Piper sees dull Macworld, new form factor iPhone by spring

[AppleInsider]

With Apple chief executive Steve Jobs skipping out on this year's Macworld Expo, investment bank Piper Jaffray isn't holding high hopes for new product announcements outside a pair of refreshed Macs, but said in a report Tuesday that a redesigned iPhone should surface in the months that follow.

"Predicting product announcements for this year's Macworld has been difficult with new iPods and Macs released in the fall and the relatively new iPhone 3G," analyst Gene Munster told his clients. "With [Apple marketing chief] Phil Schiller delivering the keynote, we believe it suggests there will not be any revolutionary products at this year's event."

Still, the analyst believes a couple of existing products could see a refresh at the annual conference, namely the iMac and Mac mini. Meanwhile, his hopes for a new iPhone -- at one time seen as having an outside chance of appearing at the show -- have been dashed with word that Jobs would not be delivering his traditional keynote presentation.

"While we believe it is unlikely that a new iPhone will be released at Macworld, we continue to expect a new model by the end of the March quarter," Munster wrote. "Specifically, we believe Apple could introduce a lower-end model that is slightly thicker due to the inclusion of a slider keyboard for students (texting) and business use (email) between $99 and $149."

Another alternative for a new iPhone could see Apple alter the value proposition of the $199 model by using a different material than plastic for the casing, or giving it a slightly thinner form factor, he added.

Munster, who maintains a Buy rating and $235 price target on shares of Apple, said his 45 million iPhone unit sales estimate for 2009 is largely predicated on his belief that the company will expand its iPhone lineup to include a lower-end model early in the year.

[ View this article at AppleInsider.com ]

[teckstud]

Wait- I thought the new iMac was "next generation" or a "remodel"- here now it's being referred to as a refresh?
AI- Please make up your mind. Thank you.

[MissionGrey]

I would be interested to see if they use their new manufacturing process with a new iPhone.

[VinitaBoy]

Is there absolutely NO hope for the 17" unibody MBP this coming spring/year? The 15" is nice, of course, but I really need the additional screen space. (Presently enjoying the 17" Duo Core MBP from September of 2007.)

What do ya' think?

Edited @ 9:12 AM MST:

http://macdailynews.com/index.php/we...omments/19542/

[logic368]

i believe he is wrong. apple has been known to surprise. why do you think they made a "surprise" announcement that steve jobs wasn't going to be giving a keynote? so people would go. now that they know a lotta people are still gonna go, they're gonna release something big. they want to prove to the public that even phil schiller can release something good, not just steve jobs alone. This is all part of their plan. fuck the analysts, they're almost always wrong.

[macgareth]

imacs should get a big update nvidia graphics & core 2 quads.
iphone is all about WWDC,

[John the Geek]

Originally Posted by AppleInsider

"Specifically, we believe Apple could introduce a lower-end model that is slightly thicker due to the inclusion of a slider keyboard for students (texting) and business use (email) between $99 and $149."

This guy doesn't know a thing about Apple, does he?

Originally Posted by logic368

fuck the analysts, they're almost always wrong.

In this case, the word "almost" can be left out or replaced with "flat out".

[Halvri]

Originally Posted by teckstud

Wait- I thought the new iMac was "next generation" or a "remodel"- here now it's being referred to as a refresh?
AI- Please make up your mind. Thank you.

They're not going to completely redesign the iMac. Every single other product Apple makes (with the exception of the base MacBook) has been brought in line with the design scheme developed for that Mac (and the Mac Pro in all honesty). Just look at the Mac Pro, that design has gone mostly unchanged for five years and the MacBooks rarely changed either. That iMac design is gonna be around for a while. After all, the aluminum design has only been around since mid 2007.

As has been noted, this is a refresh. So, what I'm expecting is an LED backlit screen, quad core processors, DDR3 RAM, larger hard drives, and better Nvidia graphics for the lower end iMacs. I'm not really sure what to expect with the Mac Minis, though. Hopefully, I'll be pleasantly surprised.

[macgareth]

Originally Posted by VinitaBoy

Is there absolutely NO hope for the 17" unibody MBP this coming spring/year? The 15" is nice, of course, but I really need the additional screen space. (Presently enjoying the 17" Duo Core MBP from September of 2007.)

What do ya' think?

