But the problem is, the leaders of Apple are suggesting otherwise:
So, either Phil Schiller is dumb, or certain other people are. I should note that Phil Schiller raked in millions of dollars in income last year. I don't know if he's dumb. I don't know what these other people made last year. I would think not millions and not dollars.
"[D]espite the popularity of cheap smartphones [in China] this will never be the future of Apple’s products"
http://gigaom.com/2013/01/10/resolved-cheap-iphones-arent-the-future-of-apples-business/
iPhone mini? Guess again.
My take is, they might have an iPhone nano instead. You know, that beloved square iPod nano that we loved using as a watch, just added with actual phone capabilities. And GPS. And Siri. And Bluetooth connectivity with your iPhone or iPod touch or iPad. Maybe it will start at 4Gb. Maybe it could come out this year or the next. Or never. I'm just dreaming. But iPhone mini? At a cheaper price? I would think that if ever they do come out with an iPhone nano instead, it might be as expensive as the iPod touch. Like $300, unsubsidized. But yes, still cheaper than the cheapest iPhone which is over $600. But, my point is, who knows these things?
Well, you can argue that Apple has done this countless times before. "We'll never make a phone" in 2006, a year before they announced the iPhone. "We'll never make a tablet," years before the iPad. "7-inch tablets suck," though technically they didn't contradict themselves because they came out with an 8-inch one, which has 50% larger screen area than actual 7-inch tablets.*
But you know, one thing I think is futile is to guess what makes sense for Apple, and what they should do next.
For you Apple newbies out there, you probably haven't heard of this guy named Gene Munster, who has been predicting since maybe 2009 that Apple will come up with an actual TV product -- i.e. the TV set itself, and not just the set-top box that is the Apple TV today. He's still wrong, last I heard. And I think he'll still be wrong. But we won't ever know. That's my point, it's a shot in the dark to predict anything about Apple, until they're actually starting to manufacture the product in assembly lines and there are leaks already.
Also, there's yet another young "tech blogger" who also insisted that "Apple should make their 7-inch tablet and make it cheap or else they will lose!" Who later said "iPad mini sucks" and later after actually buying and using one, "iPad mini is great." And yet another young "tech blogger" who insists that "Apple is not innovating fast enough" -- because he can't brag too much anymore in front of his quad-core-smartphone friends with last year's Ice Cream Sandwich OS!
The moral that we should take from all this is, nothing will ever make sense for Apple. Your opinions, or mine, don't matter. We're not paid by Apple. Phil Schiller and the rest of the people there are. They'll make the decisions. And they'll be as secretive as hell about it. Again, until the assembly lines form in China.
So, when writing a blog post, make it clear: you are not making a prediction. What you are only doing is projecting your own personal hopes and aspirations for what you want from Apple.
And, man, really? You just want to be able to brag? Go buy an Android then. They have expensive phones, too. And I'm sure there's already an iPhone Mini mock-up product running a heavily-skinned Gingerbread Android OS somewhere in China. Oh, but wait, you don't like that cause it's cheap, no? Well yeah, there's people like you who just want Apple for the bling. I guess Apple would still love you for that. They're a business after all.
But if you know them enough, you know that that's not what they do, or at least it's not what they say they do -- giving people what they want. Because again, firstly, they're a business. And secondly, because they say they create new products that you didn't know you wanted. They haven't had anything new since introducing the iPhone in 2007, MacBook Air in 2008, iPad in 2010, Siri in 2011 (note that they've had voice control in Mac OS for the longest time now, and in iOS since its first version), and Retina laptops and ultra-thin iThings in 2012, and so on, but that doesn't mean anything. They could just be gearing up for something new this year.
Stop predicting and admit that it's all just wishful thinking for your own personal benefit. Repeat after me: I AM NOT MAKING A PREDICTION; IT'S ONLY WISHFUL THINKING.
UPDATE: Just wanted to point out that I have an idea (i.e. another wishful thinking) for a cheap iDevice that might be at the price range that everybody actually wants, like say $99. I'll blog about it when I have time. :P
UPDATE 2: * "Apple would never put video on an iPod. Its screen is just too small." They did it on the next iPod iteration. With the same screen size as the previous year's model.
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