Apple Hints at a 'Product Transition' and a New Product Soon?

[pimentoLoaf]

Finally!

A translucent Bondi-blue and white plastic toaster that does bagels with USB (at a price no one can match).

 

[rotorblade69]

Sounds like a notebook line shake up. Even a desktop shake up. Maybe just maybe a ipod shake up is in the mix.

 

[iMacmatician]

Wonder if Snow Leopard will be out around macworld instead of "in about a year".... Doubt it, they need something for the Dev conference....

Snow Leopard is likely to be previewed at MWSF, but not released.

Apple can fill WWDC with more iPhone stuff. (Plus mini-tablet development, if it is released.)

Please let it be a new mini and a sub-$1000 laptop that is worth something... I have the need for a mini (wife needs a new desktop, but has no need for the power of an imac (web, chat rooms, email, iwork, and a coupld of small bible programs), and I know 3 people who want a macbook, but are a little strapped for cash right now.....

Would those needs be fulfilled by a mini-tablet with iLife and iWork?

 

[macerroneous]

How bout this

Apple will never ditch the combo drive. They need a crippling device for the marketing department. I am surprised they went to USB 2.

All the people posting about internal optical drives are wrong. Optical drives will be network access only and file sharing will be by over the air networks.

Rocketman

You have my concurrence. All our devices will have no optical drives and will be accessing local networks wirelessly.

Therefore, what we need is a beefed up time capsule to act as the server. It's got two hard drives, one is the server, the other is the backup. It's got the optical drive. It might even serve as the docking station for my tablet. It's got to have low margins or no one will buy it.

 

[Wild-Bill]

I'm hoping for two things:

..12 inch Macbook Pro to replace the Powerbook G4.
..MobileMe problems finally fixed.

(But I'm not holding my breath for either to happen)

 

[Tilpots]

It's not a tumor! I mean a tablet. Too niche. Everyone's got a TV. TV for ALL things TV. DVR, TV Tuner, and a DVD or Blu Ray drive. No doubt. None. Not even a little bit.

 

[xenotaku]

The article doesn't give a really good reason why those transitions would impact the financials.

Why would a Macbook or Macbook Pro transition lead to hit on Apples revenue in Q4? A transition like the Intel transition or from MacOS 9 to MacOS X - there I can understand a hit.

Maybe they assume the new products are not appealing enough for the customers in the beginning, because they are too strange ? Like a Touch Mac ?

I assume they are alluding to the fact that they are going to blow us out of the water not by the product alone, but the price of it too. It possibly will be amazing tech at an amazing price. They might be positioning themselves to have a huge release, at a less than normal price, taking a hit financially, but furthering the Apple brand. This strategy is much like how the videogame business works, sell hardware at a loss or small profit at first, take a hit, and then recoup later through software sales/royalties/brand loyalty....

just my 2cents

 

[Tallest Skil]

I assume they are alluding to the fact that they are going to blow us out of the water not by the product alone, but the price of it too.

The beautiful thing is, it just has to be under $1,000 and it'll be so un-Apple that people will be blown out of the water.

The poor Mac Mini, though...

 

[11800506]

I can't wait for the new Macbooks since I know some people interested in buying them.

 

[GregA]

I think he's taken it as a personal challenge to build the coolest small Mac we have ever seen.<snip>
You can count on a miniBook in the very near future.

Possibly, but they'd have to sell SO MANY to get the margin decrease they're forecasting.

Apple TV DVR?? There has already been patent filings for it.

Would love to see it... but if they made $0 on it and sold in iPhone 3G numbers, they still wouldn't get the decrease in gross margin revenue they forecast.

Then again... I might not be thinking big enough. Nah... roughly speaking,if the AppleTV cost $100 more than now for a bigger hard disk and DVR, and Apple ate the cost and dropped today's price by $100 (to $129/$229) and sold a million units in the quarter they would only just decrease their gross margin as they describe.
.. is 1 million AppleTVs doable? starting from scratch? (they sell 10 million ipods in a quarter)

 

[Low]

yes finally! 24" MBP with bluray and pull out ipod touch, $7999! apple you can have all my money!!

