What is Apple planning for its January 'announcement'?
Summary: Apple is thought to have something up its sleeves for a late-January announcement. Thought to be 'media related', could Apple be trying to mitigate its European antitrust headache?
According to reports, Apple is planning an "important, but not large-scale" event in New York at the end of this month. The event will focus on a "media-related announcement".
AllThingsD, after speaking to its sources, underscored that it was not an iPad 3 announcement, thought to be expected within the first half of this year. Also thought to be ruled out is the interactive television -- dubbed iTV -- which will most likely be held in the heart of Hollywood.
But what, exactly?
January is an odd time to announce something for most companies. For Apple, it sees the post-Christmas doom and gloom as a perfect chance to bring hope, wonder and merriment to the masses.
Apple has taken the January to take advantage of showing what it has to offer at the once-held MacWorld expo. The iPhone was the first major January announcement to come, and then the iPad in 2010. The Mac App Store was opened this time last year -- almost to the week -- adding to further expectations that something new and shiny will come our way in this month of darkness.
In fitting with hardware, it would make historical sense to announce the iPad 3 or the iPhone 5. But Apple probably won't. It's too soon after the Christmas sales to bring something out, just after the company made millions from what was still not a bad fourth-quarter.
Apple's iTV is still thought in the works, and while an official announcement would be nice, unless a significant milestone has been reached, it remains unlikely.
AllThingsD did point to something regarding advertising or publishing.
Apple Internet services vice-president Eddy Cue is thought to be somehow involved, the man on stage for the launch of iPad-dedicated Murdoch-owned newspaper The Daily. With this, Apple's flailing iAd advertisement program could be on the cards, some suspect.
But what springs to mind -- considering it has only been a month since European regulators begun a formal antitrust investigation into Apple and other e-book publishers for alleged "anti-competitive practices" -- is an update to iBooks or Newsstand. Or, at very least, how Apple is mitigating the circumstances of it's European 'cartel' accusations.
Apple could of course throw a wildcard out and announce something iTunes related. Though, considering the recent launch of iTunes Match internationally, and such close proximity still to 'iTunes in the Cloud', it does not seem to fit.
Image source: Flickr.
Related:
- Europe begins antitrust case against Apple, e-book publishers
- Apple releases iTunes Match to UK, Europe users
- Apple’s 2011 roadmap: iPhone, iPad, iPod and Macs getting upgrades
- Apple iPad tablet: Specs, features, price announced
- Apple’s Mac App Store arrives and the world doesn’t end
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Talkback
Is there any indication Apple lost its iPad monopoly over Christmas?
Microsoft says tablets are PCs
Care to guess again on what MS's monopoly was?
Hint: MS was never, even once, found to have a PC monopoly. While you always come off as sounding extremely uneducated, let's see if you are smart enough to name the market that MS was found to have a monopoly in and then tell us if the iPad is in that market.
RE: What is Apple planning for its January 'announcement'?
RE: What is Apple planning for its January 'announcement'?
and to make you look even worse
"because ARM based tablets or laptops or desktops didn't exist back then"
But PPC based PCs did exist back then (Macs used PPC chips) and the judge specifically stated that they did not count and that MS's monopoly was only in the OS for sale to x86 PC OEMs market. So no, ARM based tablets or laptops or desktops do not count today since they would not have counted back then. The judge explicitly stated it.
So you fail again. Miserably.
Miserable?
And you have failed in your revisionism in a more epic manner than Microsoft's lawyers did originally when they got themselves stuck with a ruling that they had done the dirty deed of illegally leveraging their monopoly position.
Or maybe not, to be so out of touch with reality is apparently a cause for much joy and happiness, along with perhaps the special care that goes with a sweater with wrap-around sleeves.
RE: What is Apple planning for its January 'announcement'?
No, your statistics are totally wrong
"Microsoft's share of the worldwide PC market was 90%."
Microsoft's share of the worldwide PC market has always been 0%.
Apple's share of the worldwide tablet market is 95%.
