You'll notice that the ongoing speculation about the "inevitable" arrival of an Apple "smart" TV is beginning to die down somewhat. While so-called industry analysts were jumping all over themselves claiming you'll see such a beast by fall, now there are stories that this new gadget won't arrive until next year, and maybe not until the year after.

At the same time, the rumor sites have been busy suggesting that Apple has been sampling parts for the new product, maybe not always aware of the fact that Apple may sample components for all sorts of gear, but only green lights a very few. Most never leave the prototype stage.

Now I can personally attest to the fact that some Apple products never seeing the light of day. Back in the 1990s, before my media credentials caused me to be tossed out of the group, I was a part of an Apple program called "Customer Quality Feedback" or "CQF," where prerelease Apple products, both OS and hardware, were given out to some customers, under appropriate NDAs, for their feedback.

Continue Reading...

There are published reports this week that claim that Samsung sold more smartphones than Apple in the last quarter, reclaiming a number one position. Good news for Samsung; that is, if the news can be believed. You see it's not based on any actual sales information from Samsung. According to one of those reports, "Since Samsung doesn’t report unit numbers, IDC and its competitors have to estimate how many devices the company sells."

But those estimates aren't even consistent. IDC estimated 42.2 million smartphone shipments for Samsung, compared to Apple's 35.1 million number. Yet another firm, Strategy Analytics, pegged Samsung's smartphone shipments at 44.5 million units, but IHS iSuppli said it was "only" 32 million. That figure, if true, would leave Apple in the lead, a position they earned in the previous quarter.

Continue Reading...

It's inevitable. Steve Jobs' footprint on Apple was so large, so all-encompassing, that it's hard to look at the company he co-founded without feeling his presence. Certainly Apple's situation before Jobs returned for his second coming is a key reason why. In the early-to-mid-1990s, Apple went through several incompetent CEOs, the strategy was failing, and they were burning money real fast. It was easy to accept the threat of their imminent departure as real, which is why the word "beleaguered" was often uttered in the same sentence as Apple.

When it came to a corporate presentation, whether a Macworld Expo keynote or separate media event, Jobs ran the show, although other Apple executives and representatives from other companies did make brief appearances. Only in his final years did his coworkers get extra time on stage, and maybe that was largely because Jobs wanted you to know that he wasn't the only person responsible for the company's success.

Continue Reading...

If you can believe some of the published reports, Apple is on the verge of releasing a smaller version of the iPad, supposedly to cater to a different user base, or at least address the needs of customers who can't afford $399 for the iPad 2, or a starting price of $499 for the third-generation model. But is that a real possibility?

According to some published rumors, Apple has been sampling displays for smaller iPads for quite a while now, so it's only inevitable that one of these products goes into production. Or at least that's the theory.

Continue Reading...