Apple must have something special for the 17inch probably why it never got updated
probably core 2 quad and pray to god it can support 8GB ram

[city]

Originally Posted by AppleInsider

we believe Apple could introduce a lower-end model that is slightly thicker due to the inclusion of a slider keyboard for students (texting) and business use (email) between $99 and $149."

A.

[ View this article at AppleInsider.com ]

This sounds very unApple to me. I wonder who must be using his Blackberry.

[parky]

There is no way Apple will release an iPhone with a slide out physical keyboard.
To do so would be an admission of failure that the touch keyboard is not fit for purpose.
Apple will release a smaller iPhone nano - soon.

[Gee4orce]

So, if I read that right Gene Munster thinks that there will be a new iPhone that's thicker than the current iPhone. Or thinner. With a physical keyboard. Or not.

Sheeesh.

Never mind Gene Munster, we'd get more sense out of Herman Munster !

[Virgil-TB2]

Originally Posted by logic368

i believe he is wrong. apple has been known to surprise. why do you think they made a "surprise" announcement that steve jobs wasn't going to be giving a keynote? so people would go. now that they know a lotta people are still gonna go, they're gonna release something big. they want to prove to the public that even phil schiller can release something good, not just steve jobs alone. This is all part of their plan. fuck the analysts, they're almost always wrong.

I think people are forgetting that just as in the last two keynotes, Steve Jobs stood to one side and let others do large parts of them, Phil could just as easily say ...

" ... and one more thing, here's Steve to present a new product."

[macxpress]

Originally Posted by VinitaBoy

Is there absolutely NO hope for the 17" unibody MBP this coming spring/year? The 15" is nice, of course, but I really need the additional screen space. (Presently enjoying the 17" Duo Core MBP from September of 2007.)

What do ya' think?

Edited @ 9:12 AM MST:

http://macdailynews.com/index.php/we...omments/19542/

Patience grasshopper.....

[macxpress]

Originally Posted by macgareth

Apple must have something special for the 17inch probably why it never got updated
probably core 2 quad and pray to god it can support 8GB ram

Not necessarily....This isn't the first time the 15" Notebook from Apple got updated before the 17" model. When that 17" was finally released, it was basically the same as the 15" model, only obviously with a 17"screen. But you could be right.....

They could be waiting for low voltage quad-core CPUs as Intel has just released some.

[douglogic]

Originally Posted by logic368

they want to prove to the public that even phil schiller can release something good, not just steve jobs alone. This is all part of their plan. fuck the analysts, they're almost always wrong.

I think you might be right about this. If the analysts are correct that Apple is beginning to transition leadership at the top, what better way to do that than to hand off a big product announcement to someone else in upper management. I don't think you will see any "revolutionary" new product, but a new look imac, mac mini and maybe a mac netbook and/or tablet (I guess some might consider the tablet revolutionary if done right) might not be out of the realm. I guess that would be the one more thing if it happens. I guess a new iphone is within the realm as well, but not confident about that one. I guess they will demo Snow Leopard and some of the iLife apps and iphone apps. Could be a strong event, even if it is not "revolutionary".

Honestly, most of the apple events since the intro of the iphone have been lame for the most part, so if this one turns out to be lame, I don't think it will be because Steve is not there, but if something cool does come out, not having Steve there may turn out to be the setup that throws people off.

I personally am hoping for a netbook of some flavor. I am holding off of a netbook purchase right now until I see what happens at Macworld. I am realistic that this probably will not happen, but I think it is wise to wait a week to make sure.

[charlituna]

Originally Posted by logic368

i believe he is wrong. apple has been known to surprise. why do you think they made a "surprise" announcement that steve jobs wasn't going to be giving a keynote? so people would go. now that they know a lotta people are still gonna go, they're gonna release something big. they want to prove to the public that even phil schiller can release something good, not just steve jobs alone. This is all part of their plan. fuck the analysts, they're almost always wrong.

i can agree and disagree with the analysts.

I agree that it is possible, perhaps even probable, that there won't be any brand new items on the release list. but there could be a ton of new updates. Like:

iMacs with the new graphics cards (like the refreshed macbooks), perhaps quad core processors or at least faster dual core, bigger hard drives standard in the lower setups, display port to link them to the new LED display for extended screen work.

major update to the mac mini's. faster processors, superdrive only, 2 GB ram only (no more 1gb waste of time setups), bigger harddrives, perhaps even a new form for aftermarket updates (like changing ram or even harddrives)

32 GB iphone. i could actually see them not releasing a new model iphone this year since the cellular 4g is totally embryo at this stage but releasing bigger capacity could happen. also who knows what is up ATTs sleeve in terms of extended coverage or even lower rates. I don't think anyone with an iphone would be upset if ATT reacted to the Congressional investigations into cell phone rate gouging by cutting their unlimited SMS plan in half, knocking $5-10 dollars off their data plan, setting up a tethering option etc.

the new rumored home media server could be announced or even just addressed via an update to the Apple TV.

