What's Coming Next for Apple

Greg Wheeler
Posted by in Technology


Apple has long been one of the largest and most innovative forces in home computers and related technology, from the original Apple I computer to highly anticipated future releases such as the Apple iWatch. While Apple products remain a dominant force in the consumer and business tech world, both fans and detractors of the company are concerned with what Apple has to offer in the near future.

Being a brand that inspires fierce loyalty as well as passionate contention, there is never a shortage of rumors circulating about what Apple has in store in the near future. Likewise, the company itself is not exactly shy about publicity, with a fairly steady stream of news coming both officially sanctioned from the company itself as well as in the form of strangely detailed yet welcome information from company outsiders.

One such Apple outsider who has gained significant press as of late is Ming-Chi Kuo of KGI Securities. According to Forbes magazine, in early 2013, Kuo was able to predict what Apple would unleash on the consumer tech market that year and when those releases would take place. Since those predictions have since come true, the world is now looking about towards Kuo for information regarding Apple's plans for the near future, and once again Kuo has dished out some very interesting predictions.

Perhaps most notably, it looks as though 2014 will be the year that consumers finally get their hands on an Apple iWatch. Apple's good fortune in recent years has been related to the company's ability to redesign and repackage extant technological products in a way that makes them seem like new inventions with huge appeal for users. Portable media players existed before the iPod, smartphones existed before the new iPhone and tablet computers existed before the iPad, but those products helped break the market open and expedited innovation from all corners of the tech world.

Kuo says the Apple iWatch hits shelves sometime during the third quarter of 2014. The details on what the Apple iWatch has to offer are still a little murky, but Kuo seems to think the product comes in different sizes and has an NFC chip, which can be used for communication with other devices.

While the Apple iWatch is the most notable of Kuo's predictions, as it is a completely new product, the analyst also predicts updates to several of the company's contemporary products, including the iconic Apple iPhone. If Kuo turns out to be correct, new iPhone buyers have two different sizes to choose from by the end of the year: one with a 4.7-inch screen and another with a 5.5-inch display. While predicted updates to the Macbook Air do away with 11- and 13-inch models, leaving only a 12-inch option, Apple has long emphasized minimalism and simplification – or, as Steve Jobs once said, "I'm as proud of what we don't do as I am of what we do."

While Apple is likely to open the floodgates of publicity before long and confirm the predictions, it looks as though the long-anticipated Apple iWatch is soon to see a release date. Even with significant tweaks to existent products, the release of a smartwatch is sure to be Apple's focus in the near future.



(Photo courtesy of Idea go at FreeDigitalPhotos.net)

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