Rumors are heating up about the Apple iSlate and a new iPhone coming to Verizon Wireless. We also wonder how the iSlate would perform as a family gadget.
Up until a couple of months ago it was obviously difficult to say what kind of relationship Verizon Wireless and Apple had these days. However, when Verizon Wireless unleashed its Motorola Droid marketing machinery, it also became difficult to see how the same carrier could soon launch Apple products like the upcoming Apple iSlate (which seems to have increased activity in Flurry's reporting tool in January) and a new Apple iPhone.
At least to us, spending even just a dollar on showing the weaknesses of a brand you would start offering yourself within a reasonable amount of time kind of sounds like a waste. Now, we're not marketing strategists at our heart, so there could be something we don't see here. And if that's the case, it then means that the new Apple iSlate and Apple iPhone could potentially be powered by Qualcomm's new Snapdragon platform.
The thing about Verizon Wireless' network is that one would need Qualcomm to get anywhere, and then the road might have been short to opt for the Snapdragon platform when first working to create a new high-end product.
When rumors heated up last fall, Qualcomm made it pretty clear that Apple would be a partner of high interest. And Verizon Wireless has not been shy when it comes to telling the world that they would certainly not stop Apple if they should want to reach Verizon Wireless massive customer base.
According to The Street, the Apple iSlate will be powered by a Qualcomm chipset, which kind of backs up the Qualcomm rumor. However, that doesn't automatically mean that Verizon Wireless will get the product. If you buy a HTC smartphone on AT&T for instance, you'll probably hold a Qualcomm chipset in your hand.
In other words, if The Street is correct when it comes to the Apple iSlate being powered by a Qualcomm chipset, it basically means that we could actually get to see the Snapdragon platform on an Apple product this Thursday, yet it does not say anything about what type of baseband technology the product will be powered by. That said, according to The Street, the Apple iSlate will also be offered in a Wi-Fi only version.
According to The Wall Street Journal as cited by Apple Insider, the Apple iSlate will be marketed as a family gadget. We guess a Wi-Fi model would then act kind of like the iPod touch in the iPhone world: The cheap sibling that can do everything you want it to do, except for the cellular network part. And if you're going to sell a family gadget, whether it is a HDTV or home theater system or tablet, you'd better have a budget version available, right?
When it comes to how Apple aims to make its new family gadget fit in with the rest of the family gadgets, we assume Apple will assume that you already own an Apple TV box. And why do you need a fat flat-screen HDTV, when you can stream the content you need to your brand new 10-inch Apple iSlate wherever you are in the house? You could soon find family members fighting over the 10-incher, not the 50-incher. It's been many a electronics maker's wet dream for years, and Apple seems to be ready to make it happen.
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