Macworld speculations: I suck, pretty much

Apple technology

Looks like I better now quiet my day job. Wait, my day job is about the future! Sigh.

Let’s see how I did:

New Laptops: Third Generation for what is called the “ProLine” now. First was Titanium, second Aluminum (that stuff that bends when you look at it, keeps AppleCare so profitable). Now there will be a third one. It’s about time. The 12″ not making into into the brave new Intel feature left a gap in the revenue potential field for a suspicously long time. Not sure if the 17″ has such a bright future. Depends what how easy it is to squeeze out a new flavor of laptop.

It’s small, but it’s not part of the pro line. It’s a new line. I give myself 30% on that one.


There will be Blu-Ray. One could speculate that the MacPro bumps last week were announced after Warners killed HD-DVD. In other words: takes Blu-Ray now more Steve time, and the Pro upgrades fell of the key-note schedule because of that?

Not. 0%. Stupid me.


Those new laptops might have built in high speed internet connection. I would appreciate EVDO. It’s nice. And the Amazon showed that you can built it in, and that Sprint is willing to make deals. Imagine you buy a new laptop and get free non bullshit (t-online / starbucks I am looking at you) internet whereever you are. I use EVDO since roughly a year and it’s just great. Nothing short of that. Technically you get GPS with EVDO for free, I wish that Apples puts GPS where it should be: in every freaking machine. Yes, I like to Google for something and get results that are optimised for my current whereabouts. But GPS would put the iPhone on the spot for not having it. Something to spin. (Apple likes has a pathological history of lying around battery life).

0%, again. I sense a pattern.


One could dream that Apple becomes an ISP. The iPhone worked great for them. But AT&T? They get their money, but nobody started to like AT&T. They are still considered the necessary evil. Who loves his ISP? Which ISP is known for being awesome? Nobody. Interesting. There is a market. People are not paying their landline or even cable bills anymore, but they keep their cellphones going, and probably also their Internet connections. That’s money that still is out there. And Apple is known to show a strong desire for that kind of thing. Sucessfully.

Zilch. Still would have been nice.


Speaking of Money, AAPL trades at 176. I think it will touch 190 after the keynote.

It’s at 169 right now. That makes -100%.


One of the reasons will be that there will be something that let’s people imagine that profits that used be over at Blockbuster Netflix will now also flow to Cupertino. iTunes is a money making machine.

In german you say “Auch ein blindes Huhn findet mal ein Korn”, probably would translate into the direction of “Eventually even the blind chicken finds some grain”. 100%


The Laptop prices will look like the current ones. But by the time you have added the things you would like to have those new machines will be pretty expensive. I think a company that managed to get 1,000 US$ for each phone (!) they sell, is looking at money differently after that.

Yeah, greed, so easy to predict! The new 13inch laptop goes for 3,000 US$ when you put in the nice 64GB drive without any moving parts. And boy will they sell that machine to people! 100%.


Finally there will be some iPhone news that will keep the sales going. Probably some (3rd party) Application(s) that can be downloaded. I doubt a hardware version 2 of the device. If so, then it would need to be in stores in a very few weeks, so that there would be no gap in the sales.

Hm, 30% again. 1.1.3 works nicely. Has location built in (does not work in Europe where I am right now).

Looks like my hit rate (if you can call it that at that rate) is one out of five. Still trying to find an excuse to get the 3K air. I am sure it is awesome.
And then my EVDO modem would hang out of it to the side. What a sight!