The
Apple tablet rumors are at
a fever pitch, yet again. Depending on what you've read, it's all but confirmed that the company's got a January 26th event scheduled at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA) in San Francisco, CA. All this, of course, with nary a word or comment from Cupertino HQ, and without the context that this trend has come and gone ad nauseam, both with the tablet and before with the years of lead-up to the iPhone. Here's the latest bit:
MacRumors has dug up information about a Delaware-based company, Slate Computing, LLC, that was founded in November 2006 and owns the trademark "iSlate," the signatory of said trademark being Apple's Senior Trademark Specialist Regina Porter. Given that Apple owns "iSlate" trademark in Europe and that it's allegedly pulled similar stunts with a
"fake" company and the iPhone trademark, sure, we could buy into this being just a dummy corporation... but does it really
confirm an impending tablet that'll be called the "iSlate?" Not at all. We wouldn't be surprised if Apple has done this for numerous other trademarks, either to give itself more options or to prevent others from trying to manufacture products under those names. (Slate Computing, LLC also happens to own the "Magic Slate" trademark, just so you know.) Also bought up in 2006? The domain iSlate.com, which again according to
MacRumors (with help form Mark Gurman of
AppleRejectedMe.com) was apparently and briefly shown to be owned by Apple at some point during 2007. Food for thought, but trust us, you don't want to confuse hearsay for concrete fact.
Which brings us to December 24th, where we see a statistically significant uptick in Apple's stock value. Seeing as the fiscals were released
back in late October along with the last refresh of hardware (
Mac Pro specs notwithstanding), it seems everyone decided to spend their holiday bonuses on some Apple shares. Now, we're not claiming to be professionals here by any stretch of the imagination, but it seems a lot of the activity here can be attributed to the recent flux of rumors. Jason Schwarz of
The Street has an interesting take on it, which if you've got 15 minutes to kill should be worth your time to browse through.
posted December 26th 2009 1:36PM
They better announce whether they have it or not in January because all these rumours are driving me mental.
Steve jobs I'm willing to kill if you won't tell us if its real or not.
@kris120890 No need to kill him, the way he looks he won't make easter.
pokemon
@(Unverified) You gotta love people when you see them getting ballsdeep for something that's coming soon; Hence they can't still wait? Jan 26 - isn't just a month away from now? You already have the guts to wait for a year, why get too anxious now, just because you see a 'yet another theory' about the gadget of your folly?
Hopefully 'their' new tablet a.k.a iSlate will perform its goal on 2010 , else a lot of people will be getting really angry, some of them ready to kill, ahayt kris? iSlate compiled details: http://bit.ly/new-apple-tablet-best-or-worst .
@kris120890
Ad if he continues to dick around and not announce it, watch those stocks dip right back in the opposite direction. I honestly think people are even more sick of hearing about this iTablet then they were right before the iPhone was announced.
@(Unverified)
But at least alot of investors got very rich off this speculation bubble, when will everyone learn ?
@kris120890
I love the name because IS LATE makes such a good excuse.
@Atkins
true, but too late :-)
@(Unverified)
I think a great name for it would be the "Mac cPad".
@Blackstar
Hah I c wat u ded thar, blackstar.
Back to the pic tho, well, I guess we found the reason why Apple stock is so inflated - magical unicorns!
Sell now before they announce that the iSlate only syncs to PCs with the virus that is iTunes!
@LeiTxo Surely thats a given though and included in the share price, stock-brokers aren't total idi...wait...no, never mind.
@d0mth0ma5 no you were on the right track, stock brokers definitely aren't idiots, in fact, i'm sure they are smarter than most people here, including me and you
@bigdonny No I know, i'm completely aware that stock-brokers are intelligent, (i'm friends with a couple of junior ones) I was merely throwing a little cliché into the mix.
@bigdonny
You would honestly be surprised. There are good stockbrokers and bad ones just like any profession. The bad ones tend to be moneyed dolts who went to the right school or greedy f**kers who artificially hype markets, take the money and then get the hell out before they crash.
There is a belief that being reasonably intelligent should add more weight to one's pronouncements and to a degree that's true. However, you're largely talking about the same financial community who made the fundamental error of lending money to people who obviously couldn't afford to pay it back so you might want to consider that careful balance between intelligence and common sense.
@LeiTxo like it or not its the largest music retailer in the U.S.
Flithy lucre. Burning hands. Shameless consumption.
Then again. The future.
Only $599.
So what happens if there is no "Itablet"?
@Louis antonio
Dammit! The world will slip back to the "dark ages" if there is no Apple tablet. I've already canceled all my "paper" subscriptions and I'm ready to roll with Steve Jobs and the Jetsons. It's bad enough I have to put the future on hold until January 26th, 2010.
@Louis antonio
an iRevolt
lol, nice graphic
I didn't get a unicorn for xmas :(
@ipodman715 That didn't ruin your Christmas right?
I will go trademark iTablet fast and then laugh at apple's face...
@Dking7 I'll loan you some money for that if I get in on your time-machine
@d0mth0ma5 can I borrow your time machine, mine is not ready yet. Get me to 1990s, I will get lots of trademarks..
