Yesterday, I wrote about how everyone and their neighbor seems to be gunning for a slice of Apple's
Employing the old football cliche strategy about "the best defense being a good offense," the company is likely to search for new revenues in the cell-phone business.
AppleInsider, a website dedicated to all things Apple, is reporting that the Cupertino-based company is preparing to unveil a new smart phone "that has moved from concept to prototype and recently has progressed to near completion as a production unit."
If this is true (and I believe it is), it could be bad news for leading cell-phone manufacturers like Nokia
The cell-phone market is a $134 billion industry, and if Apple can sell 10 million units at an average price of $200, it could rake in a cool $2 billion in additional revenues.
From my perspective, 10 million units is a pretty conservative figure; if the new phone is anywhere near as well-designed as the iPod, it should do much, much better.
The company is preparing to host a big "Showtime" event next Tuesday, September 12, in San Francisco. Look for it to release a new version of the iPod nano, a 23-inch iMac, and, quite possibly, a new iPod-inspired phone.
If it does, Apple shareholders needn't worry too much about slowing iTunes sales, because the company stands to gain all that money back -- and then some -- by taking a nice big, sweet bite out of the cell-phone industry's deep pocketbook.
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Fool contributor Jack Uldrich believes that it is a dog-eat-dog world out there, and it helps to have the biggest bite. He owns stock in Microsoft and Motorola. The Fool has a strict disclosure policy.