 

[NiroNavro]

There is obviously good evidence that the notebooks are going to get refreshed in coming months, plus September has become iPod month by default. And there are speculations of a tablet. But does anyone think that this conference is hinting towards anything in the iMac line? I asked this question earlier but only got one question. Could someone give me a hard theory either way? Could we see prices go down or maybe a refresh? Anyone?

 

[babyj]

The hit on margins that they are talking about means a sh*t load of money, which in turn means something major. With the talk about price points as well it gives the impression of subsidising the price initially to boost volume to get manufacturing prices down or to generate other revenue streams.

Can any clever people figure out the kind of money they're talking about for a 5% or so drop in margins?

Personally, I'm hoping for a 12" tablet like the iPhone but without the phone bits. The uses for a thin and light touch screen like that are endless, especially if you add on a dock so it can sit upright like a laptop display.

Real strange for them to start talking about it in advance, especially with the suggestions of the massive financial hit they'll be taking on it.

 

[Apple Ink]

Tablet... please Apple... Tablet!

Its very convenient to "write" and take notes! (Im rather clumsy with keyboards)

 

[sleepingworker]

At least make the MacBook Pro look similar to this (thread: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/523933/):

Why? Do you still want the MBP to have the old latch as opposed to the magnetic latch that the MBA has? And the same pizza box shape that the PB/MBP has been sporting for most of this decade?

It's fun to play with photoshop but that's not the same as doing a redesign. Try a CAD program and really go for it if you have the time.

 

[occamrazor]

No Tablet - micro PC

Apple product that reduces margins -- It is probably associated with the new lower power chips that Intel is about to produce to compete in the micro computer area (see: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/21/technology/21pc.html?_r=1&ref=technology&oref=slogin) . Apple has a bit more advanatage in this area than Linux, in that they can port/include their low level apps to such a machine. They can also combine it with "me.com"--a very broad branding name that I was suspicious of--to include WebAps and subscription services. Or allow the ability to broadcast an ap from a main server (think schools--i.e. broad mindshare) to the little computers. Dr. MacRumors, surely you know how contaminated fingers can get--are you really looking forward to smudging a screen and cleaning a screen on a daily basis? Please!!

 

[Eric S.]

As I said yesterday, I think we've seen the new Macbook cases..

Upgrade to Montevina, drop the optical drive and make the case aluminum (all of which, many people see happening soon)

Want to see a pic? http://www.apple.com/macbookair/

And as I replied yesterday, there's no way that will happen. Either way you look at it, Apple would be dropping one of its two biggest selling computer products. And they're not going to try to sell an entry-level laptop without an optical drive. The MB and the MBA target different markets - the MB is the entry-level user, and the MBA is a power user with a more powerful primary system.

Edit:
And by the way, what you said about Montevina allowing a reduction in chip architecture - that is true of the Small Form Factor (SFF) which has not been released yet and is forecast for next month, probably too late for the MB refresh.

Wonder if Snow Leopard will be out around macworld instead of "in about a year".... Doubt it, they need something for the Dev conference....

No, it will be out around the same time as a high-end quad-core iMac - the middle of next year.

 

[DeeGee48]

THE iPod tablet!

Would love to see this....has to be able to run TextEdit and maybe an iPhoto Jr. (with added camera?) Otherwise, same features as iPod touch, App Store, etc. Form factor: 3X the size of the iPhone 3G, 7.2 x 4.5 inches. Really dreaming: flip up cover for (color) touchscreen would contain a B&W eInk screen! Could be used to download books, magazines, etc, a la Kindle with bottom touchscreen showing the cover, inside color pages, etc. AND could be used for composing with TextEdit, with virtual keyboard on the touchscreen! Even if Steve doesn't think anybody reads anymore--they DO--this would be VERY cool.

I know this is a lot, and certainly will never happen, but that's my wish anyway!!

 

[dsachdev]

Timing for new MacBook Pros

This is probably one of the best indications we have seen - together with the information about availability from Best Buy:


"One possible clue: Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook acknowledged Apple has only has three to four weeks' inventory of Macintosh computers ready to sell--a supply that's shy of Apple's target of four to five weeks."

 

[Lyra]

Well, here's what I imagine they'd release.

