Apple was expected to unveil new notebook computers, perhaps even one priced for those with tight budgets, at a “town hall” gathering at its northern California headquarters yesterday.
In typical enigmatic style, Apple hinted at the theme of the invitation-only event but provided no details other than that it would be held on Tuesday morning at the firm’s headquarters in the city of Cupertino.
Invites sent out by e-mail late last week bore the lone message “The spotlight turns to notebooks.”
That was enough to ignite a firestorm of rumor on the Internet as Apple’s cultish followers began feverishly trying to deduce what the California company might be planning to unveil for the year-end holiday shopping season.
By Monday, speculation online included talk that Apple will introduce a Macintosh laptop computer priced perhaps as low as US$800 in an unprecedented break from selling premium products at premium prices.
Apple has never marketed a Macintosh laptop computer priced less than US$1,000.
“I think Apple has to go less than US$1,000,” analyst Rob Enderle of Enderle Group in Silicon Valley said of pricing for Macintosh laptops.
“With the economy the way it is, holding on to a premium price point would mean taking a bath in the Christmas shopping season. It is tough to move premium products. That category is at huge disadvantage,” he said.
Apple’s Macintosh computers remain a distant second place to world-dominating PCs based on Windows operating systems from Microsoft but have been gaining market share.
Analysts believe the popularity of Apple’s trendy iPod MP3 players and iPhones revived the company’s cachet and attracted buyers to its computers.
A “refreshed” line of Macintosh laptop or notebook computers is likely to feature technical upgrades made possible by powerful NVidia or Intel processors that serve as computer engines.
Not everyone is convinced Apple is ready to begin battling on price in a fat but heavily competitive segment of the laptop market.
“There is a possibility they might go there, but in general they have consistently played at the very high end of the market,” Gartner analyst Van Baker said.
“While I would love to see Apple compete in the US$799 to US$999 price range, based on past history I am skeptical they are going to do that,” he said.
Baker says it is more likely Apple is giving its MacBook Pro line of laptops a thinner, more industrial design that proved successful with its MacBook Air model.
Apple is expected to shift from plastic laptop casings to more stylish and eco-friendly aluminum.
At least one Internet Web site known for keeping tabs on Apple says the firm might surprise the world with a TV customized to link to the Internet and download digital movies from iTunes.
An Apple TV set-top box for routing movies or high-definition TV shows or movies from home computers to TVs has been a slow seller.
“Apple has had this all-in-one idea for a while,” Enderle said. “Apple TV built into a television could be interesting. I think it is at least possible.”
Taiwan aims to open 18 representative offices and seven Taiwan Tourism Information Centers worldwide by next year to attract international visitors, the Tourism Administration said on Saturday. The agency has so far opened three representative offices abroad this year and would open two more before the end of the year, it said. It has also already opened information centers in Jakarta, Mumbai and Paris, and is to open one in Vancouver next month and in Manila in December, it said. Next year, it would also open offices in Amsterdam, Dubai and Sydney, it added. While the Cabinet did not mention international tourists in its
EYES AT SEA: Many marine enthusiasts have expressed interest in volunteering for coastal patrols, which would help identify stowaways and illegal fishing, the CGA said Six thousand coastal patrol volunteers are to be recruited for 159 inspection offices to enhance the nation’s response to “gray zone” conflicts, Coast Guard Administration (CGA) sources said yesterday. Volunteer teams would be established to increase the resilience of coastal defense systems in the wake of two unlawful entries attempted by Chinese over the past three months, Ocean Affairs Council Minister Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) said. A former Chinese navy captain drove a motorboat into the Tamsui River (淡水河) in Taipei on the eve of the Dragon Boat Festival in June, while another Chinese man sailed in a rubber boat into the Houkeng
NEXT LEVEL: The defense ministry confirmed that a video released last month featured personnel piloting new FPV drone systems being developed by the Armaments Bureau Taipei and Washington are pushing for their drone companies to work together to establish a China-free supply chain, the Financial Times reported on Friday. A delegation of high-level executives and US government officials were yesterday to arrive in Taipei to discuss with their Taiwanese counterparts collaboration on drone technology procurement and development, the report said. The executives represent 26 US manufacturers of drone and counter-drone systems, while the officials are from the US Department of Commerce and the US Department of Defense’s Defense Innovation Unit, along with Dev Shenoy, principal director for microelectronics in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense
‘ANONYMOUS 64’: A national security official said that it is an attempt by China to increase domestic anti-Taiwanese sentiment and inflame cross-strait tensions The Ministry of National Defense’s (MND) Information, Communications and Electronic Force Command (ICEFCOM) yesterday denied accusations by China that it had undermined regional security by carrying out cyberattacks against targets in China, adding instead that Beijing was responsible for raising tensions and undermining regional peace. The Chinese Ministry of State Security on WeChat accused a hacker group called “Anonymous 64” of targeting China, Hong Kong and Macau starting earlier this year through frequent cyberattacks. The group carried out cyberattacks to seize control of Web sites, outdoor electronic billboards and video-on-demand platforms in China, Hong Kong and Macau, it said, adding the hackers’