A couple of recent Apple stories of note.
First, a Morgan Stanley analyst predicts Apple will introduce a new iPhone model with lower total cost of ownership (both hardware and service plan price) and new, possibly gesture-based functionality. There are no details or even guesses at what the new price points or functionality might be.
Of course, the “new functionality” in general is a no-brainer; Apple always introduces new functionality on its products with each update. And the gesture-based stuff might be seen as a byproduct of whatever new gestures the iPad comes with, I suppose.
Needless to say, a lower total cost of ownership would make iPhones even more attractive, and thus put them in even more hands, which therefore means even more screens on which e-books could be read.
The other story has to do with the iPad. At Computerworld, Mike Elgan lists fifteen “mysteries” of the iPad—potentially important bits of information we still don’t yet have. While many of them have to do with hardware matters, such as whether there will be new gestures or what the blank button on the keyboard dock is for, there are a few e-book and e-magazine issues, too.
For example, Elgan wonders whether Apple’s infamous app store censorship will spread to TV, movies, and magazines, or if it is possible Apple might drop the app store censorship instead. He also wonders if the Kindle iPad app will have the access to newspapers and magazines that the Kindle iPhone app currently does not. And he asks whether some of the Internet content we are used to getting for free might move behind a paywall.
These are, of course, good questions—and we may not find the answer for another month.
