The latter part of 2010 wasn't the best time for Apple and one of its biggest gadgets, the Iphone; this was largely due to the much anticipated release of Google's operated Droid running on the Verizon network and manufactured by Motorola. The Droid has had strong sales so far, reaching one million units since its launch early this Fall. This is an impressive outcome for a newcomer, but then again Google is behind it, and having it run on Verizon is a big PLUS for them. The Droid was also recently distinguished by Time Magazine and being named the number one Gadget of the Year, and relegating the Iphone to 4th place.
The Motorola phone on the Verizon network is a great device on the best network, TIME argues, making it the obvious choice despite being new to the market.
TIME writes:
Droid is a hefty beast, a metal behemoth without the gloss and finish of the iPhone, but you don’t miss it. The Droid’s touchscreen is phenomenally sharp and vivid, it has an actual physical (not great, but good enough) keyboard, and, best of all, the Droid is on Verizon’s best-of-breed 3G network.
We tend to agree; the Droid is a fantastic phone and a poster child for Google’s Android OS. Nonetheless, it’ll seem a lot less appealing next year if the iPhone finally comes to Verizon. We still think the iPhone is a superior phone, albeit on an inferior network.
Yair Reiner, an analyst for Oppenheimer, has lit some incense, drained his tea-cup and stared deep into the pattern of the remaining leaves. The fates have thus communicated to him the following “fact”: Apple will ship a 10.1-inch touch-screen tablet in spring 2010.
The average reader of the average gadget-blog knows more about the real workings of the tech world than even the best of analysts (or “prophets” as I prefer to call them). But we shall humor Uncle Yair, and present here his rock-solid inferences, based on the study not of actual tea-leaves, but of his supply-chain contacts.
The Jesus-tablet will use an LTPS (Low Temperature Polycrystalline Silicon) LCD like that of the iPhone instead of a pricier OLED display, and if Apple wants to have enough in stock to meet demand (at a projected manufacturing speed of a million units per month) then a launch date in March or April is likely.
The price? The same as a MacBook with a full keyboard, or $1,000. This would be the perfect price for Apple to charge if it didn’t want to sell any.
Reiner goes on to speculate that book publishers, “disgruntled by Amazon’s terms” which give the publisher just 70% of revenue on an exclusive deal, prefer the numbers offered by Apple. And what is this sweet, sweet deal from Apple? An “App Store-type 30/70 split.” Can you spot the difference? Me either.
By now, we’re pretty sure that we’ll see an Apple tablet soon, probably in the first half of the year (spring for tablets, summer for iPhones, autumn for iPods, and Macs when they are ready). We’re also sure that until it is actually announced by Apple, every week will bring further groping guesses about this tech-unicorn, in increasingly desperate attempts to drum up publicity (December 9, 2009).