Apple Rumors

I'm not obsessed with Apple. I think Apple puts out a superior product than competitors. What I mean by that is they make everything themselves, making the product run more efficiently. They make their own machine with their own parts that is powered by it's own operating system. Any computer/smartphone/tablet you see running on Windows or Droid is made by another company. Dell makes their computers to run on an operating system not made by them. The DROIDS are being made by Motorola, but run Google's system. Because they aren't created by the same company they can't run at it's optimized power. And that's why Apple's products, to me, are better. They're also typically more money, so you get what you pay for.

The tech culture (and most of the general population) seems obsessed with Apple. For the past four years that iPhone was on AT&T, we'd hear a new "iPhone to Verizon" story every three months until it finally came true last month.

I've been looking forward to getting an iPad for myself, but since I've been assuming iPad 2 would be coming out soon, I've been waiting. It's hard to avoid all the rumors for it. Let me go through some of what I've heard:

Apple will release the iPad on Steve Jobs birthday.

Apple is waiting until after the Chinese New Year is over to announce the iPad.

Apple is planning for iPad 2 in the spring, then iPad 3 will be released in the fall.

iPad 2 will be installed into your brain.

Okay, I made the last one up. That rumor is for iPad 75. But the other 3 are real. Think about them for a second, what would ever make anyone think that those three make sense? It doesn't. Apple doesn't care about Steve Jobs birthday or the Chinese New Year. People are just trying to connect the dots on their own. And with the Internet, these things can spread like wildfire.

The iPad 3 rumor is the best one. Why would they Apple ever release an iPad 2 now and 6 months later upgrade? They've already got the hottest tablet on the market, and it's going to sell more with the second iteration. They really don't need to upgrade it. The original could probably last another year. But Apple tries to stay ahead of the curve to keep itself on top.

Apple is honestly the only company I know that has such a crazy following. They don't have to say anything - everyone says it for them. They get in the news by not doing anything at all - it's all created by the media on their own. It's great PR. I'm sure Apple has it's own internal PR team, but they don't need to do much unless they have another Antennagate or iPhone 4 left at a bar.

It will be hard to see the future of Apple, especially since it feels like so much rides on Steve Jobs. Obviously he can't live forever with the company, but I'm sure the creative genius is more than just him behind the scenes. He's just the one everyone sees. I think anyway, I don't really know. I've never been out to One Infinite Loop, so who knows. Either way, it seems like there is no stopping Apple, unless Google starts to try to compete more with them, which has never been their modus opperendi.

In other news, I really can't wait for the iPad.

Update 2.24 - Okay, so they announced the new MacBook Pros today. I'd really like to believe this has zero correlation to Steve Jobs' Birthday. The world may never know.