Peanuts to Profits With Thor Schrock
Peanuts to Profits With Thor Schrock

There has been a lot of chatter all over the web regarding Apple’s expected announcement of the iSlate tablet device on or around January 26, 2010.

There are a lot of people with a lot of ideas about what the iSlate tablet is, what product niche it is designed to fill in Apple’s product line, what its features will be, and how much it will cost. While no one knows the specifics yet, I believe a lot of the rumors are slightly off-base.

Everyone is wrapped up in what Apple has ordered from suppliers, what the iPhone can do, Apple’s supposed need to compete with netbooks, and pure desire for something new from Steve Jobs.

Many of the people turning the crank on the rumor machine are fogetting some of the known Apple quantities:

1. Steve Jobs doesn’t chase market niches – he redefines them
2. Steve jobs has publicly stated that netbooks are substandard hardware
3. Apple risks cheapening its brand by selling a sub-$1000 computing device
4. This is a lifestyle device – people will not buy it because the need it. People will need it because they want it

Rather than getting all caught up in the expected specifications, whether or not it has an OLED screen, or attempting to decode vague requests to iPhone application developers for more high-resolution apps, I am going to make three general Thorstradamus predictions:

1. There is a distinct possibility that the late January announcement is about an improvement in the iPhone. I peg this at a 60% chance. Apple is about the software & apps, and they’re just not there yet.
2. If the announcement is about an Apple tablet, it will cost more than $1200. It may be re-released later at a lower cost as Apple did with the iPhone
3. I do not think Apple will launch a device designed to compete with $400 netbooks EVER

What do you think? Post a comment below to go on the record. Let’s see who is right on this one!

An affiliate network called the Partnetka is working hard in Russia to bring malware to your beloved Mac at a bounty of $.43 per infection.

Affiliate networks are nothing new on the web – in fact they are much more common than you might imagine. The basic concept is that webmasters run websites that people go to. They use their websites to promote products and services and gt a piece of the action when people buy.

It turns out that according to ZDnet that this network was offering a $.43 payment for every Mac that could be infected and handed over.

Most Mac infections come in the form of DNS changing Trojans that are downloaded in relation to porn videos.

Affiliate networks are pay-for-performance deals. This means that someone out there somewhere intends to make more than $.43 on every Mac they can infect. The days of the Mac being an invincible platform are clearly numbered.