 Welcome to Newsdesk on SiliconANGLE TV for Tuesday, October 23rd, 2012. I'm Kristen Folletti. The day is finally here. Apple will host its highly anticipated event today at the California Theater in San Jose at 10 a.m. Pacific time. Here now to discuss what we can expect is SiliconANGLE contributing editor, John Casaretto. Welcome, John. Good morning. So John, as much as we'd all love to be at the event, most of us are unable to attend. So how will Apple enthusiasts be able to participate in today's event? Well, an enthusiast is right. This is an invitation-only event, so what Apple has done is they've made the video available basically online through their Apple TV devices. There's also a couple other sources out there. If you look around, you could find the event streaming. So it's, you know, the first time in a while, and it's pretty fascinating that they've opened it up this time this way. As you mentioned, it's the first time an Apple event has streamed since 2010. So why the wait? Well, in the past, they had a lot of success streaming events. It's definitely touching back on the past. Another interesting factor, of course, is that Apple TV has been largely, you know, an underperformer up until now. So, you know, what does that mean? Well, we'll see. Last week, Apple sent out invitations with the tag line. We've got a little more to show you. So what can we expect at the announcement today? Well, this is all about the rumored iPad Mini. It's a 7.85 inch iPad. It's the first new product under the new CEO, Tim Cook, since Steve Jobs passed a little over a year ago. So it is rather significant. So that is one element. There's also a couple of other rumored announcements that are possibly going to be included, including new Macs and some other products tied into that as well. So the main focus, obviously, this rumored iPad Mini, what are some of the specs that have been leaked about this device so far? Well, it starts with that new screen, the new form factor, the 7.85 inch screen. I think it was Steve Jobs that once famously said they should come with a file on the back so you could, you know, file down your nails. So they're embracing a new product here, a new form factor that clearly other competitors have had some success coming into the market, including Amazon and Google. They're saying that the screen will not be a retina screen. They're top of the line screen. There will be an A5 processor and 512 megabytes of RAM. Now there are other rumors and things that we'll see. We'll learn in just a couple hours here about the price, some confirmation there, some of the capacity, the colors, some of those other things. And there's also a rumor about the name. It may take on a different name than the iPad Mini. The rumored starting prices are anywhere between $250 and $350. And according to 9 to 5 Mac, their reliable sources quote a starting price at $329. So do you feel that's a competitive price point? You know, they're in an interesting spot. They definitely got, you know, they have a captive market. And I think that this one remains, it remains to be seen what will truly happen here. That price point is very close to the $299 iPod touch price. Now some analysts have said the starting sweet spot for a tablet in this range would be somewhere between $250 to $300. So, you know, they've got a lot of pressure there to make this work. The positioning of price is going to be a question going forward. We'll see how successful that is. Gumdrop cases have already created ruggedized iPad Mini cases, even though Apple hasn't yet officially released its iPad Mini product. So do you feel that's a smart move? What were to happen if the rumored specs for the Mini turn out to be false? You know, it's interesting. They apparently have designed and deployed a case based on what we think are renderings and schematics. You would hope that they had some leaked demo version or something like that to work off of, but they probably use that to develop what they've come up with. So, you know, if there are differences with the case and what actually comes out, I mean, they could be out quite a bit of money, quite a bit of investment, and it could be quite embarrassing for them. So they must have felt at some point that made the decision that, hey, the leaked, the schematics that we've seen, if we base off of that, we're going to be solid going forward. We're very confident in that. So we'll see how that one plays out. There's also been some rumors about updated iMacs. Do you think we're going to see anything there? I think we'll see some warmed over specs, just like a bump in some of the capacity. I think, and this is based on some new numbers that were found in like computers. It seems to be another source of leaks lately is leaked prices and new stock numbers and things like that. Things like that give, you know, people from the outside that kind of encouragement to think that, oh, there's a new iMac coming out, but it's probably not going to be a radical redesign or even an introduction of like the retina display. Those are usually major revisions that they normally have a different event altogether for. Mac minis are said to be announced. What can you tell us about those and what devices would a Mac mini compete with? Yeah, I think what they'll probably do is, you know, even mini eyes it more. They'll make, they'll have, they'll probably have some smaller models and perhaps a freshened up, you know, type of a form factor, something to deliver, maybe colors or, you know, maybe something in the case itself. They typically are in competition with the ultra books, the cheap PC lines, Google Chrome tablets and well, not the tablets, but the netbooks and things like that. So, you know, this is a very low end of the market type of thing that, you know, are just like portable computers for the most part. There were some references to iBooks 3.0 found in iTunes. Anything we can speculate on regarding iBooks? Yeah, I think this will be an alignment. Basically, we'll see more integration when we're talking about the new iPad, you know, along the lines of what Amazon does with their books. So, you know, again, it's basically lining up the product in a very similar way of delivering books, content, media to the new tablets. And I think that's what we'll see from iBooks 3. What are your thoughts on the possibility of an announcement of Apple HDTV? Well, I think that the fact that they're streaming on this medium is very telling. I think that there may be some future plans for Apple HDTV on the horizon. So, I think that getting people to tune into Apple HDTV, to tune into this Apple channel, if you will, is just another way of saying, hey, this is still alive. We're coming back with something. And it's a preview of things to come. Alleged photos of a new 13 inch MacBook Pro featuring a retina display have been leaked