portfolios were down at least 20%. A little smirk appears on my face while
I envision these people getting in
to bed at night with their hard drives. Perhaps a nightly ritual
which includes a beta master, before falling asleep like a baby.
Sweet dreams!
Also "growing consumer and business movement from WIndows to Mac OSX" is FIGMENT of your Apple Kool Aid Fantasy Land imagination! According to Gartner Research the US consumer market has ONLY changed 1% share and Business 0%! Oh the world of Apple Denial.
Ps. The iphone has BOMBED in the EU and especially the UK where Apple claimed it would soar like you have, instead it has been a Cold Soar.
And "Brewer" - WHERE has FireWire gone??? Apple has totally failed with FW800, the once promised FW 1600 and 3200 is NO WHERE IN SIGHT and FW400 has VANISHED off some Apple notebooks!! You are SOooooo full of it! ANOTHER APple Kool Aid Drinker!
BTW! - Did you KNOW that Apple NEVER MANUFACTURED or Engineered a SINGLE PowerBook, iBook or any of the current crop of Buggy notebooks!!??
Sony / IBM of Japan MADE, DESIGNED and ENGINEERED EVERY PowerBook from the VERY BEGINNING, including the 100! (It's documented on the Internet, a little digging will enlighten you) All you have to do is turn over every PowerBook and see "Made In Japan" - Proof!
Of course now, the garabage MacBooks and MacBook Pros are made at the very same Slave Labor Chinese Sweatshops as the Dells .... THAT is just tooooo funny!
While they have raised a few interesting points, they have missed the mark widely.
Sony VAIO TZ is indeed a nice little book, but it has one major failing - it runs Windows Vista, or for those able to reload it, XP (or Linux - which would be a vast improvement over either).
Vista, as is now widely known, is the worst OS that MS (who have always made poor OSs) ever dumped on a heretofore largely helpless public. Now, however, the long-suffering public has had enough of buggy, unstable, and bloated software, and are decamping in droves to Mac and Linux (despite Mr. Webster's figures - which seem to me to fall under the same onus as most statistics used with a bias or agenda, i.e.; "...lies, damned lies, and statistics.").
As a former DOS / Windows user (from DOS 3.0 through XP) who has also run Novell networks, and a former sys admin for both Windows and Mac networks, I think I can state with some authority that Mac is a far superior system in every respect.
Having made the change from Windows completely some years ago, I can heartily echo the statement of an engineer friend who recently made the switch - "I only wish I had done this 20 years ago!" This seems to be the general opinion among those who have made the switch - and it is a growing one, whether the gentlemen above like it or not. In fact, many of the converts now are former Windows die-hard techs. One said of Vista recently; "I waited six years for THIS???" He has since completely converted to Mac.
As for the UK and EU iPhone sales - I don't know which UK he is referring to, but all over the EU (which I recently returned from after a year and a half sojourn) the iPhone was in great demand even before its official release - the only problem they had afterwards has been keeping them on the shelves! Some of my colleagues even flew to NYC to get theirs, and brought back others for friends. (I was asked to send some over on my return, but declined due to the legal issues.)
As for iPod, it continues, with iTunes, to dominate the digital download market, and draw thousands to the Mac platform by their elegance and ease of use.
In addition to the outstanding OS X, Apple has the best customer service, the best design and style, and the all-around fastest and best computers.
Mr. Webster also goes on at great length about Apple's lack of innovation - while in fact, their second machine, the Apple II (1977), has been credited with creating the home computer market. In 1983, the Lisa, the first commercially available computer using GUI was introduced. (Yes, the innovation was based on the original XPARC design, as so many other things we associate with computing today - but Xerox foolishly decided not to develop this technology.)
Mr. Jobs' NeXT computer, running on the Unix kernel that would become OS X, though not strictly speaking an Apple, introduced important concepts and served as the initial platform for Tim Berners-Lee, while he was developing the Web concept. The Apple PowerBook (1991) prototyped the form and layout of the modern laptop. The Newton PDA, though a commercial failure due to some early shortcomings that were widely satirized (most notably in the popular Doonesbury cartoon by Gary Trudeau), was the prototype of the later Palm Pilot and other PDAs. Apple had true "plug and play" years ago - while Windows is still often "plug and pray."
As to the charge of "never manufacturing their own computers" etc., he is also obviously blissfully unaware that all Apple products were made by Apple in the US from the first Apple I (assembled in Apple co-founder Mr. Wozniak's garage) until rising production costs and heavy competition from other firms in the 1990s forced them (as almost everyone else in the industry) to begin off-shoring.
As to labor conditions, companies in almost every field now use off-shore labor, and conditions and pay in every sector are pretty poor compared to the US. (At least until recent times - now we're in a race to the bottom.) However, they are often far better than the usually few alternatives the people in these exploited countries have. For that matter, even the Japanese have been "outsourcing" in recent years, and I wouldn't be surprised to learn Sony is among them.
All this is a factor of investors (perhaps like you, sir?), driving businesses to cut more and more costs so they (and the investor) can make more and more profit - i.e.; the "greed factor" - but as I understand capitalism, that is always what it's been all about. "Greed is good" according to Gordon Gecko and capitalist conservatives, right? So what is an investor doing complaining about exploiting labor? That's what capitalism is all about.
(That said, I, for one, disagree with that philosophy, and use my small investment platform to agitate for improvements in labor and working conditions, pay, and social and environmental responsibility. If the company doesn't respond, I yank my investment and take my business elsewhere. I don't care if my own profits are diminished thereby. Better I make less - or nothing - than that people or the planet should suffer to make me rich. I don't know how effective my campaigning is, but I hope that as others see the light, they will join me in doing the same. Together we can effect change - individually, it is harder.)
As to the exploding and burning batteries - Mr. Webster seems to have forgotten that Dell, Sony, and a number of others had the same problem - because they all used the same suppliers. In fact, in the case of the Osaka, Japan, couple whose Mac burst into flames, the battery had been manufactured by Sony. Apple and Sony promptly recalled all defective batteries, and paid all damages. (One hopes Dell and the others did as well, in the case of their batteries.) The story is here:
news.softpedia.com/new...
However, I suspect that Mr. Webster (and perhaps Mr. mlambert890), whatever the source of their dislike of Apple are unlikely to be convinced by anything that disagrees with their pre-ordained world-view. In fact, Mr. Webster's antipathy seems to border on some sort of serious disorder. Perhaps he should seek some form of counseling. It would appear he has been the one to "drink the Kool Aid," rather than those of us who can clearly see a better system and investment.
I suggest that they just continue to suffer along with their Windows machines, if they so choose, and any MS investments they might have - and watch as Apple once again sets the standards as the herd tries vainly to catch up. Though they might sway a small percentage of the people who have never used Mac, they will certainly never convert a Mac user to Windows - at least not one who has seriously used both platforms.