17in unibody MBP still hasn't appeared.

refresh to the Air for better hard drive and processor wouldn't be sneered at.

more sizes to the LED screen and adapters to use the LED screen with older macs

and so on. only the super geek fanboys that need something new to jerk off over really need a brand new never before seen toy. the rest of the world is more than happy with more bang for their bucks.

as for what I disagree with

I disagree with this notion that Steve Jobs is the frakking messiah and the only brain at Apple and everyone else is just a robot set of hands doing as the Borg King Jobs thinks. Folks like Piper Jeffery are part of this problem because they see anyone buy Jobs and push the notion that nothing good is going on, that Jobs has died and the world is being fooled by a clone, whatever.

If this was a last minute deal and no one but Jobs had ever been on the stage, maybe there would be something to it.

but Steve has been sharing the stage for a while, this is just the last step. He and Apple have been trying to show the world some of the other brains that do exist in the company. Brains that are more than capable of running the company without Steve there holding everyone's hands, making all the decisions and wiping the company's collective butt.

but Jeffery etc don't see this and so they chicken little everything and the company stock drops way more than can be blamed on the crappy economy

[anantksundaram]

Originally Posted by Gee4orce

Never mind Gene Munster, we'd get more sense out of Herman Munster !

Or cookie munster.....

[charlituna]

Originally Posted by Virgil-TB2

I think people are forgetting that just as in the last two keynotes, Steve Jobs stood to one side and let others do large parts of them, Phil could just as easily say ...

" ... and one more thing, here's Steve to present a new product."

I'm not going to be surprised if something like that happens. the company is clearly moving towards showing the world that Steve Jobs is not the whole of Apple. that there are more than enough smart people who have been there all along to run the company when Steve retires and goes back to Pixar full time. so all this 'steve looks like hell. he's dying and not telling us, the world is ending' nonsense is just that, nonsense.

Apple managed to stay afloat for 10 years without Steve and this time around he's picked new and better people and taught them well so there's no reason to believe that Apple can't survive again without him.

[Rokken]

What is the point including a physical keyboard to iPhone? That really defeats the purpose if you ask me.

[fraklinc]

Well i just hope that if they was to come out with slider keyboard for the iphone for it to just be a separate model cause if i would have wanted that i would have gotten a freggin sidekick in the first place, i think that most of the people that complaint about the virtual keyboard are also people that won't even get it if Apple made it happen

[charlituna]

Originally Posted by AppleInsider

"While we believe it is unlikely that a new iPhone will be released at Macworld, we continue to expect a new model by the end of the March quarter," Munster wrote. "Specifically, we believe Apple could introduce a lower-end model that is slightly thicker due to the inclusion of a slider keyboard for students (texting) and business use (email) between $99 and $149."

in other words, they believe that Apple would turn away from their typical game of announcing new toys a month or two early to believe up hype,

they believe that Apple would turn away from the summer as iPhone time

and they believe that Apple would be dumb enough to release a device that uses the same tech as most other phones and that someone would probably try to sue them over.

[quinney]

Originally Posted by Virgil-TB2

I think people are forgetting that just as in the last two keynotes, Steve Jobs stood to one side and let others do large parts of them, Phil could just as easily say ...

" ... and one more thing, here's Steve to present a new product."

By video conference from China.....

[Cubert]

I still think there will be an iPhone nano released, updated Mac mini in new form factor, the rumored server that will really be an updated Time Capsule, and a Snow Leopard sneak peek.

Afterwards, the Steve Jobs health rumors will be back in full swing because of the relatively healthy (pun intended) product releases.

[teckstud]

Originally Posted by Halvri

They're not going to completely redesign the iMac. Every single other product Apple makes (with the exception of the base MacBook) has been brought in line with the design scheme developed for that Mac (and the Mac Pro in all honesty). Just look at the Mac Pro, that design has gone mostly unchanged for five years and the MacBooks rarely changed either. That iMac design is gonna be around for a while. After all, the aluminum design has only been around since mid 2007.

