Last Dec.25, 2009, Apple Inc.'s stock went up 3.4 percent or $6.94 and sold at a record high of $209.04 to bring its market value to $188 billion, closing in on such equally well known companies such as Google ($196 billion) and Wal-Mart ($204 billion). To put it in better perspective, the shares went up a staggering 145% that a share now costs 27 times that of the average forecast for this year. Because of the recent global financial meltdown, you might ask, What?!!! How?!!!! Well it is because it is heavily speculated that Apple will soon be releasing a tablet device which some describe as an "iPhone or iPod touch on steroids," that can function as a mini laptop computer similar to the netbooks of recent vintage (meaning it can do what netbooks do and possibly much more). This "iPad" or "iSlate," as some like to call it, has yet to be confirmed by Apple. This practice of secrecy has benefitted Apple and has buoyed its stock at a time when everything else seems to be in the downturn. By neither confirming nor denying, Apple, in effect advertised by not advertising; it generated such a buzz without so much as saying a word.I have been following news about this much anticipated - and unconfirmed - Mac tablet for about a year now and in recent weeks the speculation has hit fever pitch and with good reason because some reports indicate that it will be unveiled in Jan.26, 2010 for a possible March release while some say it won't be out until May or June. Regardless of when the actual release date is, or whether or not such a product will be released at all, the hype generated by it has been nothing short of amazing. Just type in "mac tablet" or "apple tablet" on google images and you'll see countless versions of this device. Several artists and self-proclaimed "insiders" have come out with their own renditions or versions of what it might look like but if we take recent history as basis, there is a very big chance that the thing will look nothing like we've seen or imagined but as we've come to know of Apple's products, it wouldn't be unreasonable to expect it to be revolutionary much like the iPod was when it first came out.
3 comments:
i also heard about this rumor. well, the edge of apple is really hyping their products and packaging it really well even though it's not as impressive as we think it is. for example, the only difference of itouch/iphone to its counterparts is the multitouch screen function that enables us to easily zoom in and out of the screen by sliding the two fingers. and most of its apple applications are really mindless works of people who want to make a dollar per download (my sister has this glowstick app in her iphone - useless).
well, for mac users, i hope steve jobs lives long enough (diba, he had cancer) and make more cool stuff for us to enjoy. next thing you know apple will release its own game console. haha.
yes the genius with apple is in the aesthetics (i think) and everything seems to just flow from there.
apple has a way of making ordinary things look good. when everyone was making black earphones they make white ones and then all of a sudden, people wanted to buy white ones. same goes with the laptops and the iPods. everyone made black so they made white.
also, the beauty isn't sacrificed in favor of simplicity. in fact, the beauty is in the simplicity i think. they take a portable mp3 player and add/remove a few buttons and color it white and then voila, the iPod was born which, as you and i know, started a digital media revolution.
how they can completely repackage an existing device (like a seemingly ordinary portable mp3 player into an iPod) and sell it at a significantly higher price and yet have people still wanting to buy it and/or create imitations of it is a testament to its status as a leading tech company.
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