There's no chance that Apple will re-enter the PDA market. Jobs personally killed the Newton, and saved Apple a fortune by doing do - look at the difficulties Handspring and Palm have encountered. Psion has even pulled out of the PDA market altogether. Face facts - the Newton is dead.
Besides, the Newton OS is long in the tooth, and I don't believe Apple would have been willing to distract the OS X team from their crucial work to fiddle arround with a handheld version - also, a project on this scale would have been impossible to keep a secret.
An MP3 player also seems unlikely. It's hard to see how an Apple branded MP3 player would offer more value than devices currently available, and would only serve to discourage 3rd party manufacturers from making their devices Mac compatible.
My bet is on a home entertainment system that plugs in to your TV and HIFI, and networks with your Mac using Airport (the benefit is that your Mac is usually in a different room to your home entertainment system, and Aiport does away with untidy wires between rooms).
The device enables you to browse your MP3 collection using your TV and listen to it on your HIFI. It also lets you watch Quicktime TV channels on your TV, DVDs from your Mac's DVD ROM drive and Home Movies from iMovie. Other applications include presenting photo slide shows on your TV and video telephony.
Up until now, Apple's digital hub strategy has focused on the Mac has the hub for a variety of portable products. This new device will exand the scope of the digital hub strategy to position the Mac as the home hub, acting as a gateway to the Internet for a wide variety of household devices.
That's my bet anyway - for what it's worth. Don't flame me until tomorrow guys ;-)
Besides, the Newton OS is long in the tooth, and I don't believe Apple would have been willing to distract the OS X team from their crucial work to fiddle arround with a handheld version - also, a project on this scale would have been impossible to keep a secret.
An MP3 player also seems unlikely. It's hard to see how an Apple branded MP3 player would offer more value than devices currently available, and would only serve to discourage 3rd party manufacturers from making their devices Mac compatible.
My bet is on a home entertainment system that plugs in to your TV and HIFI, and networks with your Mac using Airport (the benefit is that your Mac is usually in a different room to your home entertainment system, and Aiport does away with untidy wires between rooms).
The device enables you to browse your MP3 collection using your TV and listen to it on your HIFI. It also lets you watch Quicktime TV channels on your TV, DVDs from your Mac's DVD ROM drive and Home Movies from iMovie. Other applications include presenting photo slide shows on your TV and video telephony.
Up until now, Apple's digital hub strategy has focused on the Mac has the hub for a variety of portable products. This new device will exand the scope of the digital hub strategy to position the Mac as the home hub, acting as a gateway to the Internet for a wide variety of household devices.
That's my bet anyway - for what it's worth. Don't flame me until tomorrow guys ;-)