.

The aluminum "design" is a mere bastardization of the white iMAc which was around 3 years previous to it. Execpt now it has has a mismatched white cord , white mouse and is the exact same form factor (including the Jay Leno chin) as the white. Where is the new design? The was merely a "greening" of the white iMac.
If what your saying is true then: No new design = No purchase.

[paxman]

Originally Posted by Virgil-TB2

I think people are forgetting that just as in the last two keynotes, Steve Jobs stood to one side and let others do large parts of them, Phil could just as easily say ...

" ... and one more thing, here's Steve to present a new product."

My thoughts exactly. I'm not expecting it but you never know.

[nonstoplay]

Although this is still a rumor, it really makes sense in light of Apple's recent partnership with Wal-Mart. Wal-mart, as you know, caters to price-conscious (and who isn't these days) consumers. By offering a "slimmed" down version of the iPhone (both physically and feature-wise) at a lower price (say $100.00 new), Apple has the most direct route to these price-conscious consumers, with the added benefit of Wal-mart also serving as an additional distributor of the full-featured iPhones. I really does make sense.

[paxman]

Originally Posted by Rokken

What is the point including a physical keyboard to iPhone? That really defeats the purpose if you ask me.

It'll never happen. I would like to see a true 16:9 screen in more or less the same form factor. This will add some width to the virtual keyboard in landscape mode (which needs to be accessible to all apps on the platform). The landscape mode keyboard is great - its just a matter of retraining to get used to it. Having said that, a third party bluetooth keyboard is much over due.

[mcarling]

Originally Posted by VinitaBoy

Is there absolutely NO hope for the 17" unibody MBP this coming spring/year?

I think there is a very good chance that the 17" MacBook Pro will be announced at MWSF.

Originally Posted by John the Geek

This guy doesn't know a thing about Apple, does he?

Indeed. There is just about zero chance that Apple would ever produce an iPhone with a keyboard. If someone wants to do that much typing with an iPhone, they can use a bluetooth keyboard.

Originally Posted by charlituna

refresh to the Air for better hard drive and processor wouldn't be sneered at.

I agree with most of your post, but the next processor that would be suitable for the MacBook Air is the SL9600 due to be released by Intel in April. Therefore the next MacBook Air speedbump will be in April or May.

My expectations for MWSF are:
- speedbumped iMacs
- speedbumped Mini
- new 17" MacBook Pro
- speedbumped Apple TV (maybe)
- 32GB iPhone (maybe)
- speedbumped Mac Pro (maybe)

[SpamSandwich]

Originally Posted by nonstoplay

Although this is still a rumor, it really makes sense in light of Apple's recent partnership with Wal-Mart. Wal-mart, as you know, caters to price-conscious (and who isn't these days) consumers. By offering a "slimmed" down version of the iPhone (both physically and feature-wise) at a lower price (say $100.00 new), Apple has the most direct route to these price-conscious consumers, with the added benefit of Wal-mart also serving as an additional distributor of the full-featured iPhones. I really does make sense.

Funny, I was thinking the opposite strategy would be a more 'Apple' way. They should offer a new version of the iPhone (iPhone Pro?) that is more than double the current cost with features that are not available on any other phones...in the US, anyway. Possibly features like concierge services, two-way videoconferencing, cut and paste...

[hillstones]

Originally Posted by teckstud

Wait- I thought the new iMac was "next generation" or a "remodel"- here now it's being referred to as a refresh?
AI- Please make up your mind. Thank you.

It always has been rumored as a refresh. No one ever claimed it would be a next-generation model. The only rumor is matching the same hardware as the MacBook/Pro, and now maybe updated cooling. Would still be done in the same enclosure.

[hillstones]

It took Gene this long to realize that Macworld will not have any new product announcements? Wow, he is slow.

[davidandru]

What about a slide-out touchscreen keyboard for an iPhone nano... That could be interesting.

[wizard69]

That is the first thing that I find odd as niether Appleinsider nor MacRumors said a thing about the press release. That release was very important to anybody thinking about or speculating on updates or refreshes.

For example Intel will now have available a very low cost quad core that would make for an interesting Mini. Like wise processors suitable for laptops. There has to be hardware available to announce new products and Intel just released some ideal ones.

So I'm exspecting a large number of updates. For example:

1.
Mac Mini gets updated or replaced with a new device. The new Mini will be quad core in at least one variant. Nvidia graphics of course but hopefully a souped up variant of the 9400M suitable for compact form factor desktops.

