prediction

Tech analyst Charlie Wolf, of Needham & Company, released an update to his watch of Apple stock, raising his February prediction of $450 to $540 behind the strength of 54 million iPads and 108 million iPhones to be sold in 2012.

Wolf's analysis shows the iPhone still being the major chunk of Apple's profits, accounting for nearly 50 percent (value per share). Perhaps surprisingly, the iPad is predicted to jump Mac sales bringing in 12.2 percent while the Mac holds at 11.8 percent.

As noted by AppleInsider, the largest increase in value by Wolf's predictions … Read more

Four years ago today, Apple's first iPhone went on sale, a landmark event that bears looking at anew as all eyes are now on the company to announce a fifth-generation of the device.

It's easy to look back at the iPhone's rise and success and see how it's managed to work out so well: Apple took aim at a product category with the same approach it used with the iPod, creating its own hardware and software, then eventually bundling it with extra services and features. Proof enough of that is the App Store, something that began … Read more

The iPod Touch has always played second fiddle to the iPhone. Most people can't even get the name right. More often than not I hear it referred to as the "iTouch." When asked to describe it, though, the explanation is invariably the same: "It's an iPhone without the phone."

The truth is that the iPod Touch lacks much more than just the iPhone's ability to dial phone numbers. It's missing a GPS receiver, a high-quality camera, a native text messaging app, and most of all, it's missing a cellular data connection. Still, considering that the device sells for as little as $200 with no contract and offers 90 percent of the iPhone's features, it seems inevitable that Apple would close the gap some day by integrating 3G.

We've seen products like the ZTE Peel attempt to address the iPod's lack of 3G, but the result is bulky and still burdens you with a two-year contract. The same goes for MiFi-style 3G/4G puck solutions. They're inelegant, require separate charging, and always come with a contract attached.

Will 2011 be the year Apple integrates 3G into the iPod Touch? The skeptic in me thinks that no carrier would agree to it and that Apple wouldn't cannibalize iPhone sales to make a 3G iPod Touch happen. But then again, the steps the company has made with the iPad's data plan, and the advancements it has shown for iOS 5, set the stage perfectly for just such a product.… Read more

LONDON--The tablet market, pushed by the arrival of PC makers and lower-cost products, likely will quickly transform into one dominated by commodity products, an analyst predicted today.

"This could become the fastest-commoditized market in history," said Richard Windsor of Nomura Securities, speaking here at the Open Mobile Summit. "The tablet honeymoon will likely be over in 2012."

Today, Apple's iPad dominates the market, challenged by a new host of contenders such as Motorola's Xoom, Samsung's Galaxy Tab line, Research In Motion's PlayBook, and--starting July 1--Hewlett-Packard's TouchPad. For the most part, … Read more

To take the guesswork out of efficient driving, Ford may employ Google's Prediction API to do the energy-saving calculations for commuters.

Google's Predictive API is already used by Web sites to recommend products to users and by mail programs to decide which missives are spam. But Ford is also exploring ways the pattern-matching program could be used to program vehicles to run more efficiently based on driving patterns and styles, according to an article in PC World.

At the Google I/O conference yesterday, Ford presented a use case for the predictive engine that analyzed previous trips to … Read more

It's the annual Buzz Out Loud predictions show, where the team puts their collective analyst heads together and predict the future--well, the next 12 months of the future or so. On this year's show, we've got everything from life on Mars to true holograms (at least in demo form), Apple releasing its own TV, a new social media phenomenon around food, and the impending awesomeness of the WebOS tablet. Oh, and the Singularity arriving. No, seriously. --Molly

Software and services aren't the main attraction at CES 2011, but that doesn't mean there won't be plenty of innovation at the show for the coming year. Of course, we won't know exactly what that innovation will be until we get there, but you can bet we have some ideas about it. Most notably, we'll be seeing even more of a shift from the computer to mobile devices, with companies aiming to keep you connected and entertained on the go.

The cloud expands

Mobile devices are great for both business and pleasure. There's just … Read more

When my boss asks me what tablets I expect to see at CES, I have to laugh a little. It's a nervous laugh. Maybe I'm overreacting, but with the iPad's breakout success this year, I'm expecting a tidal wave of tablets at CES 2011.

There are the obvious elephants in the room. RIM will surely be making a fuss about its PlayBook. HP should have a WebOS tablet to show off (or risk humiliation, at this point). And as for Microsoft, if we don't see a branded tablet we should at least see a convincing … Read more

Instead of building fast with lots of servers, lots of customers, and hopes of revenue, many new start-ups--mindful of the recovering economy--are taking a downright old-fashioned approach: make money first, grow later.

Whether that will play out at the Demo conference, which begins in earnest Tuesday in Santa Clara, Calif., is debatable. But in recent months, the buzz-worthy start-ups have had a decidedly more traditional view than Web 2.0 heavyweights like Facebook and Twitter, founded just a few years ago with the principle that you build your audience, then you make your money.

There is, in fact, a shift … Read more