in a Chinese forum. Do you think Apple would announce another device as big as that at the same event? No, no, that doesn't seem likely. They seem to reserve those types of things for separate events. When they have a major revision, I mean, that would qualify as one. Anytime they integrate a retina display or even a new form factor or something like that, this is not, that wouldn't be a warm over. So it would be a separate event for sure. Many of our assumptions about what we can anticipate at Apple events are based on our knowledge of Steve Jobs and how he has handled his keynotes in the past. Should we hold Tim Cook to a different standard, or do you think he'll follow in Apple tradition, giving us one big announcement at a time? Well, it's certainly not broken. It's not a broken process at all. I think that, again, Apple has a captive audience and I think they'll continue to release these things one at a time. I don't see them looking at this from a perspective of smashing a whole bunch of announcements together. They'll continue on with this. Tim Cook will continue on with releasing one product at a time and it gives them more strategic flexibility altogether. Going off of that model that Apple follows, why do they wait so long to announce products instead of announcing weeks or months in advance like Microsoft or Samsung do? Well, there's a couple of elements there. First off, they want the element of surprise. They want the anticipation of their product. Another factor is that they actually, they're the manufacturers, the designers, they control everything end to end and they want that control all the way through. Now, Microsoft, Samsung, they've got a lot number of partners that they need to line up to get them in line with, this is what's coming out. This is the game. They do their announcements differently because their business is structured differently. Apple employees have stated that security at Apple remains as strict, if not slightly stricter than ever. If that's the case, why are leaks now so plentiful? Well, there are so many points at which, again, Apple controls a lot of their manufacturing, well, all their manufacturing from the inception to delivery, but they account a lot on outsourcing components, screen elements, chip elements and things like that. Basically, the supply chain from abroad is where the bulk of the leaks are believed to be coming from. That's China, that's the different countries where they've got manufacturing out there and they don't have as tight control over there and the messages and getting out that this is top secret and all that. It's a bit painful for them, for sure. Going off of that then, do you feel Apple's secrecy mode is outdated? Do they need to refocus their security model towards a global supply chain? Yeah, that's going to be difficult. It definitely shouldn't and they're probably aiming to try and lock that down quite a bit. You have a cause there at Microsoft, I'm sorry, at Apple that they have this allegiance to this mission of keeping the product as tightly controlled and as secret as possible, but the culture is different at these companies that are outsourced. There's low paying wages. People come and go. You hear all the stories about Foxconn and things like that. They've got an uphill climb on keeping those things locked down and even the slightest bit, you can see that just a number really starts to get all the buzz going. It's an uphill climb. Apple's retail practices have tightened as well where Apple stores used to get operating system updates almost a week before public release and now in some cases they're receiving those new updates in as little as 12 hours before and that makes it harder for retail employees to be familiar with the update, which can lead to poorer customer experience. In your opinion, is there a better solution? Well, retail practices, they're a mixed bag. Again, this kind of touches on the secrecy mode. How much can you leak out to the stores and how long does that take to really leak out into the public? It's a tough thing to really gauge on what a better solution might be. I think they're kind of stuck if their mode is secrecy, if that's their goal on keeping these things secret or perhaps they need to adjust their high-level goal of at least having some pricing out there, but then those are tied to details because people want to know. They kind of attract this, the fact that they're such a popular product and there's a lot of people watching all the time. It's a tough road to be on but it's not a bad place for them because it's a largely successful product. In order to provide quick distribution to Apple consumers, Apple continues to outsource its manufacturing as we know. Is there a way to bring those jobs back to the U.S. and still keep up to date with consumer demand? Well, that actually came up recently in a presidential debate and we'll see. This economy here is a big factor in terms of keeping jobs here and ramping up manufacturing. It hasn't been a great road the last number of years. That's a good question and to borrow from somebody who once famously said that might be above my pay grade a little bit. We'll see what really happens there. Frankly, I don't see us competing with Chinese manufacturing at least in the electronic components side of things, but there might be some compelling factors why we may bring some things on the shore and that would be things like top secret process. Apple might be a perfect case for that kind of thing, but then again, they've got the price margins that they have tuned so well over the years. I think secrecy might be a big thing there and I think that might be a big driver for that. Speaking of the presidential debate, election day is almost upon us. Last night marked the end to the presidential debates. Apple's outsourcing practices were addressed as you mentioned in the second presidential debate. With Apple hosting their event today, do you think they'll address the political issues that have been brought up surrounding their business practices? That's not likely. They have fans all over the place. They definitely don't want to shun anybody in terms of politics. At this point, they definitely have no influence or control over what's going to happen in the future. At most, we may see some mention of the presidential debate. We're an American company and our roots and our goals and all that. Our market is here, but I don't think they're going to pick sides or really bring up anything around their business practices per se. Well, John, thanks so much for taking the time today and we're definitely looking forward to everything that'll be unfolded at the Apple event today. It's going to be great to watch. Thank you, Kristen. For all the latest in-depth coverage and bringing analysis on tech innovation, keep up to date with Newsdesk on SiliconANGLE.tv.