/*sidenote tool from arc90 */ /* end of Google Analytics code */ A Random Pattern: Apple tips its hand? (or The Apple news crowd is too easy....)

A Random Pattern

Friday, July 21, 2006

Apple tips its hand? (or The Apple news crowd is too easy....)

In one of many reports on Apple's recent finance call, Bloomberg News reports on the closest a financial call gets to being exciting - unless Microsoft announces mass-layoffs during its next call, at least.

The news is that Apple, oh she of the supremely tight-lipped, the company that sues rumor sites*, actually tipped analysts off to product(s) coming in the Apple pipline. But did Apple really reveal what is spreading around the web? Or are they just taking advantage of the hysteria that accompanies every Apple announcement? Was this a calculated move to satiate Wall Street and the rabid Apple rumor press, while throwing competitors off their trail, even into a panic? Are they using this opportunity to checkmate some more media executives?

Whatever Apple's up to, they've shown up till now several things:
1. A voracious aptitude for sharp business
2. A nose for cool
3. An intense desire - nay, need - for secrecy

Of course, everyone wants an Apple iPhone to appear, so it's not a surprise that we're all so willing to believe. After all, what other company could actually make a phone that would be a pleasure to use?

So what do you think? Bait, or a real whiff of what's coming next year? Maybe some of both? I'm still holding out for a shiny new Apple PDA/Phone. ;)

*IANAL, but from the fairly extensive reading I did, Apple should have won this case. The Judge's opinion seems almost laughable - of course it is very difficult for many judges on the bench to even follow all the new technology that has emerged... (if anyone can find the excellent write-up by someone siding with Apple, quoting extensively from the Appeals Court ruling, please let me know. I can't find the post anymore.)