@Dking7 the Doc and McFly will have to fight you
@Dking7
While you're buying up trademarks, which are worthless since the companys would just pick different names if you owned them, I'll be using my time machine to RULE THE WORLD!
@d0mth0ma5 Can I have some of that money? I have to go back 18 months to the past when my new Time Capsule was still working
You know, this is genius. It's all part of the vaporware cycle! Although we're past the vapor part mostly... the amazing thing about Apple rumors is that Apple doesn't even have to start them, someone else will do it for them and it always positively affects Apple (if it is a product rumor). The magical unicorn knows all about it the rumor cycle.
the announcement of apple tablet has been like the judgment day or something.
@mikmik111
Waiting for Judgment Day is nothing compared to waiting for the Apple tablet. Only 144,000 are supposed to achieve salvation on Judgment Day but tens of millions will be able to achieve salvation with the Apple tablet. I'm making sure I'm on both waiting lists.
I think we'll see sasquatch, the weapons of mass destruction in iraq, or jesus riding on a dinosaur before we ever see an islate...
Rumors of a tablet have driven up the stock by 8% in one week? If the rumored iSlate takes 99% of the tablet market within a week of release, the revenue and profits from it will barely be a blip on their financial statement.
@FitFan But what if (hold on) ... iSlate CREATES an entire new market? (trying not to sound too fanboyish)
@FitFan
The iSlate is expected to rapidly expand the tablet market in the same way that the iPhone rapidly expanded the smartphone market.
$210 is too high. That's a pretty significant overvaluation of the company. Still, good time to sell if you bought them a few years ago for pocket change.
@Jakob I really hope it is something special because tablets to date have been useless. Wish there was a courier surprise announcement on the same day to make it interesting.
The dangerous thing for apple is that combining tablets and the 26th of January is already an annual event for a lot of Australians as it is Australia Day.
@Jakob
That would be interesting. I don't know what they could do in order to draw in a lot of new customers into the segment. Multi-touch tablets have been out for a while now and the market is very small. You also have the state of the economy to consider. When they introduced the iPhone we didn't have > 10% unemployment.
@ KarlW : The iPhone did expand the smart phone market a bit. There were and still are a lot of other players in that space. The thing is that pretty much everyone needs a cell phone these days. Some of those will be smart phones and some will be basic phones. But nobody really needs a tablet. Many people who need the functionality of a tablet might opt for a laptop with a swivel touch screen.
lol, love the image for the article
I would LOVE an Apple Tablet. I just hope to god that it is cheaper than the $1000 area, and that it comes to the UK at almost the same time as the US.
I also hope it isn't called the iTablet or iSlate. I know that Apple aren't the most inventive in terms of naming products (second only to Sony) but a least make it something we didn't see coming. Just like I would rather see an Xbox 3 rather than a 720. The 720 thing grates on me each time I see it.
Will it run on iPhone OS or a smaller version of OSX?
@Alex R
My guess would be simply a larger iPod Touch. Same SoC, same OS, probably new multi-touch features for a larger surface, but otherwise basically the same device. In that case the difference between a 3.5" touch LCD assembly and a 10" would probably be under $100. I'm guessing a price point of $399 is very do-able for Apple. Maybe even $299 for a lower capacity model if they want to be aggressive.
@(Unverified)
Everyone is concerned that the Apple tablet is bigger than an iPhone but less capable than a MacBook... maybe that's what they're shooting for.
If the JooJoo is $500 and it's *only* a web browser... maybe an Apple tablet with music and movies, real apps, interactive newspapers and magazines for $700 will make more sense.
Fusion Garage *thinks* they can sell the JooJoo for $500... while Apple *knows* they can sell a better tablet for more money.
Apple likes to stick to firm price points... and there's a big hole between a $400 iPod Touch and a $1000 Macbook.
I look at Apple's stock price and I think "You know, this is built on previous growth rate and expectation of continued growth at the same rate".
This makes me also think that some people are in for a rude awakening.
We love those rumors, do we, do we...... we are such addicts of something we're not even going to buy xD haha
#1 Keep pushing rumors of tablet.
#2 Every idiot has a friend that knows what Apple is gonna do. Seeds tech blogs with stories.
#3 Share price goes up.
#4 No tablet announced.
#5 Stock crashes, but not until smarter people, that knew the story was BS, have cashed out.
#6 Fanboys go into deep depression.
#7 Restart rumors and make more money.
@LAY
Bingo. This is what happens when a particular stock is the darling of an industry and gets a lot of promotion. I have fond memories of the dot com bubble and making a fair bit of cash this way.
@LAY If the Apple tablet is announced this January can we call you the idiot?
@HighestRanked
Can we call you the idiot right now because there's already a media event in late January for the iSlate?
@LAY
Ohh, the "Apple stock is going to rise" is so predictable.
I know people who made a lot of money on the Apple hypemachine. And by "a lot" I mean "a third of my yearly salary".
Every time Engadget mentions an apple tablet, Steve kills a kitten.
@(Unverified)
An Apple tablet is worth more than a kitten so don't sweat it.