2.
IMac update. Here I'm a bit more confused but I still have this idea that they will walk away from laptop chips to help close the gap between iMac and the Mac Pro. Let's face it, that gap just gets wider and wider, so either iMac gets significantly faster or Apple delivers the mythically xMac.

3.
The 17" or so MBP arrives. It is still a mystery as to what is causing the hold up. The new Intel chips would not seem to be reason enough. I'm putting money on new or faster GPUs than what we see in the other Mac Books. A remote possibility is that Apple comes up with a hardware solution to the BluRay Bag-O-Hurt. Frankly a hardware solution is the only way I could see Apple keeping their ability to innovate as an all hardware solution could be certified once and be done with.

4.
I know many will assume this will never happen but I'm still holding out hope for an xMac type machine. MWSF may be to soon based on hardware availability but Apple needs something to plug the massive performance hole between iMac and the Mac Pro. The situation will be especially bad if iMac can't go i7 anytime soon. This would be a single processor machine with four cores and modest internal expansion. Ideally room for an array of laptop format drives, for data integrity for things like home media servers, low cost file serving and other uses where it would be nice to prevent the loss of data.

5.
Of course Apple may take a different approach on a low cost RAIDed file server. We might see a RAIDed appliance server from Apple at MWSF. This is to address the issue of calling a single disk device a backup platform. It is one thing to call a single disk external storage it is another to label it back up. I believe it is now possible for Apple to deliver a low cost RAID back up machine and believe they will. It is obvious no body wanted expensive solution that was rack mounted!

6.
As to iPhone Nano it is coming folks just like a lot of other iPhone models are on the way. MWSF is a good time for that to happen. Why you ask, well decause they need to keep the spring and summer open for other Touch based device announcements. Touch has so much potential for Apple that I do wonder what is taking them so long to come out with new devices. I suspect that the problem is two fold, one is the hardware which I believe should be close to ready with the PA Semi designed chips and the other issue is software.
Let's face it Apple is still a long way from being able to say that they are happy with Mobile OS even in it's current 2.2 form. It is still buggy and crashes apps way to much. Add to this that new devices would be even more demanding with respect to Mobile OSes shortcomings and it becomes easy to see this as the big hold up. As to those short comings a short list would include back ground apps/multi tasking, support for all the common BluTooth profiles, stability, USB host support, copy and paste, interprocess communications, shared data storage and a whole host of other issues.

7.
Given all the issues above I can still see a new form factor Touch hitting the streets. The easy approach would be to model it on IPhone Nano but I don't see this happening. Instead is see the current form factor being morphed into an HD ratio (likely 16:9) video screen. Obviously the screen would need to grow in one direction or the other, possibly both. If the whole device ends up slightly larger and twice as fast I'd be happy. Notably I believe going smaller on iPod Touch will end up being a very hard sell due to the differences in usage relative to iPhone. More pixels on screen just makes the things that Touch users focus on all that much more useful, that is games, net/web and E-Mail. This is in contrast to a Nano iPhone that would have a larger customer base for a compact smart phone where the user is more concerned about phone and E-Mail.

8.
I'm surprised that no one commented about new monitors. This would seem to be a given if you expect Display Port on all the new machines. Apple might go as small as 20 inches here to attempt to offer a low cost platform. A good possibility also is a tuner for TV in. One of the short comings of TVs with PC inputs is the lack of quality when actually operating from those PC inputs. Apple could turn this upside down with a TV that is actually optimized for PC inputs. In a 24 inch model or larger this could work out rather well. If not I will continue to look for something that can do double duty well.

In any event some rough ideas.


Dave

[Dunks]

Originally Posted by mcarling

My expectations for MWSF are:
- speedbumped iMacs
- 32GB iPhone (maybe)

Yes please. I've waited patiently long enough.

[pmjoe]

Piper Jaffray are the worst Apple analysts.

We already know the next mini and iMacs are going to have significant hardware changes: DisplayPort, new graphics chipset, and who knows what else. This is definitely more than a "dull" "refresh".

The only question at this point is if Apple will use this as an opportunity to cut costs (as in drop features like Firewire), or as an opportunity to make the mini and iMac more exciting.

[akarmenia]

Lets not take one person's opinion too seriously. We won't know until it comes in a few days. Until then, all we can do is wait.