[Dabhand16]

Apple watchers await unveilings

The Apple faithful are gathering in San Francisco ahead of Steve Jobs' annual keynote speech, in which he is expected to unveil new products.

Top of the most-wanted list, according to reports, is an ultra-slim laptop, using flash storage instead of a hard drive, and movie rentals for iTunes.

Last year, Apple unveiled the iPhone to great fanfare and few observers expect Mr Jobs to be able to top that launch.

The company is expected to sell 10 million iPhones by the end of 2008.

Steve Jobs will be hoping to build on the firm's success with the iPod and Mac line-up and to boost sales of products, such as the Apple TV, which have not performed so well.

Analysts expect Apple to post record sales this year despite concerns of an overall slowdown in consumer spending.

The company outpaced the overall PC industry last year: in its last quarterly report, it sold 2.16 million Macs, up 34% from the year earlier and more than double the worldwide PC growth rate of 15.5%, according to market watchers IDC.

If Apple does launch a flash-based MacBook, it will follow a trend among laptop manufacturers.

Companies such as Sony, Asus, Dell and Toshiba are already offering laptops with solid state drives. More expensive than a hard drive, a solid state drive is also more reliable and more power efficient.

Last week at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Mooly Eden, Intel's head of global mobility, told BBC News that the move to solid state drives for all laptop manufacturers was inevitable.

Mr Eden said: "This is a revolution that must happen. They have many advantages compared to rotational drives - they consume less power, they are more reliable because you don't have moving parts."

Intel provides the processors which power Apple's desktop and laptop machines.

Streams content

The company is expected to unveil movie rentals for iTunes, which it hopes will boost its Apple TV product.

The device connects to a computer and streams content from the hard disc to the box and then on to the TV, or it can store music and films using its own local storage.

Until now the device has not been able to connect to the net independently of a computer but this may change.

Apple, along with many other consumer electronics firms, is battling for a place in the digital living room.

Analysts Piper Jaffray estimate about 1.8 million Apple TV devices were sold in 2007 and expect another 2.9 million units to ship this year.

Source: BBC

[silkstone]

I think it's only a matter of time - and not that much time - before magnetic/mechanical drives become as obsolete as floppies. The price of flash memory has come way down as the maximum size has gone up, and it should also be more reliable.

I can't decide whether Apple are inspired innovators or just very good at selling fashion items at inflated prices. They seem to have had a few hiccups lately with the new iMacs and Leopard, but I'd still look carefully at the 24" iMac if only they'd get rid of the glossy screen.