Microsoft doesn't make PCs, so how can they have 90% of the market?
Microsoft was slapped on the wrist by the government for leveraging the popularity of their operating system in deals they made with PC manufacturers. They were requiring that manufacturers buy copies of Windows based on how many PCs they sold, not how many people actually chose Windows. That's what got them in trouble. The deals are obviously structured differently now. In reality, it didn't substantially change how many copies of Windows were sold, since virtually all customers requested Windows on their PCs. It was the principle of forcing the companies to buy a copy for every PC sold which got them in trouble.
RE: What is Apple planning for its January 'announcement'?
RE: What is Apple planning for its January 'announcement'?
That said, I think it's far more likely that iPad sales to consumers pummeled Android tablet sales into oblivion over the holidays. I know of two consumers who gave away their Android tablets and bought iPad 2s over the holidays. Any time I was in Best Buy, the Android tablet display was a ghost town while numerous people were clustered around the iPads. I just don't see Android tablets surviving much longer once Win8 tablets hit the market late this year. At that point, I think anyone who doesn't want an iOS device is far more likely to grab Win8 than Android.
RE: What is Apple planning for its January 'announcement'?
What ever it is they plan to announce .....
The usual red-herring involving Microsoft whenever Apple is seen
Source Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear,_uncertainty_and_doubt#Apple
[quote]Fear, uncertainty and doubt, frequently abbreviated as FUD, is a tactic used in sales, marketing, public relations,[1][2] politics and propaganda.
FUD is generally a strategic attempt to influence perception by disseminating negative and dubious or false information. An individual firm, for example, might use FUD to invite unfavorable opinions and speculation about a competitor's product; to increase the general estimation of switching costs among current customers; or to maintain leverage over a current business partner who could potentially become a rival.
The term originated to describe disinformation tactics in the computer hardware industry but has since been used more broadly.[3] FUD is a manifestation of the appeal to fear.
Apple's claim that iPhone jailbreaking could potentially allow hackers to crash cell phone towers was described by von Lohmann, a representative of the EFF as a "...kind of theoretical threat...??? that ???...is more FUD than truth.???.[16][/quote]
The pertinent topic in this thread was Apple, and their possible damage control for being officially under investigation by authorities for anti-competitive behaviour, collusion and price fixing which are illegal activities in most jurisdictions.
Source Google: [b]Apple official investigation DOJ EU[/b] About 2,380,000 results (0.24 seconds)
Apparently ZDNet missed to [s]report[/s] include the fact the US DOJ in addition the EU are also investigating Apple for anti-competitive behaviour in parallel and cooperation.
Had this red-herring about Microsoft not happened, I would have remained silent on this issue.
[i]~~~~~~~~~~
Courage is of no value unless accompanied by justice; yet if all men became just, there would be no need for courage.
~ Agesilaus the Second, 444 BC-360 BC
Why would I waste precious time or words on someone that doesn't intend to anything with either of them?"
~ Howard McClure
Men often applaud an imitation and hiss the real thing.
~ Aesop[/i]
RE: What is Apple planning for its January 'announcement'?
RE: What is Apple planning for its January 'announcement'?
About time. I have been saying here for a long time how evil apple is in the way they do things. Over time I have tried to make key points on here but never all in the same posting at once.
I work in the IT industry and I also work a little in the music industry. The one thing I can positively say about apple, when came to audio production, you had to have one. Not any more.
Ever since apple started producing macs on Intel hardware, the only real difference between the two OS's was the software and EFI. But wait, all new PC's, Intel AND AMD are now made with UEFI essentially eliminating the hardware difference between the two.
Before that why not look at what has transpired in the mean time.. a company starts putting out hackintosh's for sale and was promptly sued out of business, why? Because they also make RebelEFI which allowed your retail OSX disc to install on your INTEL PC. So what makes the two different? EFI.
