Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) may not have come up with the next big thing just yet, but some are questioning just what that next big thing is.
Of course it has been rumored to be working on an iTV and an iWatch, but will those things be big enough?
Bloomberg Businessweek speculates that Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) could be working on something much bigger, and since the company has such a history of secrecy, whatever it comes up is certain to be something no one has dreamed of yet.
After all, the tech giant managed to talk robotics guru John Morrell away from Yale University. The Segway designer joins some former colleagues who worked on the Segway with him. Of course while those colleagues now work on flagship devices like the iPhone, it’s still possible Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has bigger plans for Morrell.
According to Bloomberg Businessweek, Morrell’s recent research just prior to being wooed away by Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) was on figuring out how to get robots to do different everyday actions like opening a door or climbing a flight of stairs. So why did he join Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s Mac software division?
If that is, indeed, the department in which he works now (as a source apparently told Bloomberg), then he could be working on something as mundane as basic updates for the company’s software programs. But given his background, there’s also the possibility that he could be working on something much bigger.
After all, if Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is going to catch up to Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) with its life-altering Google Glass project and self-driving cars, then it has to have something big in the works. And it’s got the cash to back up anything it wants to do.
The tech giant’s controversial cash stockpile is expected to reach $170 billion by the end of the year, so if it wanted to leap into the robotics sphere, it could, especially with the help of Morrell. And with all the talent Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s got under the hood, it’s only natural to expect a lot of the company.
But we won’t know what it’s really working on until the company wants us to know. Until then, everything else is just rumors.
