Analyst Charles Wolf of Needham & Co. thinks that Apple may have a surprise announcement up its sleeve for April 1, 2006. According to MacNN:
Apple could use April 1–Apple’s 30th birthday–as an opportunity to introduce an Intel-based iBook as well as the “real” video iPod. Wolf says that a failure by Apple to have an Intel iBook ready for purchase by the May beginning of the K-12 school-buying season would significantly jeopardize Apple’s education sales, in which the iBook represents an “increasing fraction.” Wolf noted that “at the end of his Macworld keynote address in January, Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO, noted that the company will celebrate its 30th birthday on April 1, 2006. While it’s possible that Jobs was simply pointing out the longevity of Apple, we interpret it as a signal that Apple will hold a major birthday party in the form of new product event around that date, most likely in early April.”
Apple announced the iPod 5G with video on October 12, 2005 and there is a rumor that Apple will use their 30th anniversary to announce a “true video iPod” with an edge-to-edge screen and a virtual clickwheel. Macstein suggests that the next generation iPod will have a resolution of 960×540 and be in the 16:9 widescreen format.
Hrmph.com has posted some drawings from an Apple patent (one is pictured above) detailing what could be a new iPod form-factor. The image appears to feature an iPod in a landscape orientation running a full version of iTunes as opposed to the stripped-down iPod music player UI.
Analyst Charles Wolf of Needham & Co. thinks that Apple may have a surprise announcement up its sleeve for April 1, 2006. According to MacNN:
Apple could use April 1–Apple’s 30th birthday–as an opportunity to introduce an Intel-based iBook as well as the “real” video iPod. Wolf says that a failure by Apple to have an Intel iBook ready for purchase by the May beginning of the K-12 school-buying season would significantly jeopardize Apple’s education sales, in which the iBook represents an “increasing fraction.” Wolf noted that “at the end of his Macworld keynote address in January, Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO, noted that the company will celebrate its 30th birthday on April 1, 2006. While it’s possible that Jobs was simply pointing out the longevity of Apple, we interpret it as a signal that Apple will hold a major birthday party in the form of new product event around that date, most likely in early April.”
Apple announced the iPod 5G with video on October 12, 2005 and there is a rumor that Apple will use their 30th anniversary to announce a “true video iPod” with an edge-to-edge screen and a virtual clickwheel. Macstein suggests that the next generation iPod will have a resolution of 960×540 and be in the 16:9 widescreen format.
Hrmph.com has posted some drawings from an Apple patent (one is pictured above) detailing what could be a new iPod form-factor. The image appears to feature an iPod in a landscape orientation running a full version of iTunes as opposed to the stripped-down iPod music player UI.
