[Editor's Note: Glenn, aka TechNerd, will be posting live from Apple's big announcement in San Francisco this morning.]
Why the hell does anyone who doesn’t sell personal computing and consumer electronics products care what Apple is announcing tomorrow? Honestly.
I’ll be there, but I am a freaking technology reporter, paid to follow and write about this stuff. And even I’m already sick ahead of time of all the hype, misinformation, leaks, rumors, and nonsense surrounding the potential revelation of an Apple tablet. (I like the names Slablet and Applet, but I doubt either will be used.)
The Apple tablet will, if common sense and reports are accurate, have a 10-inch LCD screen, have no hardware keyboard, come with Wi-Fi built in but no cellular connection, and cost between $800 and $1,000. It’ll be like a big iPod touch. You’ll like watching video on it.
But, again, if you’re not an early adopter, a tech freak, or a business reporter, why do you care? Why should you care? What can the tablet bring to your life? More meaning? Happiness? Fulfillment? None of those. And yet, the promise of a great new thing still apparently makes hearts beat faster.
Apple has managed, through a combination of producing desirable products and restraining itself from talking about the next great thing, to create an incredible cult of mystique. And mint money.
Yesterday, the company announced that its revenue, earnings, and profit margins had leaped in the most recent fiscal quarter, which covers Christmas and a little of January. Apple didn’t just beat the year-ago quarter, when we thought the economy was in a global meltdown (a quarter that was great for Apple, anyway)— it blew past all its previous best numbers.
The only down spot was in the iPod market, which may be saturated. The company sold 8 percent fewer iPods (including iPod touch models) in the last quarter as it had in the same quarter one year earlier, but made just as much in sales dollars and more net profit: $162 per unit instead of $148.
As Joel Johnson wrote in a savvy Gizmodo essay a few days ago, Apple doesn’t show prototypes and concept designs of things it might someday make or not. The company only shows products it is shipping immediately or soon.
I suppose that’s the reverse of hype. The company leaks remarkably little information, with most tidbits emerging from partners who can’t keep their mouths shut.
That lack of information, coupled with previous success, apparently drives reporters, bloggers, and the general public mad with excitement. Everybody knows that a tablet might appear; everyone I speak to has read something about it, even if they don’t give two figs for technology.
If all goes well, I’ll be filing reports from the press-and-analyst-only private event in San Francisco starting at 10 am Pacific tomorrow here on PubliCola, and Twittering about it at twitter.com/glennf (@glennf).
Given that most of the audience will have iPhones and AT&T data cards, I’m using the opportunity to test a 3G loaner from T-Mobile. I suspect its network will hold up during the event.
