All three vendors debuted major additions to their notebook product lines. Ease and affordability for the SMB market, adaptability for on-the-go users and especially Intel's Centrino 2 are the common themes.
Check out these useful apps for the iPhone that have contributed to 10 million overall downloads.
Microsoft may not have a reputation as the most sexy company in the industry, but one thing's for sure: Microsoft and its channel partners sure do know how to have fun. ChannelWeb looks at some of the scenes that lightened up the atmosphere at Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Conference in Houston.
The El Segundo, Calif.-based firm's autopsy of the iPod Touch revealed that Apple is transforming the insides of its popular iPod line.
"The iPod touch likely represents the future of the high end of the iPod line," said Andrew Rassweiler, teardown services manager and principal analyst for iSuppli, in a statement. "Click Wheel-interface and Hard-Disk Drive (HDD)-based versions of the iPod are expected to wane in favor of touch-screen and flash-memory-equipped models like the iPod touch. But despite its functional and physical outward resemblance to the iPhone, and the fact that its internals borrow heavily from the iPhone, the iPod touch is no iPhone clone, and has its own unique design."
While Rassweiler estimates that the two devices have about 90 percent of the same parts, including an integrated circuit from Samsung and a power management chip from NXP Semiconductors Netherlands, it's the iPod's design that sets it apart.
The iPod Touch functions in the same way that an iPhone does -- minus the smartphone -- with Wi-Fi capabilities, orientation sensing and a 3.5 inch touch screen, and iSuppli finds that the product sits on the cutting edge with its 16 GB NAND Flash memory capacity and advanced components packaging. The iPhone has 8 GB NAND Flash memory.
"This is the first time iSuppli has seen these components in a product we've torn down," Rassweiler said. "Apple products always seem to push the envelope in terms of space savings, and therefore we often first see the newest, most-compact components in Apple products."
Based on Apple's history, iSuppli anticipates the first generation iPod Touch will be around for a year, and Cupertino, Calif.-based Apple will manufacture about 8.5 million of the devices from the third quarter of 2007 to the third quarter of 2008. At that time iSuppi predicts that Apple will come out with a next-generation iPod Touch. If it doesn't and Apple gives the first-gen iPod Touch a 2-year lifespan, iSuppli predicts that as many as 20 million of them will be manufactured.
The device costs about $155.04 to manufacture, according to iSuppli's estimates based on the pricing of its components in October, adding in manufacturing, assembly and testing costs, and it retails for $299.
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