• New Apple Monitors with built in iSight and Blu-Ray compatibility (FINALLY)
• New MacMini (maybe new design?)
• MacBook Pro new design but not a big deal
• New APPLE product (something fancy? Probably not, we can wish for a new breed thought)
• Hopefully a price cut or adjustments on their iPods
• New Software
•*MacTablet would be a wish come true but probably won't happen
• MacDrive (superdrive available for ALL macs now)
• Upgrades for the MacBooks?

God... does anyone here remember the StyleWriter II? :/

I'm having flashbacks.

Does anyone know why Apple doesn't cash in on their brand? I mean I remember having (still do) some of those Think Different Posters. If they started selling some pins, caps, books etc. I think they'd sell a bundle. Or do they just want their Apple logo on their hardware?

 

[Shot22]

This is probably one of the best indications we have seen - together with the information about availability from Best Buy:


"One possible clue: Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook acknowledged Apple has only has three to four weeks' inventory of Macintosh computers ready to sell--a supply that's shy of Apple's target of four to five weeks."

Where was this stated?

 

[GregA]

Can any clever people figure out the kind of money they're talking about for a 5% or so drop in margins?

I loosely said
* $1.07billion profit in the quarter
* which is equivalent to a 35% gross margin on Apple products
Thus 5% decrease is equivalent to $150million decrease in a quarter.

But that's pretty loose. If they forecast increased sales in conjunction with reduced margins the calculations change. etc

 

[David G.]

"product transition" ???

I say... come on Powerbook G6 multi-core!!

for better protection against intel-based virusses/trojans...

But... but there hasn't even been a 3GHz PowerMac G5 yet.

 

[na1577]

Here are my predictions for the upcoming updates/new products:

iPods (September):
iPod classic: Nothing major, if anything at all. If they make any changes, I have no idea what they could be.
iPod shuffle:
- Screen. Apple could just make it taller to accommodate a screen. Just double the height of the current shuffle, keep the same thickness and width.
- No click wheel. A click wheel would probably make it thicker, and break your thumb. Keep the current controls -- use the volume control to scroll up and down menus, use the play button to select.
- Hold switch on top, just like older iPods. Earphone port on the bottom.
- Various colors, same configurations and pricing.
iPod nano:
- Touchscreen? If so, 3 inches rather than 3.5 like iPhone and the iPod touch.
- Simplified version of iPhone OS. No 3rd-party application support.
- Normal iPod functions. Music/Videos/Photos/Contacts/Calendar. I think a modified Music Store could work, and maybe Weather/Stocks.
iPod touch:
- Side volume controls. Many touch users (including myself) have been annoyed by the fact that it's difficult, if not almost impossible to control the volume in your pocket. The iPhone already has it, and there is no reason why the iPod touch could not, nor would it sway people to buy the touch instead of the iPhone.
- Speakers (no mic). Another complaint. Not really necessary, but it would be nice to show a video to a friend without having to take out your earphones as well. (I usually use the iPod by itself without taking out my earphones unless I am using something that would require it)

--
MacWorld (January 09)

I don't really know any truly new products that could be announced, but one thing I highly doubt, is a tablet. Part of it is the reason that SJ himself said. There is no market for it. I would never ever buy a tablet. Why? Touch is a great method on handheld devices, which is one of the reasons why the iPhone has been so successful. A multitouch track-pad is more of a novelty on the MacBook Air and Pro than being a good input method. I certainly wouldn't want to try to do normal tasks on a computer with touch. With the Microsoft Surface, everything is made specifically for use with touch. The on-screen keyboard on the iPhone OS is very inaccurate compared to plastic keyboards on other phones (in my experience), and I wouldn't want to have to use something similar in Mac OS X.

While it would be great for certain things like photo editing, basic tasks would be inconvenient.

On the notebook side, I think a low-end, entry level Mac could be possible. Not an Eee competitor -- more like a mobile Mac Mini, with a 12.1" screen. For pricing, $599-799, would keep it from migrating MacBook customers, as well as iPhone OS-based devices.

 

[pimentoLoaf]

I'm hoping for two things:

..12 inch Macbook Pro to replace the Powerbook G4.
..MobileMe problems finally fixed.

(But I'm not holding my breath for either to happen)

I'd love a 12" system too. Had a couple of old iBooks in that size.