Telstra has revealed the addition of almost one million new mobile services in the six months to December 2011, but Sensis revenues plummeted 24 percent in 12 months.
Yet more rumours abound about
an upcoming Apple netbook, this time spurred on by reports in the
Chinese language press out of Taiwan. Is it possible that Apple has
caved to market demand despite its stated opposition to releasing a
cheap netbook product?
The stories circulating concern a passed on
report from Digitimes about a Chinese language article in the Taiwanese
daily Commercial Times, which mention two companies who are supplying
parts for the new Apple product.
The two companies named are Qanta, which was a supplier for the iPhone,
and Wintek, which is supposed to be supplying the touch screens that
will supposedly be shipped in the third quarter.
The issues here are form factor and price.
Steve Jobs has made no bones about the fact that Apple is not
interested in making a cheap netbook for the market. In fact he claims
that Apple does not know how to make a US$500 piece of junk.
However, Apple certainly does know how to make a $500 iPhone, which
some have described as a computer in the form factor of a phone.
There have also been rumours about Apple releasing a touchscreen MacBook minus a keyboard.
Can we infer from this that Apple has plans to bring to the market
a keyboardless touch screen device with a netbook sized screen with
many of the features of the iPhone plus more that could be made
available on a bigger but still portable device?
It's hard to imagine - especially give Steve Jobs' statements - that
Apple will come out with a netbook that directly competes with the
offerings of Asus, Acer and others.
If Apple has got a new type of portable computer up its sleeve, it's
going to be different and an attempt at supply something revolutionary
to this space. It probably won't have a keyboard.
Those looking for a US$500 computer, however, are bound to be
disappointed. My bet is that it will come in somewhere under US$1000. How much under $1000 will depend on how much it costs to make a quality product, something Apple will never compromise on.
David Bass
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