Speculation as to Apple's much-anticipated product launch plans intensified this week when a long-term iPod component supplier warned its income would decline as a result of Apple's plans.
Inventec announced its results last night, revealing net profits down 10.2 per cent, though gross margins actually climbed.
The interesting news is in the tail of the piece, which indicates the ratio of revenues contributed by orders from Apple will decline to 40-42 per cent in 2008 from 48 per cent in 2007, whereas revenues from TomTom will edge up to 22 per cent from the previous 20 per cent and revenu from Palm will climb to near 15 per cent from 10 per cent.
Inventec was Apple's original manufacturing partner for the hard drive-based iPods, which continues to handle the hard drive-based iPod models. The news suggests Apple may be moving to phase these out, though given the capacity required by some hardcore iPod users, it's potentially possible the company may simply trim the range to a single model. Though that is speculation.
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