David Smith from The Observer:
Feverish speculation all over the internet, gadget shoppers nearing mass hysteria and pundits predicting our lives will never be the same. It must mean that an Apple product launch is on the way.
It must be a slow news day down under. Cable news has 24 hours a day to fill with, well, something. Even down under they have lots of bits to distribute. Or, is it bytes?
Months of rumour and hype have reached a crescendo in recent days with Mashable.com: Apple Tablet May Launch in September and be in the shops by Christmas.
The Cult of Mac’s Leander Kahney:
Apple will totally rejig the computing experience. You won’t manipulate a keyboard and mouse any more but rather use an intuitive touchscreen. It will very tactile. It will be a whole new paradigm.
When there’s no real news what is a news organization to do? Speculate. With relish.
It might also prove the launchpad for an iTunes for newspapers, allowing commuters to read news on screen instead of in print. Even magazines might be reproduced convincingly on the high-resolution screen.
They already have. It’s called a web page.
Sales of Apple laptops are stalling as they face competition from netbooks, the smaller and lighter laptops that have proved popular among students.
Except that Mac notebooks (Apple doesn’t make a laptop) haven’t really stalled, even in the face of netbooks and a worldwide economic recession.
Finally, the mainstream news media, in their never ending quest for balance when reporting a non-story, quotes an itinerant technology blogger, in this case, self employed hack and pundit Bill Thompson of AndFinally, to pooh pooh the whole of Apple’s so far imaginary attempt to create a new computing paradigm, without even announcing a new product:
If Steve Jobs stands up and announces this, it could be his last hurrah. The technology industry has matured and, unless Apple does something completely unexpected, we have a pretty good idea what this will look like. The world has been shaped by technology in such a way that it is no longer surprising.
Really? Wasn’t the cell phone market considered mature when Apple introduced the iPhone? It seems to me, and correct me if I’m wrong, that Microsoft, Nokia, Motorola, and everyone else in the mature cell phone industry was, you know, surprised at the iPhone’s success. Maybe lightning will strike twice.
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