Technophiles are eagerly waiting to learn whether the king of digital music can colonize an entirely new category of consumer electronics.
Steve Jobs, chief executive of Apple Computer Inc, is expected to launch at least one revolutionary product today at the Macworld Conference & Expo in San Francisco. Speculation has focused mainly on an Apple-branded cellular phone and a set-top box that allows people to send video from their computers to their TVs.
Although Apple spokeswoman Natalie Kerris declined comment on "rumors and speculation," bloggers, enthusiasts and investors have been continually guessing whether Jobs will unveil a "smart phone" (which some are calling iPhone), iTV or both.
Apple's iPod music player was not the first on the market when it launched in 2001. But its sleek design and intuitive user interface quickly made it a hit.
Industry analysts believe another well-designed product from Apple could seriously threaten major tech companies such as Motorola Inc, Nokia Corp, Samsung Electronics Co, Verizon Wireless and TiVo Inc.
Expectations for Macworld are so lofty that a failure to launch an earth-shattering product this week could dent Apple's already volatile stock price, investors said. The stock has traded in a 52-week range of US$50.16 to US$93.16. It closed on Friday at US$85.05 on the NASDAQ stock market.
Wall Street's confidence in Apple has wavered slightly due to the possibility that improper handling of employee stock options would erase some of Apple's record profits. The scandal threatened to plunge Jobs into a legal morass, if not cost him his job.
Still, anticipation is so breathless in the blogosphere that some pundits have already credited Apple with changing the global telecommunications sector -- even though the iPhone is technically still "vaporware," or nonexistent.
The mere suggestion that Apple might make a glamorous, simple cellphone that downloads, plays and shares digital music has intimidated competitors, said Avi Greengart, an analyst with Current Analysis.
"Even if Apple does not announce a phone, just the threat of Apple's entry could spur innovation," Greengart wrote in a research note on Thursday.
"If Apple builds a phone that is easy and genuinely pleasurable to use, the company will have a winner no matter how it is priced or sold," he wrote.
Apple also is expected to unveil a set-top box designed to bridge computers and TV sets so users can more easily watch their downloaded movies on a big screen. The move would complement Apple's entry into online movies -- it began selling titles through its iTunes store in September.
As Apple launched online movies, Jobs showed off a gadget that streams high-definition videos, selling for US$299 starting sometime in the first quarter. Analysts believe the demo was of the prerelease version of the iTV that could be introduced at Macworld, the venue for many of Apple's monumental product launches over the years.
The demo, which looked like a flatter but wider version of the Mac Mini computer, worked with computers running Apple's Macintosh or Microsoft Corp's Windows systems and used Apple's iTunes software to manage multimedia files. A small hard drive was expected to be included with iTV.
PROVOCATIVE: Chinese Deputy Ambassador to the UN Sun Lei accused Japan of sending military vessels to deliberately provoke tensions in the Taiwan Strait China denounced remarks by Japan and the EU about the South China Sea at a UN Security Council meeting on Monday, and accused Tokyo of provocative behavior in the Taiwan Strait and planning military expansion. Ayano Kunimitsu, a Japanese vice foreign minister, told the Council meeting on maritime security that Tokyo was seriously concerned about the situation in the East China and South China seas, and reiterated Japan’s opposition to any attempt to change the “status quo” by force, and obstruction of freedom of navigation and overflight. Stavros Lambrinidis, head of the EU delegation to the UN, also highlighted South China Sea
SILENCING CRITICS: In addition to blocking Taiwan, China aimed to prevent rights activists from speaking out against authoritarian states, a Cabinet department said The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday condemned transnational repression by Beijing after RightsCon, a major digital human rights conference scheduled to be held in Zambia this week, was abruptly canceled due to Chinese pressure over Taiwanese participation. This year’s RightsCon, the world’s largest conference discussing issues “at the intersection of human rights and technology,” was scheduled to take place from tomorrow to Friday in Lusaka, and expected to draw 2,600 in-person attendees from 150 countries, along with 1,100 online participants. However, organizers were forced to cancel the event due to behind-the-scenes pressure from China, the ministry said, expressing its “strongest condemnation”
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, said it expects its 2-nanometer (2nm) chip capacity to grow at a compound annual rate of 70 percent from this year to 2028. The projection comes as five fabs begin volume production of 2-nanometer chips this year — two in Hsinchu and three in Kaohsiung — TSMC senior vice president and deputy cochief operating officer Cliff Hou (侯永清) said at the company’s annual technology symposium in Silicon Valley, California, last week. Output in the first year of 2-nanometer production, which began in the fourth quarter of last year, is expected to
Taiwan’s economy grew far faster than expected in the first quarter, as booming demand for artificial intelligence (AI) applications drove a surge in exports, spilling over into investment and consumption, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. GDP growth was 13.69 percent year-on-year during the January-to-March period, beating the DGBAS’ February forecast by 2.23 percentage points and marking the most robust growth in nearly four decades, DGBAS senior official Chiang Hsin-yi (江心怡) told a news conference in Taipei. The result was powered by exports, which remain the backbone of Taiwan’s economy, Chiang said. Outbound shipments jumped 51.12 percent year-on-year to
RSS