It must be nice to work for Apple, knowing that the slightest rumour of Steve Jobs breaking wind will generate a billion news articles. Apple have trained the industry well, and now we’re all waiting for their announcement events knowing that that something desirable will be unleashed upon a waiting world. You may not need it, but you’ll want it… which reminds me of one of the best ever news spoofs to hit the Internet, the MacBook Wheel video on The Onion. I guess we’re meant to laugh at the nerdy devotee who says “I’ll buy almost anything shiny as long as it’s shiny and made by Apple”, but the scary thing is that there’s a bit of him in many of us – and that would include me if I could afford to do so.
With this in mind, today the world is waiting for the expected announcement of an Apple tablet. To my knowledge, no-one from Apple has said it will happen, but various bits of information and speculation have been pieced together to the point where we’re all expecting the iSlate / iSlab / iTablet / iWantOne to be announced. The combined world of technology media could end up looking pretty stupid if Apple’s announcements for today consist of a retractable tape measure being added to the iPhone and an LED torch being added to the iPod nano. But assuming the hype is correct, who’s going to buy a first-generation Apple tablet? History shows that early Apple adopters are often rendered green with envy or red with rage when an improved model is released six months later. Given that Apple products aren’t cheap (well, okay iPods are a pretty reasonable price) the initial market for the Apple tablet could be restricted to the stupidly wealthy or the hopelessly devoted.
Hype on Apple
Let’s face it, Jobs can do no wrong in the eyes of the media and as an Apple shareholder, I am loving every minute of it.
Even with the shares currently valued at $206, most of the Wall Street pundits think there is quite a way to go in terms of upside. Wall Street price targets currently range from about $240 all the way up to $300 a share and that is without the iSlate ( or whatever they call it ) in the numbers as there is no price point to base the numbers on yet.
The last quater was huge. The Mac sales are accelerating quicker than ever, they sold 21 million iPods and although the iPhone sales fell a little short, that should all be remedied with the rollout of the iPhone in other countries and opening it up to other carriers here in the US.
The big announcement on the tablet is at 6pm GMT ( 10am in San Francisco )
Can’t wait!!!!
However, assumption being the mother of all cock-ups, what’s gonna happen if all this speculation is wide of the mark and Apple don’t announce anything? Those shares could plummet.
Having said that, so much speculation must be based on some solid facts… right?
This might give you a clue.
A major foot in mouth moment.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The McGraw-Hill Cos. Inc.’s CEO spoke on CNBC Tuesday and appeared to confirm speculation that Apple Inc. will indeed unveil a tablet computer running on iPhone software during a highly anticipated media event Wednesday.
Harold McGraw, the company’s chief executive, was discussing his company earnings on the cable business news channel. When asked about the tablet, McGraw said Apple will “make their announcement tomorrow on this one” and that “the tablet is going to be based on the iPhone operating system.”
McGraw-Hill is a major developer and publisher of educational materials and textbooks, and some of its college texts are already available for reading on Apple’s iPhone. If Apple’s tablet is based on the iPhone system, the investments McGraw-Hill and other publishers have already made in e-books would still be relevant on the new device.
Looks like the partners are already lining up to his the College market.
Just as an aside, it is also thought that Apple will announce an upgrade on the iPhone software and the inclusion of a Flash for the camera.