Friday, September 7, 2012

Apple's New Announcements - and what do they mean to you?

This coming Wednesday, Apple will have new product announcements.  Since Apple is the biggest company in the world (by market cap), and they own both the mobile phone and tablet markets, (oh yeah, and they are making huge inroads to the PC market), there is much speculation.  I have been eagerly reading the blogs (on my iPhone of course), and navigating the rumors.  My big question - what does it all mean to you?  If these rumors are true, what do they really mean?  Here's a roundup of the rumors so far, and my reaction.

iPhone 5

According to many (AllThingsD, MacRumors), these features are likely:
  • Longer screen, but not wider - BOO!  This I have to say is my first disappointment, why didn't they do something like the Galaxy S3 and give us a much bigger screen, not just 16:9?
  • Smaller dock cord - OK
  • Move headphone jack to bottom - OK
  • Faster processor - Sounds great
  • LTE antenna (and 2 antennae, one at top and one at bottom for better reception) - this sounds great, but those of us stuck with AT&T can't take advantage of it.  Our iPhones already say 4G because AT&T's service is non-LTE 4G - much slower than LTE, but not available in a lot of areas.
  • So far, it seems that the 5 is really not very exciting, unless Apple has kept some deep dark secrets.  We shall see.

iPad Mini

  • Smaller than iPad
  • Cheaper than iPad
  • GREAT - should compete with the low-end, probably wipe out all the competition; however, 2 years ago I made a suggestion via their web site: they should come out with an inexpensive full-size iPad shell, that you can plug your phone in, and get the bigger screen.  It could sell for $149 or $199, you get a full size iPad, no additional 3G plan.  Still no word on that.

AppleTV

  • Rumors that since the new 1080p model came out, they won't be announcing another one.  Did you hear, Apple TV sales outpaced XBox? They don't need to.  Roku who?
  • So far, my Apple TV rocks - and it is way beyond my expectations.  Hulu showed up last month, and iTunes Festival last week.  Keep it coming!

Apple TV

  • There were also some rumors floating around that Apple may come out with a new TV set.  What would they call it?  Confusing.  Anyhow, they seem to be debunked - really, what would Apple do above and beyond the others?  Vizio is great.
  • There are also some scuttle about Apple negotiating content and for a streaming service with the cable companies.  Might be interesting.

No comments:

Post a Comment