I had a hunch one day about my buddies 24" all in one Intel Mac. He needed ram. I looked up an 4 gig pack for that Mac and see that it is DDR2 800 ram. I see the prices of Apple and PC 4 gig packs. Wow.. $100 or more less for the PC ram.. Being a laptop tech I had some ddr2 800 laying around that I tried in his mac and low and hehold... it just just friggin fine. No errors, no problems, no crashes.. Hmm.. Something fishy here..
Apple's standpoint is we can run your stuff better than you can but you cant run ours. This begins to make one scratch their head and dig deeper. Wait, aren't you running OUR hardware? So what is a 20+ Mac now a days... an unreleased intel z6x chipset motherboard with efi. Has sata connections just like any PC hard drive. And guess what? a Toshiba Sata II hd.. JFS+ formatted that I can read on a live copy of FREE linux.
Today, go look for an intel based pc motherboard. The two biggest chipsets you see for sale are the z67 and z68 efi motherboards for our intel i3,i5,i7 processors. That are also for sale in Macs today.. and core 2 Duo's from previous years.. Now apple is in talks with AMD to build machines with..
Okay now wait a moment here? Why are consumers paying triple the cost for the same thing they buy if it didn't come from apple? Soon your mac will run on Intel or AMD just like our pc's have for years, using our hard drives, our ram since core 2 duo's. Yet you tote we can't run your stuff. Are you not running our's? So where is the difference.
Apple.
We now have physically the same hardware through out, AMD's talks really will trully eliminate the difference since essentially all new PC's motherboards no matter who's will have uefi or the same thing as apple's efi.
Now lets look at iDevices. Don't get me wrong. As a Anti-apple guy. The phones are nice. As a Tech. The Pads are cool but the ui design for everything just feels clunky to me. Not really meant to be run on that large of a display. I admit, Apple was first here. Great design, runs nice. Simple for everyone and just a good product. But the way they handle doing other things with it say maybe a ui customization or adding some functionality you cant get from the app store and you violate your warranty or you TOS with itunes/apple whoever. Wait, didn't I just pay like $500 for this thing? Don't I own it?
In comes android after say, 5 years now of IOS and iphones, and antenna problems and and now battery problems and are they still charging for IOS updates?
As a user and person that will jailbreak my idevice, I discovered wifi-sync, I got it from the app store when it first came out. It was immediately yanked and the developer had to move to cydia.
Android has a useful pulldown notification bar. Has been a part of android for years. Oh wait a moment. Apple puts out IOS 5, never before seen wifi sync?!? and pulldown status bar??
So did apple pay the kid for stealing his idea and app and why is apple suing for IP theft. Did they not just do it to 2 people now. A kid and and company?
Apple spends less than 2% of their total revenue on R&D. Okay you have two hot items but competition is heating up. Make new idea's not throw a fit that you don't have the only item on the market after you just blatantly stole things and put them in your newest products.
I Have run both smart platforms now. Android and IOS. I fix both types of devices for a few years now.
RE: What is Apple planning for its January 'announcement'?
and I won't mention anything about the fake police that searched that persons house over a lost prototype. Why did it even leave the facility in the first place?
RE: What is Apple planning for its January 'announcement'?
What is exactly your point? Don't like Apple products, don't buy them!
Feel Apple branded RAM is overpriced.. I can understand that, if all RAM you buy is 'third party' and all PCs you use are assembled by yourself. But if you look at any other 'brand' (that is, those that sell PCs, different from Apple) you will discover that their 'branded RAM' is not priced much differently etc.
Apple are free to chose whatever design they find fit for their products and we as users are free to chose to buy an Apple product or not. It is not as if you don't have choice.
If enough users abandon Apple, they will die out, no?
RE: What is Apple planning for its January 'announcement'?
No, actually. You do not "own it," even if you paid like $500 for it. You own a license to run the software. Not a license to modify the software to your liking. Having said that, you own a device that by your own admission has a great design, runs nice and is simple for everyone. You pays your money and you makes your choices.
I'm really curious to know which "pad" device you see as heating up the competition. It looks to me like all the other pads put together equal about 1/10 of iPad sales.