“I can never tell with analysts who go on extended walkabouts in the Far East if they’re getting the inside dope from their contacts in Apple’s supply chain or if they’re just getting spun,” Philip Elmer-DeWitt reports for Fortune.
“Cast in point: Topeka Capital’s Brian White, who has been filing dispatches from China and Taiwan for more than a week,” P.E.D. reports. “On Day 3 of his trip he came away from meetings with unnamed component suppliers convinced that Apple is getting ready to launch: A full-blown iTV ecosystem in time for the holidays that will ‘represents revolutionary innovation for the $100 billion LCD TV industry’; an iPhone equipped with a fingerprint recognition ID system for efficient credit card purchases; an iWatch that can also read fingerprints.”
P.E.D. reports, “According to Tuesday’s note to clients, he walked away from [supply chain] meetings persuaded that Apple will release the iPhone 5S this summer in at least two and possible three screen sizes.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Rainy Day” for the heads up.]
and not a single photo? Come on!
How can meetings with component suppliers give him any information about an entire iTV ecosystem, when those component suppliers would not have any access or information to Apple’s software or content services? Whatever.
Anything to justify paying for your week long vacation in Asia on the corporate card.
No kidding! Seems many find any excuse to go on a paid vacation. I am in the wrong profession!
Hahaha….hahahaha….sorry, I’m cracking up…hahaha….
Uhm…no, there’s not going to the an Apple TV set. That will be the biggest money loser since…the G4 Cube and will be shuttered just as quickly.
As for fingerprint recognition…what a joke…will never happen. It’s a gimmick. Fingerprint recognition is flaky at best. You can’t operate your phone while wearing a glove and it’s just stupid. No.
Next this idiot will be telling us the iWatch will have retina recognition. Hahaha…what fairy stories has he brought back from Asia? More Scheherazade’s Tales from 1,001 Nights? Too much ganja while stoned in Bangkok?
“As for fingerprint recognition…what a joke…will never happen. It’s a gimmick. Fingerprint recognition is flaky at best.”
Really?
Funny, the UPEK/Authentec EIKON fingerprint readers I use on my desktop Macs have been working reliably and continuously since Leopard/Snow Leopard days. Not an issue- not one single issue.
That would be the same company Apple bought last year.
Blah, blah, blah.
How does a fingerprint sensor work? By illuminating the finger with a light source. The fingerprint reader is concave – the shape of your fingers, not flat like an iPhone screen.
Every time you need to read your fingerprint, the light source has to be turned on. Depending on the ambient light surrounding your finger, you have a curved surface acting as a shroud to reject ambient light so the illumination falls evenly on your finger to read it.
And sometimes you have to roll your finger or position it accurately for a reading to be taken. You can’t have a shroud over your iPhone to read your fingerprint. How can this possibly be faster than typing a 4 digit authentication code?
Won’t happen.
The Authentec design does not use light.
Check your facts next time.
http://www.archpatent.com/patents/6667439
http://findbiometrics.com/authentec-awarded-key-patent-for-fingerprint-sensor-packaging/
U.S. Patent No. 6,667,439 entitled “Integrated Circuit Package Including Opening Exposing Portion of an IC”
“The fingerprint reader is concave – the shape of your fingers, not flat like an iPhone screen.”
Oh yea, you’re right! Kind of like the home button on the iPhone. Weird!
Now wouldn’t that be cool – a fingerprint reader built into the home button so no extra real estate is used.
Well, Apple did buy a company that developed fingerprint-recognition technology. I’m pretty sure that wasn’t just to add those guys to the corporate softball team…
Apple buys lots of companies on the cheap to explore the potential of exploiting the technology that they bring. Doesn’t mean that it will be implemented.
Uh, you couldn’t really operate your phone with gloves anyways, so what would it matter? Also, if you would be so kind as to remember, Steve told his biographer that he had finally cracked television, so what makes you think that the iTV would be a flop? Perhaps Steve left Apple with the designs and people to make it work. And why not retina recognition on an iWatch? This is Apple we’re talking about. If anyone can make it well, it’s Apple.
The G4 Cube was a victim of the down economy. There’s a reason why they fetch so much on eBay 13 years later.
Seeing is believing. These stories- I don’t believe. We’ll see.
BLN said:
“Fingerprint recognition is flaky at best. You can’t operate your phone while wearing a glove and it’s just stupid. No.”
What makes you think Apple’s implementation of fingerprint sensing will be flaky? Because the others are? Did you think the same thing about the iPod, iPhone, and iPad? You could have, since the devices that came before Apple’s versions were. But I give Apple way more credit than you do. I don’t expect them to show me something I’ve seen before.
Sure, these stories might happen someday? I don’t think it takes a genius to know that there’s a larger iPhone coming. Has to happen. They misjudged this market and are behind. But I don’t think it will be here this summer. I do believe the more affordable iPhone along with the simple refresh, 5S. An iTv? I still think it’s coming. Wishful thinking on my part I guess? An iWatch? Dunno? Maybe?
Can’t wait for iSpurs, the iCuffLinks and the iHairBarrette.
iBuddy!
I hear Apple is working on SniffTime, whereby odors are evaluated chemically by one iPhone and recreated by the iPhone on the other end of the call. Rumor has it that SniffTime is expected to quickly become a favorite among dog owners and their canine comrades.
The next real Apple iPhone implementation innovation will be the Smellomatic which will identify geeks by their strong body odor which as we all know usually fairly reeks from lack of regular contact with soap & water. Followed by the Fartomatic which will identify young from old farts and everything in between. Amazing but stinky tech.