Apple ramblings ..

A good friend mailed me asking my opinion on some iPod mockups that have been floating around the web .. and the reply turned out to be long enough that I thought I’d share So here be ..

I strongly doubt it’s planted by apple .. they consistantly have a tactic of keeping as quiet as possible about things until the last moment, which drives their followers to create more grassroots buzz and speculation than any PR department could manage alone.

It’s just a mockup based on some recenent patent filings made by apple .. but I’m not convinced of it’s accuracy.

So here’s a handful of what I do think
Apple have announced a “special event” on February 22nd, but it’s not expected to be anything major. Most eyes lay towards the beginning of April, when Apple celebrate their 30th birthday.

January 5th, Apple trademarked the term ‘Mobile Me’ in relation to both devices and services, and filed to become a “MVNO” .. mobile virtual network operator. Basically a cellular provider that lives on someone else’s network.

The chips that power the iPod are made by a company called PortalPlayer. PP’s press releases state that they’ve teamed up with another company (either CRS or CSR .. some random acronym) to integrate wifi & bluetooth into their chips. Apple is PP’s only customer.

Apple has recently filed patents for ‘gestures on a touch-screen device’, where the illustrations shows the ‘gestures’ as being the same motions you’d use to control the iPod’s scrollwheel .. but with no wheel, just the touchscreen to enterpret the motions. Attached an image from the USPTO filing
So what do they add up to ?

The mockup clearly takes the touchscreen patents and applies them to the iPod. And it might be right .. but there’s more ‘big picture’ items at play. The iTunes store started selling videos at the same resolution as the iPod screen, which was the first major indicator that the video iPod was coming .. now they’ve started adding newer videos at higher resolutions .. which reads to me as a major indicator there’s bigger/better screens coming. There’s also the recent Disney move where it bought out Pixar. Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO and messiah-esque leader, is/was also Pixar’s CEO. Disney’s aquisition made Jobs Disney’s largest single stock-holder. Every mac since the 20″ iMac has shipped with new software called ‘FrontRow’, which provides a mediacenter frontend to songs, movies and pictures on the mac. They’re quietly making huge strides towards becoming a content provider above anything else.

Bigger screens on the ipod? Almost certainly. Touchscreen controls replacing the scrollwheel? Maybe. Notice that on the patent filing, they show it being used to resize windows. You don’t tend to use windows for software on screens as small as ipods and cellphones. So I’m tempted to believe the touchscreen stuff is something you’re more likely to see appear in laptops, than the iPod.

General opinion (everything from rumour sites to Reuters News) seems to think that portalplayer moving into wireless, means we’re going to see wireless ipods by the end of the year .. but I’m not so convinced. Along with the mvno move, I think it’s more likely we’re more likely to see Apple drop motorola and push a cellphone themselves. They’ve filed to become a cell carrier, trademarked a name ‘Mobile Me’ in relation to portable devices & services, and started adding wireless capabilities to the chips they already use. That sounds to me like everything they need to push Apple iPhones, rather than simply put iTunes on motorola’s failed ‘rokr’ phones.

So the picture I see .. is Apple moving into the living room with FrontRow, and into your pocket with a hybrid ipod/phone. Between the record labels they’re aligned with thru itunes, and the multiple film studios and television networks they’re aligned with thru the disney merger, they’re in a very strong position to quietly make a larger splash in the entertainment market .. they’ve got everything they need to provide one unified service from your computer, to your TV, to portable media.

And the iPod gives them a foot in the door .. it accounts for over three quarters of all digital audio products out there. They’ve got the brand and the following to make this work.

Just how I enterpret the various moves in various directions .. I could be entirely wrong