My Thoughts on Technology and Jamaica: Apple and the Cloud Phone - Cheaper by the Dozen and Up in the Air

Saturday, February 19, 2011

Apple and the Cloud Phone - Cheaper by the Dozen and Up in the Air


It will never rain roses: when we want
To have more roses we must plant more trees.

George Elliot, The Spanish Gypsy

Apple is reportedly planning a major launch of its products next week, according to the article “Apple planning Major Product launch next week”, published February 18, 2011 5:23 pm By Jeff Bertolucci, PCWorld, which will of course be the week starting Sunday February 20th 2011. This purportedly is a refresh of MacBook line, and the apparent reasoning is that a shortfall in stock is prompting enough for such an announcement.

So says their “sources”, who are usually off the mark, considering that no accompanying information as to the issuing of invites was made. You know the drill, people when you see info like this: Caveat Lector

More of this kind of stuff spreading about. You know, news, that that just does not add up. Hence my past few days of reticence in putting pen to paper and posting yet another referenced article.

It’s like, as a blogger, I am stepping through a minefield of “false” articles. If was a more superstitious person, I would wish to declare there was a conspiracy afoot to spread false information and put people in a state of confusion.

Like the story about the purportedly smaller Apple iPhone. Bloomberg are in on this one as stated in the article “Apple is said to work on Cheaper, smaller iPhones”, published February 11, 2011 10:04 AM ET by Peter Burrows and Gregory Bensinger, BloomBerg, (http://www.bloomberg.com).

Ditto the same report by the Wall Street Journal as stated in the article “WSJ: New smaller iPhone real, MobileMe may become free, iTunes music streaming coming soon”, published February 13, 2011 by Andrew Couts, DigitalTrends (http://www.digitaltrends.com)

The New York Times weights in too as stated in the article “Apple is weighting on a cheaper iPhone”, published February 17, 2011 by MIGUEL HELFT and NICK BILTON, The New York Times, but from a different angle, maintaining the size, but finding ways of making the hardware cheaper.

A sound like everyone REALLY wants is for Apple CEO Steve Jobs to cut the cost of the Apple iPhone! You know! So as to introduce this so-called “N97” that is stated to be half the size, still retaining its touch screen.

Purportedly cloud based using thus far unpopular MobileMe Cloud service to store data (stream in the works?). Priced unlocked at a decent US$199?

Journalists, why did you not says so? Time to pull out the sniffer dogs and sniff for clues!!!

So let us Jamaicans apply a bit of logic, after an argument or two. Cutting a smartphone in half is silly and rather unlikely. Developer’s plans would be thrown out of whack, to take on the American penchant for their colourful colloquial English.

Plus it is true that Apple does make smaller or larger versions of its other products from time to time. Notably resplendent examples of which being the Apple iPod and its offspring the Apple iPod Nano and Apple iPod Shuffle!

But these are music players, so it is a relative decision one-two to make, as a different size to play music hurt no Developer and more devices that connected to their million selling ecosystem.

The Apple iPod Touch is the same size as its father but reduced in functionality: no Voice Calling, albeit the latest iteration supports FaceTime Video Calling. It is slimmer and cheaper than the Apple iPhone sans Voice Calling, which the Apple iPhone could not do anyway on Telecom Provider AT&T.

So the journalists are effectively saying that Apple plans to make more Apple iPod Touch? Video Calling? With Cloud based Mobile Me? Because a half of a phone is counter to anecdotally well known demands for more screen real estate by users now spoilt for choice in a smartphone market with the HTC Droid Incredible on Verizon and the first WiMax 4G Mobile (IEEE 802.11n) smartphone, the HTC Evo 4G on Sprint’s Network.

The showstoppers from the famous Summer of 2010 as stated in the article “HTC Evo 4G, Incredible shortages make room for Droid X”, published July 12, 2010 7:44 AM by Jared Newman, PC World (http://www.pcworld.com).

Worse, the Apple iPad should be the real concern concern, now stomping the yard with analysts at IDC stating that 87% of the soul in their market swing towards the oddly named Tablet as stated in the article “IDC: Apple iPad secures 87 percent market”, published January 18, 2011 1:50 PM PST by Don Reisinger, CNET - The Digital Home (http://news.cnet.com). For the sake of argument, the Apple iPad is really a bigger Apple iPhone.

Thus the news that should really be of greatest concern is Apple Inc’s hoarding of components to make more of these devices as stated in the article “Apple securing US$7.8 billion worth of Samsung displays, memory”, published February 14, 2011 10:03 AM PST by Erica Ogg, Circuit Breaker - CNET News (http://news.cnet.com).

A possible response to the smartphones running Google Android OS securing second place in the overall ComScore standings that spells good standing for Jamaicans looking to get their hands on a technology throwaway from the US of A as my blog article entitled “Apple iOS 4 vs Google Android - Blackberry Shot the Sheriff”. Throw in a bit of a push for the London 2012 Olympics and news becomes a bit more sanguine.

Everything else about the Apple iPad thus far is rumor so nicely collected in my blog article entitled “Apple iPad S vs Motorola Xoom - Qualcomm Doubles the Fun”.

So folks, sorry to burst your bubble! The real story should be about the Apple iPad and Apple iPhone components being hoarded for a coming onslaught by Google Android OS as stated on the Geezam Blog entitled “Apple iPhone and Google Android - Helms Deep Under Attack”.

The cheaper Apple iPhone is a myth to create a bit of pre-hype, as naturally, with any new refresh, the Apple iPhones of old become cheaper, Cheaper by the Dozen (1950) Style!

Neither the article by the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times or Bloomberg is correct. And neither is their any new Apple Refresh being planned for next week.

This despite 2010 rumours of Apple iPads being launched in February 2011 as speculated in the article “Report: iPad 2 to ship next February”, published Tuesday December 7, 2010 by Steven Musil, Apple - CNET News (http://www.cnet.com). Everything is still not definitive and is

Just Bet on my prediction, anyone?

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