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New direction for Apple in 2009 – but what is it?
Time to take those tablets?

By Tom Krazit

Published: Tuesday 09 December 2008

Familiar Apple rumours are making the rounds again this week as Macworld looms in the distance, one month away.

Trip Chowdhry of Global Equities Research put out a research note Monday morning spotted by D: All Things Digital saying that Apple plans to release something from "a completely new device category" next year.

He doesn't explain exactly what such a product might encompass, but speculates that it will be based around a processor designed by the former PA Semi engineering team.

As a result, the usual rumours (Mac tablet, iPhone Nano, iKindle) are under discussion within the Mac universe. Chowdhry believes that Apple patent filings will be released early in 2009 that will make everything clear, and also notes that PA Semi should have an iPhone chip out around that time that improves performance and battery life.

Earlier this year CEO Steve Jobs implied Apple was watching small-device categories like tablets and Netbooks to see if they actually take off as a mega-trend, but in the meantime the company had other priorities.

Mac tablet rumours stretch back for years, and in the past Jobs has quickly shot down talk of an Apple-produced competitor to Amazon's Kindle, which has been interpreted as a sign Apple was doing just that.